Michelle Obama's Healthy School Lunch Guidelines

As an average American student walks down the lunch line they might see whole-grain bread or noodles being tossed on their plate. “Who would want to eat this?” A common question asked by the student when they encounter the reduced calorie meal. Believe it or not, the changes, no matter how unappetizing they may be, were made in interest of the health children across the nation. After her husband was elected President of the United States, Michelle Obama took initiative of her own and started a campaign called “Let’s Move!” The campaign was developed to put a stop to childhood obesity through exercise and nutrition. Besides endorsing exercise to the children of America through commercials and advertisements, this movement included new guidelines that schools across the nation had to follow. This caused controversy between the students and schools and the government that will be covered throughout the essay. This paper is about Michelle Obama’s school lunch guidelines and how they are affecting schools and students across the nation.

On January 18, 2012 the Obama administration announced a new set of changes to pile on top of the older rules that had already been set in action. Older constraints on the lunches had been put in earlier, but the new ones cut down the so deemed ‘unhealthy’ food even more and was replace with more ‘wholesome’ choices. The last set of rules supplemented more fruits and vegetables to the school meals and decreased the amount of fat and salt (Nixon, 1). As mentioned earlier, the new rules were a considerable amount of Mrs. Obama’s fight to lower the number of overweight children in America through better nutrition and exercise (Nixon, 5). The goal was to force the students to be healthier by providing only...

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... rules, or if they drop out, they are not eligible for federal reimbursement.” (Jalonick 9) “On the flip side, The Alliance for a Healthier Generation has worked with more than 18,000 schools in all fifty states and as a result, many of the schools have reported better academic performance and less student sick days.” (Jalonick, 14)

As discussed throughout this paper there has been controversy about Michelle Obama’s school lunch guidelines. The reader has heard multiple arguments developed from this topic from each viewpoint expressed in this dispute. Now it is up to them to take a side.This paper is about Michelle Obama’s school lunch guidelines and how they are affecting schools and students across the nation. To help reduce the number of overweight children in America, Michelle Obama made lunch regulations schools had to follow and sparked a widespread conflict.