School Lunches Are Unhealthy

School Lunches are Unhealthy

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.

Childhood obesity proves to still be on the rise in our schools and not enough is being done to stop it. Despite the many reforms

and laws that have been passed to make school food healthier, it is simply not enough. (Bornstein) With the way that the food economy is, healthy foods cost a lot more than foods that are of a poor nutritional value. So for schools to compete in this environment and keep the price low for students, they must turn to “competitive foods”. These foods are not USDA approved for schools but they are cheaper and taste good to students so it brings in more money for the school. (Bornstein) Students buy more of the competitive foods then the USDA foods, so the NSLP tries to make healthier school lunches but the higher price for better food drives students and schools away. The higher prices make students feel like they cannot afford the good food and therefore it is not taken. (Bornstein) Altogether, new programs try to offer healthy options, but the healthy food just cannot compete.

School lunches are a possible cause for the rising rates of obesity.

Government date shows that in the past thirty years, rate of being overweight in six to eleven year olds is up 19% and 6% in age 12 to 19. Without support, school lunches remain high in fat. (Finkelstien) According to the CDCP, obesity is double what it was in children and triple in adolescents since 1980. Many reforms were attempted to help this problem, but many inadvertently caused more problems. (Finkelstien) A 730 calorie lunch should have no more than 24 grams of fat and no more than 8 grams of it saturated yet the average USDA lunch has 31 grams of fat and 14 rams of it is saturated. (Yeoman) These very high levels of fat are why obesity is becoming worse in children. It can be concluded that school food is still extremely high in fat and this can be directly linked to the high rates of obesity in young children and

adolescents.

Schools are playing a large part in obesity in the US by what they serve for children.

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

today.

Many would argue that school lunches are healthy; like in this quote “… the SNA (School Nutrient Association) claims that school-prepared meals provide about one third of the necessary daily nutrient requirements for students.” (Haugen) Other data that has cited in the previous paragraphs proves this is not correct because rates of obesity are still very high. The NSLP (National School Lunch Program) are set to follow the guidelines set by federal nutrition requirements and some articles say they are meeting the standards. (Haugen) From data collected it shows that these claims are false, and with school lunches containing up to 14 grams of saturated fats. Also, many say that, contrary to popular belief, school foods like pizza and fries are baked and made with low fat ingredients. (Haugen) This may be true in cases but even though they are baked, it does not mean that these foods are healthy because in the making of a lot of these foods, frying is still used and most of the food is frozen and just needs to be heated up in ovens, which means that the baking would not make them any heathier.

After all, it can be concluded that foods in schools today are not as healthy as they need to be for students and they need to be made with more nutrition and substance.. School lunches encourage poor nutrition and are a catalyst for obesity in children. The longer that school foods have such high fat levels the worse obesity problems will become and the harder it will be to reverse. Offering so many unhealthy options in schools give the students an option to buy these cheaper, and unhealthy lunch alternative, this does, although, make the school more money but is at the expense of the student’s health, which should never be compromised by schools. And after all, the underlying goal of schools, to offer a safe and healthy learning environment, will not be achieved while the food is so unhealthy.