Healthy School Lunches Will Reduce Childhood Obesity

841 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Childhood obesity school prevention dissertation essay

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.

Healthy school lunches would help students academically. There is not a teacher who would want their students to be distracted. Often when children are hungry, because of a light lunch, or a lunch full of simple carbohydrates, they will become distracted. If schools serve lunches with whole grains and protein, the students would stay full and attentive much longer than a student with a lunch of sugar, white bread, and lush greens. Although many believe that schools should provide a healthy lunch for students, there is a small percentage which feels that because of the budget cuts, schools should not pay for more expensive and healthier food. Shereen Jegtvig, a nutritionist, wrote "Appleton, Wisconsin replaced their regular poor-quality school lunches with healthy fresh food…changes resulted in improved b...

... middle of paper ...

...ts-of-decreasing-childhood-obesity-by-jen-ren/>.

Ronzio, Robert. “National School Lunch Program.” Health Reference Center. Facts on file, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2011. .

Smolin, Lori A., and Mary B. Grosvenor. “Obesit Crisis/We Need to Start Young.” Health Reference File. Facts on File, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2011. .

Swaminathin, Nikhil. Do Healthier School Lunches Curb Bad Behavior? Good Education. N.p., 28 July 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2011. .

Turkington, Carol, and Albert Tzeel. “Shildhood Obesity.” Health Reference Center. Facts on file, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.

Show More
Related

  • School Lunches Are Unhealthy

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    Schools are meant to give our children a healthy and nurturing environment, and yet so much of the lunches in schools are fattening; does this stop schools from achieving the aforementioned goal? Childhood obesity in the United Sates continues to be a growing problem despite so any new programs to help combat it, and new research is showing how schools may be playing a large role in childhood obesity. School lunches are showing to be the problem, they encourage poor nutrition in our nation’s students, and simple reform is proving to not be enough to stop the rise in obesity rates.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Unhealthy School Lunches

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Obesity in Texas Children

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rhor, Monica. “Schools Programs Lead Fight Against Childhood Obesity”. Houston Chronicle. 21. May. 2012. 14. Oct. 2013. http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/School-programs-lead-fight-against-childhood-3575144.php

    Read More

  • Open Campus Lunches In High Schools

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    The intake of proper nutrients helps balance the maintenance of bodily functions; supporting the longevity of a healthy lifestyle. (Denton, Carolyn. “How does food Impact Health?” www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu). With constant technological advance in the world, it is important to become aware of how frequent the world changes daily in preparation for self-maturity. What is a more effective way to approach the real world than to have a direct experience? The researcher will address the topic on why community high schools in America should allow its students off campus during lunch. Allowing children to have a better lunch option could help educational strength as well as attend to other essential needs. (Anderson, Melinda. “Do healthy lunches

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Let's Really Reform Our Schools

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • School Lunch Research Paper

    590 Words  | 2 Pages

    One reason our school should get a new lunch menu is many students do not like the food served. For example, a survey was taken and of the 31 students 100% said they disliked the food. As student Bryan Huang said, “The lunches are horrible, they need better choices and more choices.” 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 in 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. But, if they do not like the food served they won’t eat so they starve for the rest of the school day, which can

    Read More

  • School Lunches

    2067 Words  | 5 Pages

    “More than a third of the county's children are overweight or obese.”(Gustin, 1). As shocking as this is, it's true. One of the big reasons that children and teens are overweight is because of the foods that they eat. They are fed these fattening and unhealthy foods by the school system. Their futures can be changed if we change our choices. Having more nutritious lunches can have a positive impact on the health of American teens.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On School Lunch Reform

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    We cannot have a school lunch reform where the needs of all students are not met. If only some, or less than the majority, of students are receiving the nutritional values they need, we need to adapt the reform to further achieve better standards for school lunch programs. For example, after a student finishes their meal, schools could offer a second serving of protein to their students. In effect, this will add a higher amount of calories to the students’ daily diets.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On School Lunches

    1760 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Improving Nutrition in School Lunches

    2005 Words  | 5 Pages

    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 ...

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On School Lunches

    1609 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Childhood Obesity in the United States

    2855 Words  | 6 Pages

    Tanaka, N., & Miyoshi, M. (2012). School lunch program for health promotion among children in Japan. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 21(1), 155–158.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On School Lunch Programs

    1163 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • School Cafeteria Food

    696 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Child Obesity In Children Essay

    626 Words  | 2 Pages

    Schools don't provide very healthy lunches that have enough nutrients for childrens bodies. Healthy lunches in schools will cost each school 4 million dollars. Another reason children are becoming more obese is because of the amount of fast food they eat. 1 in 4 americans eat at a fast food restaurant

    Read More

More about Healthy School Lunches Will Reduce Childhood Obesity

Open Document