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School programs that fight obesity
Healthy school lunches for kids essay
Should school lunch be healthier
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We have all been told at one point in our lives that we should eat healthy, I myself have been told this more times than I can count. Recently there has been a focus on providing healthy food options for kids at school. Like every other new idea it has its supporters and detractors, in this case arguing things such as the benefits of nutrition, kid’s willingness to eat those healthy foods, and freedom of choice. Should more healthy food options be offered in schools? Yes they should, and here’s why.
First there are recent studies that have shown that offering healthy foods in schools can increase the academic performance of kids in the classroom. A Reuter’s article entitled “Healthy diet means better schools performance” points to a study that was conducted in 2008 by the University of Alberta at Edmonton on a group of 4589 fifth graders in Nova Scotia. The study found that “Students who ate an adequate amount of fruit, vegetables, protein, fiber and other components of a healthy diet were significantly less likely to fail a literacy test”(Nicholson 3). Another article in the Examiner entitled “Healthy school lunch impacts children’s learning ability” points to two additional studies that have come to similar conclusions. A 2008 study that took place over two years and included 2000 students, conducted by Dr. Arthur Agatston of the University of Miami Miller School of medicine found that “adding more nutritional food to the school lunch menu had boosted academic performance with math scores seeing the highest improvement.”(Nicholson 2.). The other study discussed in the article was conducted by Jonathon James, a research student at the University of Essex in 2009 and found that students who consumed healthy lunches attended class...
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...ption of junk food and healthy food the student chooses the junk food it doesn’t hurt to provide the healthy option.
So for what reasons should more healthy food options be provided in schools? Well to start with there is significant evidence showing that it can increase our children’s test scores. Children are the future of our nation and we want our children to succeed, education is a key part of this. There is of course also the fact that healthy food translates to better physical health, who among us do not want our children to lead long and healthy lives? The concern about freedom of choice is a valid one, however is unwarranted as we are talking about offering healthy food as an option. We have also found that when offering healthy food options children will eat them, if students will eat them and it can benefit them our schools should include these options.
If schools were to encourage healthy eating by serving a more variety of foods students would learn to like healthy eating. In the study done by Julianna Cecere she asked students through the social media app Twitter to tweet her their opinions on their school lunches and most of them were not in favor of them. One Student tweeted: “@KQEDedspace To make school lunches more appealing we need flavorful yet healthy foods. Things that are home grown, not canned. #DoNowLunch” (Cecere, 2014) Students want to have better eating habits and it 's best to teach them at a young age so they grown up to live a healthy lifestyle and live longer but not when the food is canned and not
"All Food Sales in Schools Should Offer Healthier Options." Should Junk Food Be Sold in Schools? Ed. Norah Piehl. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.
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.
According to the Journal of Law and Health schools that have not banned junk food have had an increase in students more excited to learn because of the sugar count unhealthy foods. Looking at the evidence regarding school lunches from the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), students need equal grain and protein proportions to have a healthy daily diet, and over the course of 5 years schools that don't have a healthy lunch program have had their students overall GPA almost completely equivalent to the schools that have had the healthy lunch program. Although having tremendously unhealthy school lunches may not harm your GPA it can immensely harm your health. Lots of average students health are in danger just because of unhealthy school lunches, it is very necessary that schools realize that a healthy lunch program is always a beneficial option. Scientists have found that children who have healthier breakfast and lunch get better grades and have increased brain power. Some evidence points to unhealthy food but healthy food is always the answer in an effective school community. Sometimes unhealthy food is cheaper and tastes better but it can be very costly to your health especially as a
“More than 76 percent of schools sell soft drinks and sweetened fruit drinks, but fewer than half offered bottles water. Fewer than 15 percent sell low-fat or nonfat yogurt, and fewer than one third order skim milk. Only 25 percent of schools say they've reduced fats and oils in recipes.”(Spake, 2). Choices at lunch range from greasy to unidentifiable. Most students eat school lunches five days a week. So most of the food they eat throughout the week comes from the school cafeteria. Although, the schools do tend to offer healthy choices such as salads, subs, skim milk, and unlimited fruits and vegetables. “Each week Phoenix students are served a variety of fruits and vegetables from guava to grapes and jicima to red peppers. School officials hope that by exposing children to fruits and vegetable they may develop a taste for them and request their parents to buy them.”(Bailey, 1). Real meat is becoming an issue in schools. “According to reports issued by the Physicians Committee for responsible Medicine (PCRM) the USDA dumps hundreds of millions of pounds of surplus beef, chicken, cheese, and pork on the National School lunch Program.”(Lord, 42). Chicken isn't whole white meat; some of it doesn't even taste like meat! Let’s move on to unhealthy foods. There are unlimited amounts of un...
Food To Students." Points Of View: Junk Food In Schools (2013): 2. Points of View
Allowing healthier school lunches will decrease obesity in children because it will give them the proper nutrition to reduce the risk of health issues. Since obesity causes many health issues, maintaining a proper nutrition will reduce the risk of health issues. According to Star- Telegram, a daily newspaper that serves Fort Worth and areas of North Texas states, “[School lunches that have] a meal of pizza sticks, a banana, raisins and whole milk has given way to whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce, a whole wheat roll green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, kiwi and low-fat milk … This change will help more than 2.4 million Texas students who receive a free or reduced- price school lunch to lead healthier, more active lives—in and out of the classroom”(Par. 2 and 4). School lunches are supposed to guarantee students a well balance meal, so they can have the energy to proceed with their classes throughout the day. Meanwhile, students who receive a f...
The health of future generations must be guarded to insure a thriving country in days to come. Healthy people equals a healthy strong nation. It is vital that we more fully invest in the health of children and help them to learn how to eat well and properly care for their bodies. Serving healthy school lunch is an ideal way to teach children good food habits. Also,we must at least hold school cafeterias to the same safety standards required by restaurants. Serving unsafe food also can lead to sickness and possible death. We must do better. We can look to other nations for examples on how to incorporate healthy lunches and how to fund them. We can be better. We must do better! If other nations that do not enjoy as much overall wealth as we do can feed well balanced healthy meals at school we can to. We
Having different food can affect a child health. There are milky ways, cake, cookies, pizza and lets just add some French fries in there and call that lunch. Don’t forget the drink sweet tea, pop and milk that one doesn’t choose to drink it. The students would go back to the class rooms after twenty minutes and be hungry at the end of the da. Garland said, “Instead, we allow school cafeterias to dispense the same junk food that kids could buy in any mall” (621). There has been so much junk food and soft drinks in schools that makes the student health unsafe and a distraction to their education. Garland mentioned that the students are filling up with fat, salt and sugar rather than filling up with fruit, whole grains and vegetables. Schools should be about healthiness, and well balanced diets. With having Students eat healthy can boost up their energy and ability to learn. With that being said when I was in high school it was nothing but junk food for three years. When Michele Obama changed the law on the school lunches my senior lunches have changed. It was nothing but healthy food like whole grain, no sweets, two scoops of fruits and vegetables. At Odessa they had a school store loaded with junk food that would be sold out by forth period. When the law came to the school there was nothing but baked chip and replaced with other baked nutrition food or we had nothing at all. The drink machines were changed out
Unfortunately, in today’s society, school administrators focus heavily on standardized test scores and school rankings thus adding more pressure on students and teachers. This being said, schools have begun to focus on providing healthy foods because they help increase a person’s cognitive and critical thinking ability. It is seen that nutrition plays a great role in students’ performance on exams and physical activity due to the correlation between school provided meals and low student
It would be a great idea for all schools to switch to an healthier school lunch. They should change it because it will help children focus on test, quizzes, and inside of the classroom when taking notes. The kinds of foods that should be token away is the kids least favorite foods. For example kids will write down the most ten hated school foods served, which ever is the most voted gets token away. Then kids could give options of healthy school lunches to be replaced.
Moreover, the controversy over cafeteria food is whether or not it is healthy for all students from elementary schools to colleges. Numerous factors lead to unhealthy eating in schools and on campuses. Sometimes options with better nutrition are offered, but when there are, they tend to be less appealing than the unhealthy foods which turns to obesity. Many schools are undergoing budget cuts and changes, and healthy food tends to take a back burner when deciding where the limited amounts of money should go (Gupta). Unfortunately, when schools do have healthy ingredients, the food is usually prep...
The lack of health standards for lunches and other foods in schools are a leading cause of obesity in children. According to studies, children who eat school lunches consume forty more calories each day compared to those who bring their own lunches (Schanzenbach 703). Elizabeth Jackson, a medical doctor at the University of Michigan Health System, reported that children who eat school lunches are over two times more likely to eat fattier foods and more sugary drinks (“Children”). In the past decades, the government has attempted to develop effective lunch programs that limit the intake of unhealthy foods that children eat. The 1995 policy, “School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children,” required school lunches to meet one-third of the recommended number of calories, protein, and certain vitamins and minerals (Schanzenbach 686). Although this policy has been put into place, the government has not enforced it well enough. According to a recent study, only six percent of U.S. schoo...
First of all, students aren’t motivated to eat unhealthy, not-tasty food. If you observed students buying lunch in the cafeteria, you don’t often see them buying these kinds, but not limited to, foodstuffs: burritos (which are just beans wrapped in tortillas), “burgers” (meat slapped on two slices of bread), etc. Even the chicken nuggets aren’t very popular. And the prices! $3.75-$4.75 is not worth such “garbahge”, as a teacher would say. Out of the twenty five students I surveyed, 56% stated that they would like to see their cafeteria changed. The reasons being were, “The same stuff everyday – it gets boring”, “Tastes like plastic”, ...
Schools are spending too much on subjects or activities that don’t influence children’s future as much as quality food. Reprioritizing the way schools spend money can help free up funds for healthier lunches. Schools don’t only hold the proverbial lighter in this wild fire, so do parents. Parents need to get involved. They need to serve healthy food at home, exposure to healthy foods should start with things such as planting a garden at home if possible. The facts are simple. Students should be taught to eat healthy, shown to eat healthy, and given the opportunity to eat healthy. In that case, the issue will almost certainly work itself out with everyone involved parents, students, schools, and the