Cafeteria Blues Research Paper

The Cafeteria Blues: Obesity in Children According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2012, obesity had affected more than one third of adolescents and children (“Childhood Obesity Facts”). Obesity has become an epidemic of epic proportions in the United States with little to no sign of a “cure”. With the increased food technology that makes unhealthy food taste delicious, we are slowly killing ourselves and our children. Given that our children spend 7-8 hours of their day in school, is the school system partially to blame? Is there something the schools can be doing to combat this disease? According to Trenton G. Smith, dietary habits formed in early years can greatly influence the way in which one eats later in life.

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The Go Slow Whoa and Winning With Wellness programs were developed as complementary programs based on CDC school health models with successful pilot implementations that seemed to show increases in exercise and healthy eating habits in the short and long term (Slawson, et al 485). After the pilot implementation, the programs were introduced in 10 different schools in 5 different school districts to further test their effectiveness. Lesson plans for in class interactivity with the program were created within the guidelines of a registered dietician and cafeteria items were assessed and appropriately color coded in accordance with the NHLBI GSW food chart; “Go”, or healthy foods, were ranked as green, “Slow”, or moderately healthy foods, were ranked as yellow, and “Whoa”, or unhealthy foods, were ranked as red on color coded menus in the school’s cafeteria (Slawson, et al 487). In the teacher and cafeteria staff surveys it was shown that the perceived effectiveness of the Go Slow Whoa lessons in the classroom setting and the cafeteria programs were low, though 66.6% of cafeteria staff workers voiced concern about childhood obesity in their community (Slawson, et al 488). In the further implementation of the program, data showed very small improvements in food choices, something cafeteria staff blamed on the lack of support from school administration and teachers as well as children’s lack of exposure to healthy food habits at