Many kids in America suffer from type 2 diabetes and obesity. Schools do not inform children enough on what they should know about to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Schools should give information about having a healthy lifestyle by what they offer kids for breakfast and lunch, offering health classes to children at young ages, and limiting the amount of unneeded material students are exposed to at school.
Schools should educate children about what they consume from what they offer children for breakfast and lunch. “With many schools districts facing budget shortfalls, a quick solution has come from offering more profitable fast food” (Barboza 17). In order to keep their jobs schools shouldn’t directly turn to fast food. It shouldn’t be the job of schools to decide what is fed to the children but the parents job to help decide what is best to feed their children, since the children do not know what is best for them. Money shouldn’t always be the reason that school turn to fast food companies for help. The school should receive help from it’s community so the children who go their have a place they can go and receive good quality information. “Schools get paid a kickback for every sugary soft drink or burger sold” (Barboza 24). Children usually apply what they learn from school to the real world because thats what they are taught to do. Kids who learn at school that junk food and fast food is ok so serve at breakfast and lunch will think its ok for them to eat it whenever they are not at school. In conclusion schools shouldn’t teach kids thats its ok to eat junk food and fast food by what they serve for breakfast or lunch they should be offering kids a way to better their life when at school and not at school. School should be a pl...
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...omeone who lectures them to do something. If teachers tell the children the health facts at school it is easier for that one teacher to learn everything and teach multiple people than for many parents to gather the information and tell multiple children who will most likely not want to listen to what is being said. I did use quotes from Davids Barboza’s “ If you pitch it, they will eat it”. Some say this article does contain bias parts, but Barboza does bring forward some interesting points that do need some discussion about.
In conclusion should find way to inform kids about healthy lifestyles about what they feed them, classes they offer and by what they allow to be exposed at schools to the children. We need to care because it is important for children to learn about health so they can make better life choices and so they know what is actually being fed to them.
We must do something about fast food products, to stop from affecting children and leading them to obesity. Is what reflect David Barboza’s article “If You Pitch It, They Will Eat.” School’s, Parent’s, Policy Makers, etc… Should take the lead in this action, by reducing many unhealthy food products from school’s, store’s, and place’s close to home.
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.
"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.
Unhealthy foods are what make the money for schools and that is why they serve them for students. (Schlafy) Schools feel like they need the extra money in the budget, even though it is at the student’s expense. Data shows that nearly 60% of all middle schools in the US serve soda from vending machines. (Schlafy) Soda is very high in sugar and is not at all good for children, but it is still sold in school vending machines. The ways food in schools is now are way too high in fats and sugars. This is not good for the children and very bad in the long run. Elementary schoolchildren have an estimated $15 billion of their own money that they can use to buy whatever they want in schools, and parents have almost another $160 billion to give students for food money. (Schlafy) Big businesses see this as a big source of profit and therefore encourage children to buy their products, and want them to be offered in school because of th4e likelihood of children buying the business’s product. All in all, obesity in the US is greatly influenced by the foods offered in schools
“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...
Schools with enormous food courts where students can buy meals and drinks from commonly known franchises, such as McDonalds and Coca-Cola, are the schools with the most health problems. Fast-food franchises are showing up everywhere, but do these businesses belong in high schools? No! Schools are here to enlighten students for life after school. If high schools promote bad eating habits by placing fast-food franchises in their cafeterias, then how can students eat right and healthy beyond high school.
"The increased prevalence of overweight and obesity particularly among children and adolescents is a severe public health problem" (Bray, 2005). According to our text, health education and health promotion are recognized increasingly as ways to meet public health objectives and improve the success of public health and medical interventions around the world (Gollust, 2014).
... It is the community 's responsibility to organize and trigger a response from the federal government. Additionally, implementing the education of healthy lifestyles through schools allows the youth to foster good habits. For example, teaching female students the process of being a good mother will allow for future mothers to create healthy families. Focusing on the youth is a great way to ensure a bright future. The tricky part is that once action has been taken, it must be maintained. This means the community’s population must value and appreciate the various operations taking place, along with the upkeeping from community officials themselves. As Sir Michael Marmot intuitively remarked “health inequalities are unnecessary...we do know how to create the correct conditions but it is the responsibility of the global community to decide if this is a priority for us.”
To conclude, unhealthy foods in the cafeteria and the vending machines are the worst examples for the kids to maintain the healthy eating habits. Us Parents have to step in to make changes for our kids because in doing so would determine what kind of foods our kids are consuming. We do know for facts they are not getting the proper nutrients while in school, although they do spend in average of eight to 12 hours in schools. We, the parents, can start to make a difference, by attending the school meetings and being active in our kids functions in schools.
...e should take lightly. The rates of obesity in America’s children and youth have almost tripled in the last quarter century (opposing viewpoints). I know schools are picking healthier options for their students, but is that really enough? Personally, I think parents should be the ones who make sure their children don’t eat to much fast food. If you let your child eat whatever they want and you don’t question it, there probably will be problems of unhealthy weight gain later on. Parents should lead by example. If mom and dad aren’t eating a lot of fast food they’ll copycat your actions.
If nothing is being done about what students eat at school, it is just helping our younger population to become corpulent. “Junk food plays a major role in the obesity epidemic. By the year 2050, the rate of obesity in the U.S. Is expected to reach 42 percent, according to researchers at Harvard University. Children who eat fast food as a regular part of their diets consume more fat, carbohydrates and processed sugar and less fiber than those who do not eat fast food regularly”(debate). Parents can also be responsible for how the child eats.
One way to improve the futures generations health is to modify school lunches. Middle and high school lunches do not emphasize healthy eating habits. They actually encourage students to pick the unhealthy junk foods rather than the healthy foods. Everyday student rely on the schools to provide breakfast and lunch meals and snacks. It is their responsibility to provide the various options of healthy alternatives to junk food. Most parents are shocked to learn the truth about the unhealthy school lunches that their kids consume fives times a week. Actions need to be taken to help our children. Taking out the greasy fries, triple cheese pizzas, super sodas, and bags on chips can prevent obese among young adults. Also another way to improve health of American children would be to start packing homemade lunches. This will avert children from spending money on junk foods. The children of America spend approximately ten months in schools for twelve years. Modify school lunches will no doubtly help to improve the overall health of
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...
We are facing a big problem that will make our life more miserable. We are eating junk food constantly that is bad for our health. Many people eat junk food because they think it’s cheap and faster or some people do not like to cook their own food. “Don’t Blame the Eater” by David Zinczenko. This article is talking about how fast food is making us eat bad because of their fast service and cheap prices. People tends to choose fast food instead of cooking a healthy meal. It is easy for teenagers to gain weight by eating fast food meals. Zinczenko also argues about the absence of nutrition information about the food. I agree with Zinczenko. However, Zinczenko could also have examined the issue of fast food advertisements, mention some benefits
When talking about school, we think of children learning different subjects, history, math, science and etc. I think learning about health and healthy life choices is as important as any other subject, and that should not just be restricted to classrooms. Schools have a great opportunity to educate young people about the importance of being healthy. 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.