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Reasons junk food should be banned in schools
Nutrition at schools
Nutrition at schools
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French Fries or Die
Those delicious golden hot sizzling medium French fries at McDonalds contain 380 calories, 171 calories from fat, 270 mg of sodium and plenty of salt. There is no doubt that junk foods, like fries, commonly served in school cafeterias are unhealthy. There has been a significant rise in child obesity, and food is a major contribution. Over 9 million children in the US are obese, and come with life threatening health problems. Schools need to focus on producing not only smart kids, but healthy ones as well. Kids rely on their schools to provide them with a nutritional meal, but often times are given unhealthy meals that lead to the obesity epidemic. Therefore, junk food should be banned in schools.
There is no avoiding junk food advertisements because it shows up on social media, TVs, radios, vending machines, billboards, logos, etc. Companies spend on average $148 million a year on advertising in schools in commercials, equipment, vending machines, and rewards programs. Many schools use this advantage of allowing this advertisement by getting new equipment and money. Kids are also bribed by using junk food for good attendance, grades, and behavior. There are also many food incentive programs by fast food chains such as Pizza Hut Book It!, Mini McDonalds, and Grade A Donut: Honoring Homework Stars. The government has started becoming more involved in schools and their lunch programs. First lady Michelle Obama has had a huge influence in foods that children consume and fast food advertisment. She states, "Our classrooms should be healthy places where kids are not bombarded with ads for junk food". She has asked for $10 billion to improve school lunches, but there has been many budget cuts which make this diffic...
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...y foods by learning how to make good choices. It also plays a role in independence as children get older and more mature in what foods they eat and how ti effects them. Removing junk food from cafeterias just remove the option. Obesity can also be combated by lack of physical education and health classes students are required to take. Classes life these could emphasize more on nutrition so students know more about making healthy choices in their foods.
Future generations of children all rely on the choices made today about junk food in schools. If these unhealthy foods remain in school systems, then the obesity epidemic will rise even more, leading to more health problems to more of the population. Schools play a major role in student development, and will forever impact a child. So now it is time to decide whether to get rid of those golden French fries or die.
Schools with enormous food courts where students can buy meals and drinks from commonly known franchises, such as McDonalds and Coca-Cola, are the schools with the most health problems. Fast-food franchises are showing up everywhere, but do these businesses belong in high schools? No! Schools are here to enlighten students for life after school. If high schools promote bad eating habits by placing fast-food franchises in their cafeterias, then how can students eat right and healthy beyond high school.
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
Obesity in the United States, which the media has labeled a national crisis, has also been connected to poverty rates. Big fast food industry’s target poor communities, and spend millions of dollars each year to create advertising that appeals to these specific areas. These industry’s also target naïve children when advertising because they know that eating habits developed in childhood are usually carried into adulthood. Children who are exposed to television advertisements for unhealthy food and who are not educated well enough on good nutrition will grow up and feed their families the same unhealthy foods they ate as kids. A big way fast food giants are able to make certain young people have access to unhealthy food is by strategically placing franchises in close proximity to schools. They will often place three times as many outlets within walking distance of schools than in areas where there are no schools nearby. The way fast food advertising is targeted towards children is very alarming considering how important good nutrition is for young people and how a child’s eating habits can affect their growth and
Food To Students." Points Of View: Junk Food In Schools (2013): 2. Points of View
Since the beginning of time, schools were always a place we could trust. A place where we could send our kid(s) off to without worry of what they may be learning, doing, or eating, but perhaps we should be. As the craving of fast food is growing, so is the demand for it. Some schools have taken advantage of this and brought fast food into their schools, providing it for lunch. A high school in California serves McDonald’s, Subway, and even Quiznos to their students for lunch (Lehmann). The school claims the kids are more likely to buy school food when they see brand foods (n.p.). Schools get money from the National School Lunch Program for every meal they serve, but that money from the government only covers so much (n.p.). To pay the rest of the lunch staff, facilities costs, and food, schools turn to the money they make by selling lunches and breakfast to their students (n.p.). Another school in California has even tried to mimic Round Table, a brand name pizza in their area, with healthier ingredients, but was only able to sell 250-300; when they sold Round T...
To fix the problem the main sources must be targeted; it starts with educating the people. Having a health class that teaches people about the health risk of unhealthy lifestyles needs to become a mandatory part of school curriculum. Having a health class must be present in all levels of education for it to be effective--without this the plan goes awry. For those who plan to go to college these classes would be more than useful for future health and to prevent the freshmen fifteen. By teaching about the benefits of a healthier lifestyle over an unhealthy lifestyle, obesity and obesity related diseases can drastically fall. These classes would consist of live demonstrations on how to cook healthier, experiments, statistics and much more. Some may claim that a class like this would have no effect on people’s consumption and health choices, but many people are willing to change during a time of crisis or an eye opening revelation. Although these classes will not affect every student as intended it will still be an effective one and its impact will be noticed on the fight against obesity.
"All Food Sales in Schools Should Offer Healthier Options." Should Junk Food Be Sold in Schools? Ed. Norah Piehl. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.
How many obese children have you seen today? Obesity is one of the largest health problems Americans are currently facing. It can lead to many baleful complications, including heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, cancer, mobility issues, high blood pressure, bullying, and lack of self-esteem. According to the CDC, about 17% of children and adolescents aged 2-19 are obese, and 30% are overweight. In adults, around 70% are overweight and 30% are obese. Nevertheless, our nation’s public schools are continuously promoting virulent foods through its lunch programs and on-campus advertisements. Although I understand that unhealthy food is cheaper and tastier, we must remember that those foods are causing our nation’s children to become obese. Factors such as cheap unhealthy foods in school lunches, junk food ads in schools, and teachers eating pernicious foods in class are causing more and more children to make the easy choice, the unhealthy choice. Obesity is a growing epidemic in the U.S, one that we need to promptly eradicate.
“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...
When we think about this problem, we point fingers at unhealthy fast food restaurants and school lunch programs, saying their foods and serving sizes are to blame. People argue that ad campaigns aim at young children, making them victims of the fast food industry. Schools are selling unhealthy food to children during school hours whether it is during lunch time or having a vending machine placed in every corner of the school full of unhealthy snacks. “However, all human beings have power to exercise free will, even young children” (Vigarello, 15). Children follow the people who are around them the most which are their parents. Parents influence children the minute they are born. Children will always follow what their parents do and if the parents are living an unhealthy lifestyle, soon enough their child will be living the same one. Until we stop children from eating at fast food restaurants and change their eating habits and exercise routine, obesity in the United States will not go away.
There has been a greater focus on the nutritional of school lunches. Michelle Obama has joined the battle of obesity war in America by implementing stronger standards in school lunches. In 2010 the first lady introduced the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. The purpose of this act is for schools to serve more nutritional lunches and snacks to students. When school districts opt to participate in the National School Lunch Program by agreeing to supply children with healthier meals and snacks. They also receive incentives from the federal government School districts are not required to participate in the program. Each district choose whether or not they wish to enroll or not. If they do agree to participate and do not see it to be beneficial they are allowed to opt out of the program. “Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act." Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.”
Some researchers claim that more than 300,000 Americans are dying due to obesity every year and the number is rising annually. That is a huge number and it can be fixed a number of ways but some individuals are lazy some can’t lose the weight because of medical reason. Obesity causes disease from diabetes to heart disease and in some cases death. Obesity in children is growing problems to children who are obese have a higher chance to get diabetes or heart failure. The school environment is one of several settings that can influence children’s food choices and eating habits. Schools can ensure that the available food and beverage options are healthy and help young people eat food that meets dietary recommendations for fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nonfat or low-fat dairy products.
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
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.
When talking about school, we think of children learning different subjects, history, math, science and etc. I think learning about health and healthy life choices is as important as any other subject, and that should not just be restricted to classrooms. Schools have a great opportunity to educate young people about the importance of being healthy. We all know it is no secret that junk food makes you fat, but studies have shown that over the past ten years, obesity has doubled to 8.5 percent among six year olds and trebled to an astonishing 15 percent among 15 year olds. If we do not do anything about it, then this generation of children could be the first to live shorter lives than their parents.