American philosophy thus far has been to educate children once they have entered into the school system. From cute cartoon vegetables, to flashy internet games, hoping to convey the importance of eating nutritious food to kids, there have been many attempts to influence what American children are eating. According to a 2007 USA TODAY article by Martha Mendozab who is an Associated Press writer and has won a Pulitzer Prize for her work in investigative journalism, the Associated Press reviewed 57 government programs dedicated to nutrition education. Just four showed any real promise, and had a lasting impact in the child participants ' diets. All of this for the small sum of one billion dollars of taxpayer money spent by the Federal Government …show more content…
In any given school day, parent 's are responsible for providing the other two meals, but often fail to present meals which are nutritionally balanced. Currently, state laws exist as to what food can be served at school to counteract the lack of nutrition that children are receiving at home, but according to Carol Ogden in her 2014 JAMA paper entitled “Prevalence of Childhood and Adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012”, “in 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese”. With statistics like these, it is clear that our current system is not working. Parents are responsible for the overall nutrition of their child. They do the shopping, the cooking, and then present a meal in which they hope that their child will eat. Unfortunately, the majority of parents ' in the United States are unaware that focusing on good nutrition should be a priority well before a child reaches elementary school, and being ill informed jeopardizes a controllable aspect of their child 's health. Focusing our energy and money on further educating and helping parents discover what proper nutrition looks like for each stage of their child 's life is …show more content…
Allan Walker and Courtney Humphries, in their 2006 book entitled The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy, “argue that good nutrition starts in the womb”(19) and that “Your role as a prospective parent begins with the choices you make while you 're pregnant”(19). Potential parents need to learn how to take care of themselves before they have children, because here again, a lack of information can unwittingly cause mothers ' to make poor decisions during pregnancy that will affect their child 's health later on in life. Unless one is a pediatrician or a nutritionist, the average pregnant mother 's knowledge of how much and what types of food they should be consuming may be woefully inadequate. Thankfully, it is common knowledge in America that drinking alcohol, smoking, or doing drugs is harmful for a baby while in its mother 's womb, but a lack of nutritious food can be just as damaging to an unborn child. According to the Association of Nutrition, which is based in London, article “Maternal nutrition: Building foundations of long-term good health” by Cathryn Salisbury and Claire Robertson in 2013, lower birth weights and how much a child weighs at the age of one can “be associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes and glucose intolerance” (250). The whole case for teaching our children about nutrition in schools so that we can spare them from these specific medical issues
It is apparent that living an unhealthy lifestyle, as well as eating poorly, negatively affects one’s health. From a young age it is quickly learned which foods are considered healthful as opposed to junk food. It is a parents responsibility to supervise the intake of their child's food, however there is a higher risk than ever before of childhood obesity.
Parents always want what is best for their children. They strive to provide for them, teach them, and to watch them grow into healthy, loving individuals. Despite this many parents continue to foster a habit that may prevent the goal of good health, unhealthy eating. Americans today consume too much fat, sugar, and food in general and its shows; rates of obesity and weight/diet related diseases such as diabetes are extremely high. In order to slow and eventually put a stop to this trend parents need to not only be aware and informed, but also need to take action and institute healthy eating habits from the very beginning.
Parents and caregivers have a lot of influence in the children’s life because of their concern and responsibilities for their wellbeing. Parents play at specific role in preventing their children from eating unhealthy meals. Although, parents and caregivers can help promote a healthy life style by improving nutrition meals and snack and engage their children’s in physical activity.
Schools are meant to give our children a healthy and nurturing environment, and yet so much of the lunches in schools are fattening; does this stop schools from achieving the aforementioned goal? Childhood obesity in the United Sates continues to be a growing problem despite so any new programs to help combat it, and new research is showing how schools may be playing a large role in childhood obesity. School lunches are showing to be the problem, they encourage poor nutrition in our nation’s students, and simple reform is proving to not be enough to stop the rise in obesity rates.
There has been a loss of control over the amount of food children are consuming at a young age and the parents are to blame, according to Greg Critser in his article Too Much of a Good Thing. Throughout his article, he speaks for "dietary restraint" in childhood and early adolescents (Critser 161). Critser believes there has been a lack of education for parents (161). There has been failure to alter their children 's eating patterns at the dinner table and a scarcity of knowledge in beginning their kid 's lives with healthier serving sizes and choices based on the child 's needs (161). Although parents might disagree with statements such as, "kids have the right to make bad nutrition decisions" or "kids just know when they are full," he questions their wisdom and know-how of the children 's limitations based on the nutritional scholar Barbara Rolls ' research (161-162). Critser effectively expresses the importance of adults controlling children 's portions and nutritional choices, kids not knowing when to stop eating when full, and a possible solution for America based off of the French in the 1900 's by discovering reliable research to back up his statements and conveying logical
...n with a culture of obesity seemingly set in stone, our nation still has a chance to escape this predicament by spreading the message about healthy eating, imposing limitations on teacher food choices, setting additional requirements for Phys. Ed classes, and serving healthier foods in school lunch programs. For the sake of our nation’s children, let’s eliminate this problem and give parents the peace of mind they deserve. We must regulate the food we are serving our students and correct this problem once and for all before it gets out of control. More expensive, quality food will decrease obesity rates;however, continuing to serve dangerous foods will only cause more problems in the long run. Is our nation going to act upon this ruinous epidemic, or are America’s children not worth the investment? With your support and direction, we are sure to experience success.
Conclusion: Childhood obesity is an ongoing battle in the 21st century, but is slowing getting better. If high schools changed their diet plan and made more healthy choice for lunch, it would teach students to make the healthier choice. Having a healthy diet benefits students in all the right ways to feeling good about themselves to being able to focus longer and do better in school. If America wants to have a bright future then the high sodium and fat meals need to be changed in order to have an attentive future. Diet is everything and affects every part of our lives and young student’s lives as well. Changing the diet would be and is worth it. The parents need to talk to their children and teach through example what it means to live a healthy life style so they can follow in their footsteps. Students need to learn the healthy choices to do better in school.
The most recent, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill) provides necessary guidelines for our government 's involvement in school lunches. The Kids Act improves the choice of foods the State distribution agencies purchase for their school districts and allows for stricter food choices; however, this act leaves the decision to the state government. Though the Kids Act has not ensured healthier food it is, as Rebecca Edwalds said, “ By becoming the first piece of legislation to impose a federal nutritional education requirement, the Kids Act is a big step in the right direction” (Edwalds 1061). Edwalds then proposes an amendment to the Kids Act, including substantial guidelines rather than broad, open-ended recommendations. “The proposed amendment seeks to strike a balance between the need for more concrete guidelines and the nuances of different school districts” (Edwalds
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years,” meaning that America’s children need to start eating healthier, including healthier school lunches. The National School Lunch Act is a fairly recent addition to American society. For, as the world waged war a second time, the United States began to worry about the strength and health of the country’s soldiers. However, in the beginning, selling excess agricultural goods was more important than building a healthy, well-balanced meal for students. Unfortunately, many children coming from poorer families could not afford well-balanced school lunches, so in order to compensate, the School Lunch Program changed its focus to help these students. This program, however, decreased schools’ lunch budgets, and schools had a hard time keeping up with the amount of free meals they had to provide, so they came up with some extra ways to increase revenue. However, in a small town in Massachusetts, one chef makes a difference in the health of the school lunch students eat each day, and proves that hiring a trained chef to cook real, healthy meals can increase profit. Unfortunately, that is not the case in most schools across the nation. The quality of health of the food being served in school lunches is extremely poor and was allowed to decline even more with a new set of rule changes. However, there are some improvements currently being made to increase the quality of health of the food being served to students, including teaching them all about food and its nutritional information, both good and bad. In order for students to eat healthier lunches at school, the USDA needs to implement healthier ...
When you send your children off to school, you might worry about bullying or about their academic performance, but you generally don’t consider their lunch-time meal to be a potential problem. Now imagine, for a moment, your son or daughter is given the option between a juicy cheeseburger with greasy French fries and a healthier chicken salad. It’s a no-brainer what choice they will make. Now, stop imagining because you don’t have to. Instances like this are a reality everyday in many school cafeterias. In 2005, John Esterbrook, a writer for CBS News, reported on a government survey showing that junk foods are in competition with healthy counterparts in nine out of ten schools (par. 1). Today, although four years later, little improvement has been made to ensure students in schools are eating healthy.
Outside of school kids don’t get enough proper nutrition. Everyday in the United States there are approximately 12 million children who receive a free or reduced price lunch because their families may need government help. Besides the fact that many students rely on school lunches for their daily meals, the healthier school food that schools provide is a benefit for the children because it can prevent childhood obesity as well as improve the child's academic performance. There are many kids who rely on school lunches to provide them not only enough food but healthy and nutritious foods for their health. Underprivileged families can not afford food for every single meal at times so these school meals are important for them. There is nearly 4
Low-cost meals are not worth the price of the medical bills that are promised to come and it is still very possible for schools to distribute nutritional lunches for an affordable price. It is necessary for legislation to make the change. Furthermore, it is ridiculous that emotional disorder numbers among adolescents have skyrocketed due to the lack body image, which is highly influenced by the way the eat. Therefore, it should be encouraged for schools to improve their meals, but that is only going to be achieved if a series are strict laws are placed, limiting calorie, sugar, fat, carbohydrate, pesticide, and other chemical intake. Lastly, Americans have always focused on exams and performance in a classroom environment, but they ignore the fact that what students eat, highly influence their performance. Ergo, increased meal funds would only benefit different school systems, through increased academic accomplishment rates. Although it is a grueling process to pass new regulations, it is vital for all students that school meals be improved in order to protect their physical and mental
Schools should be allowed to sell a wide variety of foods ranging from healthy to unhealthy, but new nutritional standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture prevents this from happening. The “Smart Snacks in School” program, which took effect last year on July 1 at all schools in the national school lunch program, introduced restrictions on the foods not only sold in school lunches, but also in vending machines and fundraisers taking place during the school day. Among the many restrictions are limits on calorie count, sodium levels, and fat percentage (“Smart Snacks in School”). This program, in collaboration with First Lady Michelle Obama, is said to be devoted to lowering the rates of youth obesity. However, Pamela Paulsen, the fundraising chairwoman for Wheaton Warrenville School District 200, does not agree. Upon mentioning how the rules are only effective during the school day, she stated, “I don’t see it as a good policy at all. Childhood obesity isn’t what happens between 7 and 3” (“New school nutrition guidelines”).
Parents are not teaching children how to eat healthy. They feed them cheeseburgers, chicken fingers, and fries. Kids are not being exposed to a regular diet of health fruits and vegetables. Now some people are just naturally overweight, but being “overweight” is not the same as being “obese.” Someone who is overweight has reached a maximum weight limit for their height. When someone goes beyond this maximum limit, then they are considered “obese” (Kiess 1). Research shows that “obesity is generally defined as the abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat in adipose tissue” (Kiess 1). The increase in childhood obesity today is mainly the fault of the parent because they are unable to tell their children “no” when it comes to junk food (Kiess 104). Parents are the one buying all the food that comes into the house. They are the ones buying the sugary drinks and chips. They are the ones allowing the children to “have what they want.” Because parents are not teaching their children how to eat healthy, we will continue to see childhood obesity increase. Unfortunately, overweight children will be the ones who suffer because statistics show children who are overweight are more likely to become obes...
I want to investigate how schools and parents can work together to support healthy eating for young children. Many schools already have healthy eating initiatives in place, however, there is still a high percentage of children with obesity. I firmly believe that if schools and parents have a close partnership in promoting healthy eating young children will have consistency both in the school and home environment. Healthy eating is an area that I feel passionate about due to the effects poor nutrition can have on the child both in the short term and in the long term. During my second school placement, I witnessed a healthy eating initiative that was extremely successful both with the staff and the students. This has influenced my enthusiasm to promote healthy eating in the early years by including parents in order to combat the serious issue of childhood