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Checking obesity in school children
The problem of obesity among schoolchildren
The problem of obesity among schoolchildren
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The health of students is very important. Schools should feed students healthy and nutritious foods. Schools should not be serving students fried potato items such as french fries. Schools should not serve fried foods in general. Fried foods are very bad for the health of the children and adults. Schools should be supporting healthy eating. Since most kids eat about half of their meals at school and for many of children these meals are all they will get in a day. “There are more than 32 million students signed up for the National Lunch Program and over 12 million signed up for the National School Breakfast Program” (“Healthy Schools”). There is a lot riding on the meals that students are being fed at school. The growth and intellectual development of students depend on how students are eating. Because kids eat most if not all of their meals at school, schools should be serving students healthy meals at school. Eating fried foods affect the health of both students and adults in negative ways. Eating fried foods increase your risk of diabetes and heart disease significantly. “Kids who eat fast food three times …show more content…
Kids eat at least half if not all of their meals at school so schools should be serving students healthy foods. If students are not eating healthy foods they are likely to have diabetes and/or heart disease in the future. If kids do not want to eat healthy at school they should pack their own lunch and if students want to eat healthier than what school are serving them at school they can pack a lunch to. Students should be served healthy items at school so they will not be affected by heart disease or diabetes. Many schools have salad bars so the kids get their fruits and vegetables. These are some serious reasons why schools should not serve students fried potato items or fried foods at all. Fried foods may be easy to prepare at school, but hurt children later in their
School lunches has become an important factor in changing childhood obesity. Taking high calorie foods out of lunches, changing their foods to whole grain, and changing food portions they give kids, schools across the country are trying to change kids’ lifestyle. Many have complained about the nutrition plan in schools and many have defended it. Childhood obesity may be a major problem but school’s healthy lunches are not helping.
In the United States the daily public school lunch consists of pizza, cheese burgers, Chef Boyardee ravioli, fried chicken fingers, French fries and it gets worse. Most American students hate the lunch that their school provides, which means as soon as they are able to drive, they leave school and go to the nearest fast food restaurant. "Critics say that school lunches contribute to the fattening of the United States." (5) The most controversial argument about US school lunches happened when "David Stockman, Reagan's budget director, proposed classifying ketchup as a vegetable to meet dietary requirements while also slashing costs." (5) Honestly, what's next? American school lunches have to meet the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines, which obviously is not good enough considering "30% of individuals calories come from fat, and 10% from saturated fat." (5)
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
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
“Our Schools need to start teaching kids how to be healthy.”- Unknown. School lunches have created a chronic problem in a school setting, and since it hasn't been fixed, 6-11 year olds have had a 17% increased chance of becoming obese (Centers for Disease control and Prevention). Most school districts don't even bother changing the food restrictions just so they can please their students. Unhealthy school lunches are a huge problem among children in the United States, it can cause obesity, stress, and many other problems.
“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...
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 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.
Unhealthy school lunches are a large contributing factor of the childhood obesity epidemic ("Unhealthy"). Unhealthy school lunches can lead to children becoming obese. Unhealthy lunches make unhealthy students which makes learning more difficult ("Unhealthy"). If a student is eating unhealthy food learning will become difficult or hard to understand. Unhealthy school lunches lead to poor food choices (Miura). If students get accustomed to eating unhealthy food thats all they will eat. Unhealthy school lunches lead to an unhealthy diet (Miura). School lunches can cause students to become more unhealthy than usual. Unhealthy lunches have a chance for a student to have dietary problems (Miura). If students develop a dietary problem due to school lunches they have an increased chance in becoming obese. One of the many problems in school lunches are that they do not have enough nutrients in
“Children's current levels of fast-food consumption probably are even higher because of an increase in the number of fast-food restaurants and in fast-food marketing since the late 1990s (Holguin),” stated Ludwig at CBS. Ludwig is right, and this is outside of schools. Most students eat breakfast and lunch during school hours.Therefore, these fast-foods are their main meals… unhealthy meals. Also, where is the money from that allows franchises such as McDonalds to be in high school cafeterias?
Now, some students are underweight and can control what they eat, but others can't. That is not healthy. Healthier foods would help the students focus more, be more energetic and not feel so tired all the time. If the school menu changes to a healthier one then students would become healthy.
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.
In other words, the food is not delicious and there are not many choices. Also, when children don’t get proper nutrition, they have trouble focusing on school. Most students do not buy lunch because they feel it is unappealing and do not like the food served. Many students go to other kids and ask for food. In addition, many students do not eat breakfast, so they rely on lunch to fuel them for the day.
Throughout the United States, concern of rising health issues is a popular topic. Over a progression of many years, American fast food chains and junk food companies have risen as a common means for food replacing homemade family meals. This quick and easy habit of buying cheaply made and sold foods that lack real nutritional value has been reason for increasing health issues. This habit is seen in children just the same as adults. Children eat the quickest meal with the most sugar and fat (among other unhealthy ingredients). This habit needs to be broken to take better care of the children today. Children are eating snack cakes and other junk foods at school instead of the breakfast/lunch that is offered causing bad habits and a poor diet. The children of America are suffering from the effects of malnutrition and yet, society does not help them to better understand or give higher grade options for them to choose from. Therefore, junk food should not be allowed in schools as it imposes health risks on children, lacks requirements for the nutrition contained in them, and without offering them, children would learn many morals/lessons.
(Dame Suzi Leather, the Daily Mail 1, page 2). Schools have a responsibility to provide healthy food choices and not just the cheapest ones (which usually happens to be the unhealthy kind). The majority of schools have contracts with unhealthy food suppliers. Most of the budget usually goes to funding sports. What the school boards do not realize is that eating healthy is a crucial part of staying fit, and if the school districts were to pick healthier food suppliers they would see that local food suppliers would gladly provide them with these choices, as it is good business for them.