High Calorie Intake Among Young Adolescents

Obesity can often be the consequence of living in a household that instill unhealthy eating habits. Schools can be a positive influence on teens early in life so that obese teens can lead into their adult lives with healthier habits. With these healthier habits, they may likely have more energy to become positive influences in others lives to be healthy and be able to do more. If schools can make such an impact on students’ lives, they should try, even if they needed to sacrifice extra money or instructional time. In 2007, there was a study that only one fifth of high school students had eaten fruits and vegetables at least five times a day in a week (Wexler, 2010). While it is unreasonable to force someone to eat these foods, if they are regularly offered as part of school lunches, students may eat them if they have finished the rest of their lunch and are hungry. Schools should be encouraged to even add fruits and vegetables to vending machines for healthier options.

This “crash” can affect ones performance on tests and other school related activities. “Along the same lines, other components of sugar-sweetened beverages, such as caffeine or herbal stimulants, could contribute to negative academic performance.” (Carroll, 2014) The healthy vending machines would not only promote healthy lifestyle and choices for campus, but this could also help promote better academic achievement as well. Giving your body as well as your mind the right nutrition could improve one’s overall physical health, academic performance, and attention span. Healthy vending would be enhancing campus and off campus lifestyle. When people make a healthy food choice it helps boost our energy and mood. The quality of “fuel” that we put into our bodies, helps our bodies preform at their level of potential both physically and

Sugary drinks are not the only problem. Vending machines are packed with foods that are high in sugar, carbohydrates, and calories. When students approach the vending machine, they have limited options. These options may include chips, baked goods, and

Childhood obesity is a serious health issue currently affecting America’s population. School lunches have gained a spotlight in the search for prevention of child obesity because the majority of America’s youth eat two school meals a day during most of the year. Although the nutritional standards of school meals have been changed over the years, there is still room for improvement. With additions such as a la cart and vending machines, school meals quickly fall from the federal nutrition standards. As children grow they spend an average of 7 hours a day at school over half of the year. With almost 95% of America’s children attending school, it is one of the most stable and influential aspects of their life. With so much of a child’s time spent

Childhood obesity is a source of great debate in the United States. Many studies have shown the problem has become epidemic. Adults in the United States are increasing in weight and so are children and teenagers. Many factors are contributing to this growing problem. The influence parents have on their children can affect them negatively. Children of overweight parents are more likely to be overweight themselves. Another issue adding to the childhood obesity problem is the fact that children and teens have more options when it comes to food choices. School lunches, vending machines, and cheap calorie-packed snacks all contribute to this issue. Healthy foods are also more expensive and not as readily available as

Such practices are a concern, in part, due to the out-of-control statistics regarding obesity in America’s youth. Commercial vending machines in the hallways of public schools promote the consumption of junk food in youth. Often this consumption ends in tooth decay, hyperactivity and childhood obesity. In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control,

68 percent of students say they buy food from the cafeteria every day. Proper nutrition is tied to better academic performance. This means that kids will not do their best in school if they are fed unhealthy lunches (Black). The unhealthy lunches kids are given at school are the main contribution to childhood obesity. According to scientists, children who eat too much fat, sugar, sodium or processed food and too few vitamins and minerals are likely to develop a higher risk over time for several chronic health problems (Angela). These health problems include heart disease, and diabetes. At this time, more than ever, 55 percent of Americans are obese and 20 percent of Americans are overweight (Three Facts About School Lunches). Many schools offer healthy choices, but they did not decrease the calories in them, and they typically still offer unhealthy snack items (Three Facts About School Lunches). In a school cafeteria with both healthy and unhealthy choices offered to kids, most kids are not willing to choose the healthier choices over the unhealthy ones. So where an apple is avoided and a bag of potato chips is selected as a child’s first choice for a snack

4. Godelnik, Raz. "New Standards for School Vending Machines Provide More Than Healthy Snacks." Triple Pundit RSS. N.p., 3 July 2013. Web. 03 Nov. 2013.

a) The motivation is to convince the readers that school lunches have become healthier as to erase the perception that cafeteria food is terrible. As well, these statistics are being used to determine if healthier school lunches "will help ease the obesity epidemic among the nation's children." This study was done as to determine the influence of school lunches on the obesity epidemic and to show whether the government has taken the right approach to lower obesity rates or need to take a different approach.

Many schools around the nation are feeding unhealthy food products to children, such as fries, sodas, sweets from vending machines. It is shown that, “an estimated 17% of children and adolescents ages 2-19 years are obese according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”

In the United States, approximately twenty thousand vending machines are in use in schools. It is

Childhood obesity has been increasingly on the rise in the United States. There are many short-term and long-term consequences of obesity, such as increased risk of diabetes type 2, hypertension and hyperlipidemia leading to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancers, and osteoarthritis. There are many contributing factors leading to the increased prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents such as poor nutrition, the increased accessibility of fast-foods and junk foods in vending machines, decreased physical activity, increased use of technology and hours spent in front of the television, and the increased consumption of soda beverages. Although all of these are contributing factors leading to obesity in children and adolescents, it has become apparent that as the consumption of sugar-sweetened have increased, the average number of overweight and obese children have been negatively impacted nationwide. It has been found that soda beverage consumption is a leading cause of childhood obesity epidemic. It is important as clinicians to identify

Vending machines in school are good so students can have options between healthy and unhealthy snacks. Some may say that this wouldn’t help obesity; however, the school has the choice of what they want to put in it. First, according to Bevco inc there are healthy options “Schools can choose to have healthy snacks as an option.” (Benefits of Vending

Recently dozens of schools have shifted to healthier lunch programs and vending machine choices to decrease the rate of childhood obesity. As schools are adding more fruits and vegetables to their menus, the students are getting used to the new options. A study was done at a high school in Greenville, South Carolina, about the transition from junk food to healthier lunch options. “At first, sales were down…”, said a cafeteria worker at the high school, but it got better after about a month or so once the students became accustomed to the different choices, and now the school’s cafeteria workers are, “Slammed bell to bell..." (greenvilleonline).

Joan Lunden a tv personality states, “We need to reform our school lunch programs. We need to get healthy items into the vending machines’. Students are eating food items without realizing that has a negative effect on their bodies. vending machines are only putting fat to people's system. Most schools during breakfast they serve pizza or sweet bread instead of a granola bar or low-fat yogurt. The government is thinking the food they serve is beneficial for their students. Schools should start serving healthy meals to kids and realize that they are doing wrong. Obesity is an epidemic and makes young people suffer even bullied.