Healthy School Lunches Will Reduce Childhood Obesity

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The average school lunch has about 900 calories, which is about half of the amount of total calories a child should consume daily. Many schools attempt to serve healthy lunches for students, but sometimes they are not aware of what "healthy" is. Other times they do not feel it necessary to spend a large amount of money on healthy food. If schools knew how healthier food would affect a child academically, they might be more inclined to pay. The American government must increase school funding, so that the schools can make this change for the students' benefit. School officials must also look at the percentage of children who are obese, and consider how providing a healthy school lunch will help to lower that number. Healthy school cafeteria food is essential for school aged children in the United States because it will help them pay attention in school, improve their learning capabilities, and minimize childhood obesity.

Healthy school lunches would help students academically. There is not a teacher who would want their students to be distracted. Often when children are hungry, because of a light lunch, or a lunch full of simple carbohydrates, they will become distracted. If schools serve lunches with whole grains and protein, the students would stay full and attentive much longer than a student with a lunch of sugar, white bread, and lush greens. Although many believe that schools should provide a healthy lunch for students, there is a small percentage which feels that because of the budget cuts, schools should not pay for more expensive and healthier food. Shereen Jegtvig, a nutritionist, wrote "Appleton, Wisconsin replaced their regular poor-quality school lunches with healthy fresh food…changes resulted in improved b...

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Ronzio, Robert. “National School Lunch Program.” Health Reference Center. Facts on file, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2011. .

Smolin, Lori A., and Mary B. Grosvenor. “Obesit Crisis/We Need to Start Young.” Health Reference File. Facts on File, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2011. .

Swaminathin, Nikhil. Do Healthier School Lunches Curb Bad Behavior? Good Education. N.p., 28 July 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2011. .

Turkington, Carol, and Albert Tzeel. “Shildhood Obesity.” Health Reference Center. Facts on file, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.

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