Nationally, about 17% of people under the age of 20, about 12.5 million are considered obese. School districts that serve students food that are high in calories and fat are to blame for the growing numbers of obese children. Although school lunches provide students food at minimal costs, the poor quality of food served delivers inadequate nutrition and is responsible for the rising numbers of obese minors in the United States. In order to combat this growing problem, school districts must limit student choices in the lunchroom and provide healthier food nationally. Although some school districts may argue this, it is necessary to do so as school districts in Pennsylvania and Mississippi and university studies support this claim.
Despite evidence provided by university studies, there are people that claim lunches sold in schools are not directly associated with childhood obesity. Jennifer Van Hook, a professor of sociology at Pennsylvania State University says that “Schools only represent a small portion of children's food environment.” Van Hook claims that the obesity problem surfaces with poor choices of foot consumption outside school (Radford). This is especially true for teenagers who are more dependent have more disposable income. Minors may obtain foods that are high in calories and fat from home, at a fast food restaurant, and from other people. Van Hook also stated that “Kids are actually very busy at school... There really isn't a lot of opportunity for children to eat while they're in school, or at least eat endlessly, compared to when they're at home.” While school is in session, students are unable to consume food except at certain times of the day. Nevertheless, children consume most of their calories outside class f...
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... both school districts. Overall, school districts that implemented stricter food policies experienced a decrease of childhood obesity which is backed up by multiple studies. Healthier lunch options in schools are on the rise but it is a slow moving progression. Obesity is still a fast growing problem in the United States. One of the best and simplest things that individuals can do is bring their own lunch to school. The brown bag lunch is shown to be much healthier than eating in school cafeterias. Even though healthy school lunch options are slowly progressive throughout the country, the results of it are outstanding with school districts reporting decreases in child obesity. With more education of this problem, and increase the support of schools to serve healthier lunch options, America may be able to rid itself of this epidemic that America has faced for years.
This documentary takes a look at how our school’s lunch programs and government play a role in the spread of obesity across the nation. The film really attempts to drive home the idea that our children are being immorally brainwashed into wanting unhealthy foods. At some points of the film, it appears that the director uses big companies and school lunches as a scapegoat for our nations crisis. It is a valid point that our nation’s children are being
Obesity has become an epidemic in adults and children in the United States. Moreover, children are at risk of obesity because they do not eat enough fruits and vegetables and do not obtain enough physical activity. Also, children have a higher chance of developing health diseases related to obesity such as hypertension, high cholesterol, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and pulmonary disease. In addition, obesity in children from ages one to seventeen is an issue in Texas, since children are not aware of the serious consequences of being obese. Therefore, Texas should find ways to prevent obesity by authorizing healthier school lunches and allowing a school program to help obese children lose weight. Also, television advertisements are influencing obese children to make unhealthy choices.
From Kindergarten to 12th grade, children spend most of their time at school. School, what we adults think, is supposed to be the teachers of our children while we are at work. They feed them lunch, and possibly breakfast, five days out the week, keep them active, and teach them all about their body and health in health class. But, are they really taking care of them enough? Some schools fail to serve healthy foods, teach health class, or even provide enough time to be physically active. One in three kids are obese, that is reason enough to care about these children’s lives at school. Schools are one of the reasons that the younger generation has a fast growing obese rate.
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.
How many obese children have you seen today? Obesity is one of the largest health problems Americans are currently facing. It can lead to many baleful complications, including heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, cancer, mobility issues, high blood pressure, bullying, and lack of self-esteem. According to the CDC, about 17% of children and adolescents aged 2-19 are obese, and 30% are overweight. In adults, around 70% are overweight and 30% are obese. Nevertheless, our nation’s public schools are continuously promoting virulent foods through its lunch programs and on-campus advertisements. Although I understand that unhealthy food is cheaper and tastier, we must remember that those foods are causing our nation’s children to become obese. Factors such as cheap unhealthy foods in school lunches, junk food ads in schools, and teachers eating pernicious foods in class are causing more and more children to make the easy choice, the unhealthy choice. Obesity is a growing epidemic in the U.S, one that we need to promptly eradicate.
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.
“More than a third of the county's children are overweight or obese.”(Gustin, 1). As shocking as this is, it's true. One of the big reasons that children and teens are overweight is because of the foods that they eat. They are fed these fattening and unhealthy foods by the school system. Their futures can be changed if we change our choices. Having more nutritious lunches can have a positive impact on the health of American teens.
The average school lunch has about 900 calories, which is about half of the amount of total calories a child should consume daily. Many schools attempt to serve healthy lunches for students, but sometimes they are not aware of what "healthy" is. Other times they do not feel it necessary to spend a large amount of money on healthy food. If schools knew how healthier food would affect a child academically, they might be more inclined to pay. The American government must increase school funding, so that the schools can make this change for the students' benefit. School officials must also look at the percentage of children who are obese, and consider how providing a healthy school lunch will help to lower that number. Healthy school cafeteria food is essential for school aged children in the United States because it will help them pay attention in school, improve their learning capabilities, and minimize childhood obesity.
Looking around, candy, soda water and junk food are in the hands of fellow classmates. Simply walking down the street countless unhealthy food advertisement are seen and influence our choices as they are intended to do. In America, one in three children, about 22 million children, are obese or overweight, and that number is only rising. The government must aid in the fight against childhood obesity and reform the influence of unhealthy food in children’s lives, increase the availability of beneficial foods, mandate physical education, and inform our children of healthy habits.
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 ...
...quality than that of a fast food company’s. In order for anything to change, awareness must be spread. People need to find out about the conditions in the schools before it's too late. Obesity rates are higher than ever and will only continue to soar unless eating habits are changed. Regulations need to be enforced and fatty foods need to stop being sold. School districts need to stop worrying about how much money they're making, and start worrying about the health of the future generation. This food is killing them with every bite, and the effects can be seen on the inside and out. However, with effort from the government, the general population, and the students of America, this can be stopped. Eating habits can be changed and health can be restored. All it takes is one choice in the lunch room: the choice to refuse pink slime, gray burgers, and sodium chloride.
To begin, school meals do not set a solid foundation for children regarding the diet habits they will have for the rest of their lives. For example, they are teaching kids that greasy pizza and corn dogs are a part of a healthy, nutritious diet. One student says, “We think school lunches are healthy because they have all these posters in the cafeteria telling us to eat healthy food and be active; we think the school is doing their part by serving us healthy food too, but they are not” (Jimenez). Not only do children think that this cheap food is a good choice, but schools also think they are benefiting because of how much money they conserve.
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
With the implementation of the “Healthy Kids Hunger-Free Act” schools are not serving as many lunches and participation is decreasing. According to the Government Accountability Office (GOA), “Nationwide, student participation declined by 1.2 million students(or 3.7 percent) from school year 2010-2011 through school year 2012-2013, after having increased steadily for many years”(sec. 1). The school lunches became more distasteful and bland; the combinations of foods did not make sense, and the portion sizes decreased significantly. In order to support the cafeteria
Educational institutions have the potential to, first and foremost, educate and assist the young people of today with making the positive, healthful choices necessary to maintain good health. Over 4,500 students have been followed in recent research studies and these “thousands of sixth graders who participated in a school-based health program were less obese by eighth grade than a group of similar children who did not, according to a new study done for the National Institutes of Health” (Rabin). Schools need to create health programs focused on assisting all children suffering from being overweight or obese. Policies such as fitness programs, nutrition classes, and healthful meals can even impact every student by creating a strong foundation and awareness of the negative, long term effects associated with practicing unhealthy habits. Although the financial expenses would be necessary, the adaption of scho...