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Healthy school lunches for kids essay
School lunches and nutrition essay
Are school lunches often unhealthy in the u.s.
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What do you always eat as lunch in an American school? Do you know what the school lunches in France look like? These days, more and more articles compared American school lunch with other countries’, like France. According to the article “What French Kids Eat For School Lunch Puts American Lunches To Shame” by Jeff Roberts in 2014, the French lunches are much healthier than American lunches. The French schools have the more balanced meal plan, more freshly prepared food and more educational eating rules. The American schools should aware the importance of good meal plans and learn from French school lunches in order to provide American students the more healthy lunches. First of all, French lunches are nutrient balanced, …show more content…
In French school, every day, many kitchen staffs prepare the lunch for students by using totally fresh food materials. The food can keep the most part of the nutrient and relatively safe to be eaten compare to ready-made frozen food. The students do not need to worry about if their foods have been put into the refrigerator for a long time and become staled. Compared to French schools, American schools do badly in this aspect. Many foods in American schools’ canteens are prepackaged food, like macaroni, pizza, sugary drinks or even fruits. These prepackaged food always contain many chemical additives to keep the quality of the food. The kitchen staffs usually heat up the food and then serve to students. It is very easy and convenient. However, those additives contained in the prepackaged food are bad to the body and even toxic. These foods do not help teenagers grow taller but make them face many health problems, like overweight, stomach problems. So, a good suggestion to American schools is to spend more money on the original material of school lunches, and try the best to keep the food material fresh. I know it may be difficult for plenty of schools to approach fresh food material. As a result, it is the problem that the education institutions and governments should care
School lunches are so much more different in France. "Many schools already employ their own nutritionist, who works with a parents' committee to ensure lunches provide a healthy, balanced diet." (5) "A typical schools lunch in France cost anywhere from E1.50 to E4 a head, depending on region. Poorer parents only pay a small portion of that total." (5) What we in America serve our children the French consider adult meals, as the French believe good eating habits start early in life. A French school lunch consists of "a starter of grapefruit, followed by grilled chicken with green beans, then a cheese course and rice pudding for dessert. The day's snack is a tangerine. Once a week chips are on offer but with salmon lasagna, rather than sausage or burgers, while Thursday's pizza is served with a healthy green salad." (5) Children are not aloud pop or soda of any kind; they eat all of their school meals with plain water.
In the movie, Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore “invades” other countries with the prospect of bringing ideas back to the United States to improve various public-health related components, such as: worker conditions, education, school lunches, drug policies, and women’s health/rights. During this movie, there was one country that resonated with me the most—France. In this particular segment, Moore goes to a town near Normandy and tells the audience where he can obtain a three or four-star meal. Not to my surprise, he said an elementary school lunchroom. Prior to seeing this film, I watched several episodes of Parts Unknown, where Anthony Bourdain also sheds light on French school lunches and how they are prepared. However, there were some aspects that surprised me and even made me wonder why we, as Americans, do not teach our students how to develop healthier eating habits. As the movie progressed, I
Imagine that you walk into a cafeteria and you see children in line to buy lunch. The lunch is burnt and cold. You see the kids who bought lunch sit down and start asking people for food, they say no. At the end of the lunch period the kids lunch trays still have all the food on them. The children are starving and a lot of food was wasted. You don’t want that right? I believe that our school should get a new lunch menu because many students do not like the food served, there are not many options, and there are many problems with the food.
In the United States, Food is one of the basic needs of life.We tend to spend tons of money every year to buy food. Consuming food reflects America’s culture in the United States. In America, Fast food is a way to enjoy delicious food made with sugar, fat and salt. It’s impossible to back away from eating good tasting food. Unfortunately, this is leading to major destruction. In the human life, food procurement, preparation, and consumption have devoted to an art form.Spite the terms of “America has a food problem,” it shows that our nation is unable to produce and supply safe, nutritious food in a way where it sustains our global population. Health Issues are a result of over consumption, which lead to portion sizes, and food production.
“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...
According to CNN article, “Schools Struggle to Feed Kids Healthy Foods” by Jen Christensen, “A 2009 study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that 94 percent of school lunches failed to meet the U.S. Agriculture Department 's regulatory standards.” This staggering statistic proves that the majority of American students are not provided nutrient rich food ti fuel their minds at school. The public school system argues that food low in nutrients is cheaper, however this does not have to be the case. According to Dwight Eschliman’s article “Give (Frozen) Peas a Chance-and Carrots Too,” frozen food, picked and preserved at the height of ripeness, are abundantly nutritious and affordable. If schools invested in frozen produce rather than high sodium, high fat lunches, their students would be consuming a more nutritious lunch, therefore receiving more fuel for their brains. Families also have a responsibility to provide the best food for their children. Along with problems in the American diet, children today are far less active than generations before them. Much like schools, families will profit from frozen produce; a cheap way to purchase fruits and vegetables and easy ingredients to cook with. TV watching has become a nightly ritual taking away from children’s time to run around outside. This sedentary lifestyle promotes a dependency
President Harry Truman initiated The School Lunch Program (NSLP) in 1946, it was established under the National School Lunch Act. The program provides nutritionally balanced, low‐cost lunches to more than 32 million boys and girls each school day.The NSLP ensures the nutrition,portion, and safety of our children food, over the years do to the rise of childhood obesity the The USDA School Lunch Program is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our youth. Many concerned citizens, such as Eric schlosser author of Fast Food Nation believes that the USDA is not providing our children with the right nourishment. Many parents are taking it into their own hand and creating and joining advocacy groups. It is crucial that our youth receive nutrient
Lunch is one of the most important meals of the day and is consumed mostly in school cafeterias for children and adolescence. Wholesome lunches are vital in maintaining a healthy metabolism and give children energy for the rest of the school day. Children are advised to eat healthily but do not always do so because the choices of tastier, fatty foods offered in school cafeterias. The National School Lunch Program, NSLP, which is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools set nutritious guidelines for lunches served in school cafeterias (USDA). However, school campuses still offer foods high in fat as well as selling candy, chips, and soda in their vending machines, as well as their school shops. In order
School lunch is an obvious problem that has yet to be fixed. Mark Samuelsson once said, “We struggle with eating healthily, obesity, and access to good nutrition for everyone. But we have a great opportunity to get on the right side of this battle by beginning to think differently about the way that we eat and the way that we approach food.” A well know fact to almost all students and their parents is that there are many problems with school lunches and it needs to change. Not only is school lunch unhealthy, but it also does not taste good most of the time. Some people feel that school lunch is not that big of a deal so it should be very cheaply processed in factories and preserved, but that is not the case. In order to solve the lingering
The lack of health standards for lunches and other foods in schools are a leading cause of obesity in children. According to studies, children who eat school lunches consume forty more calories each day compared to those who bring their own lunches (Schanzenbach 703). Elizabeth Jackson, a medical doctor at the University of Michigan Health System, reported that children who eat school lunches are over two times more likely to eat fattier foods and more sugary drinks (“Children”). In the past decades, the government has attempted to develop effective lunch programs that limit the intake of unhealthy foods that children eat. The 1995 policy, “School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children,” required school lunches to meet one-third of the recommended number of calories, protein, and certain vitamins and minerals (Schanzenbach 686). Although this policy has been put into place, the government has not enforced it well enough. According to a recent study, only six percent of U.S. schoo...
Many cafeteria workers and staff members in 49 states have said many students do not want the governments new school lunches. Almost 7 out of 17 schools with have been seen with students throwing away some or all their fruits or vegetables, even the cafeteria workers are suffering under these new standards. About 60.3 percent of school districts want flexibility to be given to all schools to improve their ability to provide and give good nutrition without harm to any instructions and school district operations. Schools should know by now what is good for students and what is not, but they should not go overboard with the wheat and whole grain items. Another example that shows that schools should be responsible for providing a nutritious lunch is knowing that there are a variety of ways to make healthy foods taste good for school students. Healthy tasty food that will risk diabetes and obesity .One of the biggest reasons people do not eat healthy foods is because they feel it as if it will not taste good. The problem is, if your health food does not taste good, you are eating the wrong health food. Just because something is good for you does not mean it has to taste nasty, boring, or completely gross. There are plenty of ideas out there for eating healthy without making sacrifices on taste. “It is silly that people are worried about kids throwing things out. There are many ways to make
With the implementation of the “Healthy Kids Hunger-Free Act” schools are not serving as many lunches and participation is decreasing. According to the Government Accountability Office (GOA), “Nationwide, student participation declined by 1.2 million students(or 3.7 percent) from school year 2010-2011 through school year 2012-2013, after having increased steadily for many years”(sec. 1). The school lunches became more distasteful and bland; the combinations of foods did not make sense, and the portion sizes decreased significantly. In order to support the cafeteria
Have you ever tasted school cafeteria food? I don’t think you would want to. In school story books, do you have characters saying that the food tasted good at school cafeterias? Nope. Why is this? Cafeteria food is often cheap, bought in bulk, high in calories, malnutritious, and microwaved. Student polls and opinions prove this. Therefore, this leads to a suggestion: Healthier, tastier foods and a better, advanced lunch system should be implemented.
Processed food should be banned from school meals due to increasing health issues in children, increasing academic deficiency and increasing production cost to produce processed foods. There are people who would oppose to this idea due to population growth and an increasing food demand. However, this escalating demand of food is forcing the food industry and other government agencies to resolve the current hunger and lack of resources issues, by hiring processing factories and private companies to manufacture processed foods. The greater part of school age children consume processed foods on a daily basis.