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Essays on nutritional school lunches
Unhealthy school lunches essay
The problem of obesity among american population
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The rate of obesity and other health problems in the U.S.A are fairly high and it needs to stop. Many people believe that healthier school lunches are unnecessary, however healthier lunches have many benefits. Switching to school lunches would give kids more energy throughout the day, provide key nutrients to children and prevent obesity.
Many believe that healthier school lunches will cause problems, but children need healthier school lunches to maintain energy throughout the day. With lunch carrying one third of the calories you have a day, children need to have a healthy lunch for enough energy throughout the day. In the article “What Are the Benefits of Healthy School Lunches?” It states, “A healthy school lunch provides sound nutrition
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Eating a healthy lunch will provide enough nutrients for the whole day. In the article, “ What Are the Benefits of Healthy School Lunches?” It states, “Children who eat a healthy lunch have a higher nutrient intake not only for lunch but also for the entire day -- compared to children who don’t…” This shows how healthy school lunches provide beneficial nutrients throughout the day. In addition, once students realize school lunches can provide many nutrients and protein like vitamin A, C, iron and calcium it will encourage better eating. The article, “Getting the kids to eat healthier school meals” it states, “...Students are disgusted by the food provided to them. According to the GAO report, students in one district refused to eat school lunches for three weeks. Students are posting their anger over the program using Twitter” This shows how students will go on ‘strike’ if not provided healthier options. To add on, healthier options will limit calorie intake and provide better drinking options. In the article, “Junk Food In Schools” its states, “Most snacks sold in school would have to have fewer than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100% fruit or vegetable juice.” This shows the healthier options that could be taken into effect if the switch is
Having different food can affect a child health. There are milky ways, cake, cookies, pizza and lets just add some French fries in there and call that lunch. Don’t forget the drink sweet tea, pop and milk that one doesn’t choose to drink it. The students would go back to the class rooms after twenty minutes and be hungry at the end of the da. Garland said, “Instead, we allow school cafeterias to dispense the same junk food that kids could buy in any mall” (621). There has been so much junk food and soft drinks in schools that makes the student health unsafe and a distraction to their education. Garland mentioned that the students are filling up with fat, salt and sugar rather than filling up with fruit, whole grains and vegetables. Schools should be about healthiness, and well balanced diets. With having Students eat healthy can boost up their energy and ability to learn. With that being said when I was in high school it was nothing but junk food for three years. When Michele Obama changed the law on the school lunches my senior lunches have changed. It was nothing but healthy food like whole grain, no sweets, two scoops of fruits and vegetables. At Odessa they had a school store loaded with junk food that would be sold out by forth period. When the law came to the school there was nothing but baked chip and replaced with other baked nutrition food or we had nothing at all. The drink machines were changed out
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
I don't think our school lunch is healthy because it has fat and too much sodium. Although it is good it is fattening it is the reason for much of the obesity in the U.S. Many kids have no other option to eat the unhealthy school lunches or they will be hungry.
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...
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.
“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 the Centers for Disease Control, “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years,” meaning that America’s children need to start eating healthier, including healthier school lunches. The National School Lunch Act is a fairly recent addition to American society. For, as the world waged war a second time, the United States began to worry about the strength and health of the country’s soldiers. However, in the beginning, selling excess agricultural goods was more important than building a healthy, well-balanced meal for students. Unfortunately, many children coming from poorer families could not afford well-balanced school lunches, so in order to compensate, the School Lunch Program changed its focus to help these students. This program, however, decreased schools’ lunch budgets, and schools had a hard time keeping up with the amount of free meals they had to provide, so they came up with some extra ways to increase revenue. However, in a small town in Massachusetts, one chef makes a difference in the health of the school lunch students eat each day, and proves that hiring a trained chef to cook real, healthy meals can increase profit. Unfortunately, that is not the case in most schools across the nation. The quality of health of the food being served in school lunches is extremely poor and was allowed to decline even more with a new set of rule changes. However, there are some improvements currently being made to increase the quality of health of the food being served to students, including teaching them all about food and its nutritional information, both good and bad. In order for students to eat healthier lunches at school, the USDA needs to implement healthier ...
Parent should explain to their children that choosing a healthier, more nutritious lunch will give them enough energy to have a productive school day and after school activities. Parents can look over the school menu with their kids and can explain which foods are the best and why. Parents can also pack healthy lunches for their children, at least occasionally. Kids should be encouraged to choose meals that include fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains, accompanied by either milk, juice, or water. Something as simple as cutting food up will make children actually want to it. Cubing food such as chicken, cheese, veggies, and fruits can give them an appealing look and can make kids actually enjoy their food. Some other things to keep in mind when packing school lunch are replacing some of the unhealthy foods. Instead of high fat lunch meats, lower fat deli meats are better and white bread replaced with wheat should be considered. Instead of snacking on cookies, replacing that with maybe trail mix or yogurt is a good option. Anything with less fat and sugar, and more fiber and vegetables is good. Packing children’s school lunch is about the healthiest, most nutritious filled lunch they can receive at
Entirely eliminating unhealthy foods from the school menu will substantially lessen the possibility of students choosing to eat the foods that are relatively equivalent to fast foods. Instead, the school menu should contain healthy and appetizing meals that are easy to prepare. I suggest keeping the “good foods” which are the salads, snack packs which contains celery and seasonal fruits, and the chicken wrap. In addition, I suggest adding more healthy meal options like tuna & white bean wraps, chicken quinoa burrito bowls instead of the tasteless Asian rice bowls, and bean burgers instead of the processed smokey barbeque
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.
Also, the school lunch is really bad for your health because of all the grease and the calories it has in it and on the outside. For example, “We can do a tremendous amount of good for kids across the country if we change school lunches.” The calories on the middle school breakfast are 350-500 calories. Parents get mad at the school because their children are getting obsessed by eating all the grease and fat of the food.
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.
Having a good lunch is important because your body needs food to continue on working. You need healthy foods so you can keep on learning at school and doing your work. If you don’t eat a healthy and good lunch, your body will slowly function making it tedious to learn. Therefore, this is why the food here at Ridgeview is better and helps you be
The greatest health risk facing children today is not a terrible disease such as cancer, or an unthinkable trauma such as abuse; it is obesity, which is defined by the medical community as the accumulation of body fat levels above 25% in boys and 32% in girls. The growing concern for obesity as a public health concern for children has led to an effort to combat this disease. The movement is marked by an effort to improve the health content of school lunches. However, this movement has lacked conclusive evidence to support the thesis that changes in school lunches will result in the weight loss in children because children will not eat the same at home.