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Essays on nutritional school lunches
Essay on nutritional school lunches
Unhealthy school lunches
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While lunch and breakfast are a vital contribution to nutritional growth, having a healthier choice of meals are essentially providing the greatest long term effect on today’s youth. Healthier lunches are the future dishes being served to our children in school to help adapt the students to a better fit lifestyle. Economic issues play a huge part on whether or not the right nutrients are being served in our children’s breakfast and lunch. Economically speaking, healthier lunches and breakfasts are more susceptible in the middle class areas. This is because the schools have the proper resources needed in order to provide better fitting meals that contain less fat, sugars, and starches. This is why many studies have concluded that obesity is much more common in lower economically challenged areas because of their limited resources provided. Added sugars and fats are much more inexpensive than the recommended healthful diets based on leaner meats, grains, and fresh vegetables and fruit. With that being said, can we conclude that encouraging low-income households to consume more costly food is not the most strategic idea for public health? According to the USDA, who did a study based on two national surveys, one survey was used to determine the nutritional content of lunch items and the other was used to access the food costs. The researches were based off of many different control groups such as region, urbanity, size of lunch program, and many other factors that could influence food costs. One of the biggest special needs of the population being served would be the financial support and funding. Although this this ties in with economic reasons as well it is still a need of the lower class demographic families. These schools don... ... middle of paper ... ... Also it may encourage some families that may not have the healthiest lifestyle to adapt different behaviors seeing that their children are served healthier choices for breakfast and lunch. It will also help maintain children with maintaining a healthier eating lifestyle which gives them perseverance of keeping this behavior throughout their entire lives. Many adults that are obese or have unhealthy eating habits develop these characteristics at an early age. Parents are happier that their kids are being served nutrients and food that helps develop their children into healthy individuals. In conclusion it is safe to say that implementing healthier lunches and breakfasts at school is very beneficial to the health and performance of adolescents. If these changes are proactively enforced then we will have many happy parents, teachers, and students in the near future.
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.
The United States is one of the richest nations in the world and food is plentiful; fifty million people should not experience food insecurity. The problem is that people who live in poverty do not have access to enough food. Policies governing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program need to be changed. The policies cannot be relaxed to the extent that everyone tries to get assistance, but they should be reasonable enough for a family provider to qualify for food stamps and hold a job which pays him enough to sustain a family. Legislators need to look at increase funding for programs like the National School Lunch Program in a manner in which NSLP does not have to compete with funding for budget items that have major lobbyists’ support. Funds to feed hungry children should not be a political budget item. The allocation of subsidies to farmers should also be revisited. Eighty-four percent of subsidies goes to commodity crops and only one percent goes to growers of fruits and vegetables. Even if they had the money to buy food, people living in poverty could not buy the healthier fruits and vegetables; they are too expensive. “If you only have a few dollars to eat, in other words, processed foods will fill you up far cheaper than fruits and vegetables,” (Horn par.12). The unhealthy diets are
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.
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
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...
Lunch time is a time to take a break from the day and recharge for the rest of the day. In elementary schools it is also a time to meet up with your friends and socialize. Lunch time is not only time to eat. It is important for the mental, social, and emotional health of the children as well. Children need them chance to unwind and destress, which is promoted by socializing with friends. “Lunch should be an enjoyable part of the school day for students, offering a break from classroom work and a place to relax, socialize, and become nourished.”("The Cafeteria: Creating a Positive Mealtime Experience", 2013) Lunch time should be done in a setting where
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
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 ...
Education plays a dominant role in the lives of students all over the United States. Since most students spend roughly eight to twelve hours in school, it is important to make sure that they are provided with a healthy and nutritious breakfast, lunch and snack.
The lack of health standards for lunches and other foods in schools are a leading cause of obesity in children. According to studies, children who eat school lunches consume forty more calories each day compared to those who bring their own lunches (Schanzenbach 703). Elizabeth Jackson, a medical doctor at the University of Michigan Health System, reported that children who eat school lunches are over two times more likely to eat fattier foods and more sugary drinks (“Children”). In the past decades, the government has attempted to develop effective lunch programs that limit the intake of unhealthy foods that children eat. The 1995 policy, “School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children,” required school lunches to meet one-third of the recommended number of calories, protein, and certain vitamins and minerals (Schanzenbach 686). Although this policy has been put into place, the government has not enforced it well enough. According to a recent study, only six percent of U.S. schoo...
There are many benefits and many possible drawbacks for the participation in a federal school breakfast program. The USDA sponsors the federal school breakfast program. The relationship between hunger and the ability to learn are very closely related. Of the many benefits to a school breakfast program, one includes the assurance that the children are eating a balanced meal during the school day. In turn researchers believe that eating a balanced healthy breakfast leads children in enhancing attention and alertness, energy and motivation, concentration and self-discipline (Ragno, 1994).
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.
This article talks about the pros of eating breakfast and how it is the most important meal of the day. It also talks about the guidelines of what consists of a healthy breakfast. Don’t eat fats. Avoid sugars. Eat protein at every meal. The time when you eat also plays a big factor. When you consume calories affects your weight gain and overall health. People who eat three meals a day with a snack tend to gain weight over time, on the other hand, those who ate one or two meals a day tended to lose weight. Consuming more calories in the morning and fewer as the day goes on is an effective way to maintain a healthy weight. I plan on using this
“One major physical benefit of breakfast that can help school performance is the increase in energy that comes from a morning dose of carbs and protein. Energy provided by breakfast carbs allows children to fully participate in physical activity at school, including physical education, or P.E. classes; recess; and extracurricular activities. Kids who eat breakfast are typically in better health overall as well. They are less prone to obesity and illness, leading to fewer sick days, which can cause kids to fall behind in schoolwork.”
Every meal a man, woman, or child consumes plays a role in their daily physical and mental well-being. There are deciding factors in determining which meal has the greatest importance. A single meal can have an astounding affect on a person’s day. The first meal of the day is called breakfast, because it literally breaks the fast that has lasted ten to twelve hours since the last meal of the previous day. Breakfast is proven to be the most important meal of the day. This meal can decide the entire outcome of a person’s day.