Should Junk Food Be Banned Essay

Ban the Junk
Imagine a lunch room serving pizza for breakfast, processed nuggets for lunch, and vending machines serving calorie packed pop, crunchy cookies, and gooey brownies. Although this may sound delicious, these foods are extraordinarily unhealthy. Eating high-calorie, low-nutrient dense foods leads to obesity, disease, and addiction to sugar. The people affected by this issue are children who go to schools that serve empty calorie lunches and breakfasts. Many health professionals are for banning junk food from schools, while others are begging to keep the tasty treats. Junk food is anything that has high amounts of fat or sugar without supplying vitamins, and is usually low in protein. Healthy food is low in calories, with low amounts

“At a time when an alarming number of teenagers are overweight and out of shape, these advocates say the last thing America’s schoolchildren need is a cola war that stations more vending machines in hallways and makes it easier for kids to buy soda.” (Kaufman) Like Mare Kaufman said, there is an alarming number of teenagers overweight and out of shape. Being overweight often leads to obesity which can cause serious health issues. Schoolchildren should not have sweet sugary soda available to them during school hours. This is the kind of drink that is fattening America’s children and making them become obese. Sugar is jam packed with empty calories that do nothing but make kids have poor health. “In Huntington, West Virginia one half of adults are obese.” (Pilot) One half of a population being not just overweight, but obese, is outrageous. Although this is only a city in a small state, if this pattern continues all of America could be obese. Being obese is being twenty percent over your ideal body weight. “One out of three children are obese.” (Harris) Junk food being sold in schools contributes to childhood obesity. Since various schools teach the subject health, and about healthy living in general, they should not be hypocritical. Saying to eat healthy, then selling junk food is contradictory, ironic, and perverse. Overall, completely banning junk food from being sold in

Obesity is just one of these issues, but it can lead to more severe problems such as diabetes. In Jamie Oliver’s episode series (Week 2) he takes an obese family to the doctor to check for diabetes. No one has it, but if they continue to eat unhealthy their chances will greatly increase. This family was eating fatty, frozen, sugary, and salty foods around the clock. Eating this way can lead to health problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease and should be prevented as quickly as possible. Eating healthy and weight loss benefits health overall for people who have diabetes. Children in schools should be taught to eat healthy so they do not have to grow up and have these inconvenient, serious, health problems. However, diabetes is not the only health headache to worry about. “A study in 2007 found that eating processed meat increased the risk of getting bowel cancer.” (BuzzFeed) If people just ate less than seventy grams of processed meat per week there would be four thousand fewer cases of bowel cancer. Numerous schools sell processed meats to their students. Little do they know it could be the cause of cancer causing kids and teens to die. Processed foods are not the only foods causing cancers and deaths. “Trans fats are like plastic and when we eat them, they incorporate in our cells and our cells cannot communicate, or talk to one another. In terms, hormones are