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The Healthy Kids Act was put into effect in Iowa on May 13, 2008. This Act has certain requirements and standards concerning physical activity and nutrition. The Healthy Kids Act has a good objective, but I don’t think it has made a huge impact on every student's life.
The physical activity requirements of the Healthy Kids Act are simple. Students in kindergarten through fifth grade are to participate in at least 30 minutes of physical activity each school day. Students in sixth through twelfth grade are to participate in at least 120 minutes of physical activity every week. Sixth through twelfth grade students can meet this requirement by not only being enrolled in P.E. class, but by being involved in sports, marching band, dance, cheer,
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or any other activity that requires movement and activity, regardless of whether or not these activities are sponsored by the school they attend. A student may be exempt from these requirements if they go against his or her religious beliefs or if the student is incapable of physical activity. Nutrition requirements for the Act for food, snacks, and beverages are quite specific. The general standard for the Healthy Kids Act is to make sure that food at school includes at least two fruits or two non-fried vegetables. Each snack can’t have more than 200 calories and 200 mg of sodium. Each entree can’t have more than 400 calories and 480 mg of sodium. For each meal, total fat can’t be more than 35% of calories, excluding nuts, seeds, nut butters, and reduced-fat cheese. Saturated fat can’t be more than 10% of calories, excluding reduced-fat cheese. Trans fat can’t be more than half a gram per serving. Sugar can’t be more than 35% of calories, excluding fruits, vegetables and yogurt. Half of all grains offered must be whole grain. Milk can be low-fat, flavored, or non-fat regular. Each carton of milk can’t have more than 27 grams of sugar as of 2014, 24 grams of sugar as of 2017, and 22 grams of sugar as of 2020. Milk and water can’t have non-nutritive sweeteners. All fruit or vegetable juices have to be 100% fruit or vegetable with no added sweeteners. Elementary students are not allowed to have flavored water, caffeinated drinks, or sports drinks, but high school students are allowed to have these. Neither elementary students, nor high school students can have soda or carbonated beverages. After analyzing the requirements and standards of the Act, I do think that it is helping to improve my health.
Even though exercising for 120 minutes and eating a little healthier may not seem like it would help improve your health, a little bit of exercising and a little change in eating habits can go a long way. Doing these things can help control your weight, reduce the risk of some diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cancer, and improve your mood. The proof that this physical activity and healthy eating has been improving my health is that my weight is pretty stable, I don’t have any of the previous mentioned diseases, and I feel happy after I …show more content…
exercise. In addition to helping to improve healths of students, another good thing about the Act is that it focuses on both obese and healthy kids.
This Act could help ensure that healthy kids will stay healthy, and it could help obese kids become healthier.
While the Healthy Kids Act has a good objective, it has many flaws. Kids may eat healthy at school, but the Act has no effect on how kids eat at home. Also, even though students are required to have healthy food on their trays at school, this doesn’t mean that they will eat it all. Much of a school’s money is wasted on food that is just going to end up in the garbage.
To improve the Healthy Kids Act, I would educate children and their parents more on the effects of unhealthy eating and lack of physical activity. I would also implement tastier, yet healthy lunches and fun, new activities, making children want to eat healthy and
exercise.
The bill was introduced as an effort to reduce the ever growing obesity rates. The increasing trend was also observed at the national level, throughout the United States. The rate was especially highest in pre-school children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rates of obesity in children have tripled in the last 30 years. These high rates have equivalently increased obesity related ailments such as; high risks of high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes, (CDC, 2014).
The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act has taken over schools nationwide and needs to be stopped. There are more negatives than positives that go along with this act and there needs to be an end. Schools should not have to waste money on expensive food to have it not be eaten. Students should be able to enjoy what the lunchroom has to offer. The students do not buy these lunches so the food goes to waste. In 2012, when the Healthy Hunger Free-Kids Act was made students stopped eating their school lunches and schools began to lose great amounts money. It 's beneficial to encourage healthy eating habits with schools but this act needs to be reformed.
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.
Obesity has become an epidemic in adults and children in the United States. Moreover, children are at risk of obesity because they do not eat enough fruits and vegetables and do not obtain enough physical activity. Also, children have a higher chance of developing health diseases related to obesity such as hypertension, high cholesterol, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and pulmonary disease. In addition, obesity in children from ages one to seventeen is an issue in Texas, since children are not aware of the serious consequences of being obese. Therefore, Texas should find ways to prevent obesity by authorizing healthier school lunches and allowing a school program to help obese children lose weight. Also, television advertisements are influencing obese children to make unhealthy choices.
In order to impede the epidemic of childhood obesity, the actual causes of the problem need to be evaluated and dissected. Obesity in children is becoming a huge problem in American society. In the past three decades, the rate of overweight children has increased by 300%. This is an alarming rate that is only climbing higher. Every member in society should take steps to becoming healthier. This would help the present generations as well as future generations to come. The lifestyle of Americans keeps us too busy to be a healthy society.
...ars of school. Once kids eat their lunches they normally want to go run around and use some of that energy from the food so they can concentrate better in class. It is also a good thing to require because school gym is the only exercise most teens and children get throughout the day. It helps cut the growing rate of diabetes and obesity. Sports are also a good way to stay active and healthy. Not only are you constantly moving and getting tons of exercise, but sports teams normally offer a good healthy snack after games such as peanut butter crackers and juice boxes or nutrition bars and bottled water. It all makes a huge difference in the development of children and teens. If we take these small steps to change, we can easily redirect the lives of children and teens health. Having more nutritious lunches can have a positive impact on the health of American teens.
Although there is a risk of upsetting people who are not worried about the health and wellbeing of today’s youth with selfish reasoning for wanting to keep junk food, ridding schools of junk foods will prove itself to be very beneficial. Children can choose healthier options without being ridiculed by others, wondering if what they are eating is good for them, and/or worrying about negative effects. One’s health cannot be overlooked as it is the livelihood of that person and much more. It is not a subject that can be taken lightly. Action to change the current conditions of America’s population’s
Childhood obesity is an increasing problem here in the United States. According to Schuab and Marian (2011) “Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions” (P.553). The prevalence of child obesity and overweight has increased over the last 30 years all over the United States, becoming one of the biggest public health challenges (Moreno, Johnson-Shelton, & Boles, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to give a background of the obesity epidemic, a review of current policy, and make a policy recommendation.
Childhood obesity is a serious problem among American children. Some doctors are even calling childhood obesity an epidemic because of the large percentage of children being diagnosed each year as either overweight or obese. “According to DASH sixteen to thirty-three percent of American children each year is being told they are obese.” (Childhood Obesity) There is only a small percentage, approximately one percent, of those children who are obese due to physical or health related issues; although, a condition that is this serious, like obesity, could have been prevented. With close monitoring and choosing a healthier lifestyle there would be no reason to have such a high obesity rate in the United States (Caryn). Unfortunately, for these children that are now considered to be obese, they could possibly be facing some serious health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancers. All of these diseases have been linked to obesity through research. These children never asked for this to happen to them; however, it has happened, and now they will either live their entire life being obese, or they will be forced to reverse what has already been done (Childhood Obesity).
The present public health problem has become a great public concern and the future of these children and future adults has also been brought to attention. For example, "as obese children are more than likely to become obese adults, they are at an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and several cancers" (Gollust, 2014). Research has also indicated that the current generation of children are on track to have shorter lives than their parents because of increasing rates of obesity (Gollust, 2014).
Children and adolescents need to be shown how to be active and how to live a healthy life.
Active teens require 2000-5000 calories a day(Kids Health). The healthy choices may be available but, are kids really eating the food? According to the statistics on waste, the answer to this question is”No”. The Healthy Kids Hunger-Free Act originated in 2010, new updated guidelines implemented in 2012 include the following: increase amounts of fruits and vegetables, calorie limits according to age group, reduction in fats and sodium. All schools were required to implement the changes in 2012-2013. One of the changes implemented because of the enormous amount of waste was “offer versus serve”. In the updated guidelines, this was another requirement. The term “offer versus serve” was coined to reduce waste: students can decline some of the food offered that they do not intend to eat (USDA Food and Nutrition Service n.p.). This confirms the fact that students were not eating the healthy choices that were being served. As a result the calorie intake for a student was now a health risk since they are not getting enough to support their growing bodies. Another point to be seen with the caloric guidelines and putting a cap on the caloric intake of a child is that these figures do not consider and athlete; who needs double or triple the caloric intake to support 2 hours of training in the morning and 2-3 hours after school, or the
Many studies have come to the conclusion that individuals who participate in health and wellness routines as well as a regular exercise program have a relatively increased degree of energy, lower healthcare bills, much better quality of life along with less stress, as well as improved health. Staying in good physical shape and healthy calls for everyone, to be conscious of their health, to be aware of the key fitness and health components and to follow them.
Regular physical activity is an important part of effective weight loss and weight maintenance. It also can help prevent several diseases and improve your overall health. It does not matter what type of physical activity you perform--sports, planned exercise, household chores, yard work, or work-related tasks--all are beneficial. Studies show that even the most inactive people can gain significant health benefits if they accumulate 30 minutes or more of physical activity per day. Based on these findings,
Exercise will help to control your weight. It will also reduce the risk of cancer and diabetes. Experts recommends children and teens to get at least an hour of exercise everyday. Adults should exercise for two hours and thirty minutes weekly. Exercise does not only mean, go to the gym and work out on treadmills and such. Taking your dog for a walk, gardening, and everyday chores are considered exercise too. Daily exercise can relieve some stress because it can stimulate brain chemicals leaving you to feel more relaxed and happy. It can also boost up your self esteem and confidence because if you’re working out, your appearance would most likely improve. Another great reason for exercising is that it will boost your energy, and you will have more energy because of all the muscle you built up.