As we know it, our children are becoming more obese and overweight throughout the years. The American Heart Association study showed that “approximately one third of children ages two to nineteen were overweight and one sixth were obese” (Ballaro). There are many controversies about keeping or banning junk food in schools that must be solved. The “nutrition advocates” believe body effects, obesity, advertisements, and schools’ influences are major factors for banning junk food in schools (Thomas 87). On the other spectrum, freedoms, parental roles, school funding, and encouraged physical activity needs to be in act instead of taking away junk food. Junk food may cause physical and/or emotional problems and may positively influence your child’s …show more content…
Junk foods commercials are a majority of what we see on television. The Kaiser Family Foundation study stated that “Children age eight to twelve see an average of twenty-one ads each day for candy, snacks, cereal, and fast food--more than 7,600 a year” (Thomas). For example, soda pop is one junk food that is very harmful to our body but we see Coke commercials promoting to children that it is a wonderful thing to “share a coke.” Coke shows people smiling and having a great time with friends which leads children to believe soda pop will make them happy and social. These ironic ads give children the wrong message about what they should consume. Junk food campaigns spend billions of dollars each year to encourage children to request those foods to their parents. As most advertisements are on television, the majority of where kids spend their time, “children who watch television have a positive opinion on junk food” (Ballaro). Athletes and pop stars promote certain junk foods that only triggers kids into eating and drinking the same things. Children look up to older and successful people which is exactly why advertisers choose to project them. Promoting the wrong message and including the products in schools will not help the well being of the students. Continuing to showcase junk food that is projected as a “good” choice only harms the students in the long run. Schools should not …show more content…
Ironically, “in search for funds to encourage sports and exercise after school, schools are contributing to the problem of obesity by providing vending machines that dispense sugar and fats” (Lee). Schools are providing vending machines and meals that are not up to standards for the food regulations.Students are able to “purchase unhealthy snacks and drinks from cafeterias, school stores, or vending machines in nearly ninety percent of public schools in the United States.” Today schools are having trouble with funding which intrigues them to find ways to help. This includes schools choosing popular products “based more on what will make money as opposed to what is healthy” (Quattlebaum). Teachers are also “using junk food as a reward and having fundraisers to sell unhealthy foods” (Ballaro). These influences have negative outcomes on their students. Schools need to find a way to make profits without proving junk food and unhealthy options surrounding the students during the day. Showing the students that it is okay to eat unhealthy can create a bad image of what should be
One way that advertising is harmful is advertising poses health risks to youths. In a video titled, “The Myth of Choice: How Junk-Food Marketers Target Our Kids,” narrated by Anna Lappe, it talks about how advertisers target youths. In the video it states, “...only 16% of kids get balanced food.” Foods that are advertised the most,
This doesn’t help kids focus in the classroom for hours after consuming these fatty and sugary foods. The kids will get a sugar high but then crash hours after and won’t be focusing in class but instead, falling asleep during an important lesson. Anita states that, “school cafeterias, of all places, should demonstrate how a healthy, low-fat, well-balanced diet produces healthy, energetic, mentally alert people,” and teaching this at high schools is the best place to change the food because in this generation, kids are becoming overweight and unhealthy because of all the “junk food” they are eating. Teenagers in high school tend to eat more when they are stressed, so if they serve unhealthy foods in the cafeterias then the student will eat the “junk food”, but if the “junk” is switched with fruits, vegetables, and some salads then the students wouldn’t have the sugar high and be focused
"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.
Food To Students." Points Of View: Junk Food In Schools (2013): 2. Points of View
...f television advertisements for junk food versus nutritious food on children's food attitudes and preferences. Social science & medicine, 65, (7), pp. 1311-1323.
In “Hooked on ‘Caramel-Colored Gold,” Melody Nelson claims “Despite the increased awareness of the benefits of good nutrition, we are a nation hooked on junk food, and many school administrators are taking advantage of the situation ” (par. 3). Nelson propose a ban on vending machines in schools because junk food is unhealthy for children, and they risk future health problems. I agree with Melody Nelson and believe that vending machines should be banned from school campuses, because they sell unhealthy food, they cause more money to schools for hiring extra custodians, and they are affecting children learning abilities.
Furthermore, schools have become a paradise for fast-food franchises . Vending machines stocked with candy and soft drinks are unacceptable: nearly 19 out of 20 high schools in the U.S. have vending machines that sell pop, while almost 60 percent of elementary schools do. More than 70 percent of high schools sell can...
This gives the advertising business money. Parents spend 7,000,000 dollars every years. Kids are what give the advertising business money and most people know about this. When kids watch an ad promoting unhealthy food or any ad kids want it.
Childhood obesity has gone from 1 in 20 to 1 in 5. Childhood obesity has more than doubled due to false advertisement in children’s television. The exposure our children received in America with junk food advertisement’s on television and online increased by 60 percent from 2008 to 2010. For children between the ages of 8 to 12; meaning 21 food advertisements a day. The food and advertising companies profit off selling foods and drinks that are labeled “diet” when in reality they contain twice the amount of sugar as before.
One way that fast food effects obesity is by advertising their products to children (Miller). In her article Food Advertising Contributes to Obesity, Patti Miller explains that the fast food companies are targeting kids and teenagers by advertising on television. The fast food advertisements are promoting unhealthy products as acceptable food which influences children to choose those meals. The American Psychological Association, an organization focused on improving the lives of individuals, expressed that with the exposure of different fast food commercials, children request to purchase these unhealthy products and cause the parents to be influenced by these requests. This concludes the idea that once children are encouraged by the commercials, they opt to consume the fast food advertised on television. Today, fast food companies are even advertising through schools by offering pizzas and burgers as school lunches, which consequently becomes a daily meal for children and teenagers to consume (Wadden, Brownell,
A study was done by NCBI about food advertisements that are targeted at adolescents. In an article by Mary Story and Simone French, it states, “Food is the most frequently advertised product category on US children's television and food ads account for over 50% of all ads targeting children. [...] On average, 11 of 19 commercials per hour were for food. Of these ads, 246 (44%) promoted food from the fats and sweets group, such as candy, soft drinks, chips, cakes, cookies and pastries. Fast-food restaurant advertising was also prevalent, comprising 11% of total food advertisements.
Food advertising contributes to childhood obesity in many ways. One of them being that the food advertised is unhealthy. “The mechanism of effect of media exposure on obesity may also operate through the extensive advertising messages for unhealthy foods targeted at children.” (Agarwal, Dhanasekaran) The food advertising geared towards children makes them develop unhealthy eating habits, and choices. The advertisements are usually advertising unhealthy foods, never healthy ones. “When children watch television, they cannot escape food advertising. “Sugared snacks and drinks, cereal, and fast food advertisements respectively comprise approximately thirty-two percent, thirty-one percent, and nine percent of all advertisements marketed specifically to children.” (Termini, Roberto, Hostetter) Due to limited cognitive abilities, children view many food advertisements, and don’t really have the knowledge or capability to comprehend that the food being advertised is not healthy.
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”, ...
We all know it is no secret that junk food makes you fat, but studies have shown that over the past ten years, obesity has doubled to 8.5 percent among six year olds and trebled to an astonishing 15 percent among 15 year olds. If we do not do anything about it then this generation of children could be the first to live shorter lives than their parents. (Dame Suzi Leather, the Daily Mail 1, page 2)