School junk food ban: The fruitless endeavor Childhood obesity is a thriving epidemic, alive well throughout children in America. Attempting to bring the youthful generation to a healthy weight, some school districts have put bans on selling junk food on campus. This plan is well intended, but is generally, a fruitless endeavor. Junk food in school should not be banned because it is only one small cause of childhood obesity, students will not buy nor consume healthy food options offered by their schools, and despite placing bans on schools, many students will still find ways to get their hands on junk food. According to Radford in paragraph 5 of his article ‘Why junk food in schools isn’t making kids fat’, he stated that “Schools only represent a small portion of children’s school environment.” What this means is that the food that children receive in school is only one small piece, out of the many factors that leads to childhood obesity. In paragraph 9 of an article titled ‘Counterpoint: the government should not tell students what to eat and drink’, authors W.E and Rosalyn stated very clearly that, “Without a doubt, the television is a major contributor to childhood obesity, now joined by the computer screen.” This couldn’t be closer to the truth because technology that causes inactivity in children is a much bigger cause of overweight students than junk food in schools. Another valid point that Radford made in paragraph 4 of his article is that the youth does eat a
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.
Would it help students eat healthier? Should it be a student’s choice if they want to eat healthy or not? When junk food is banned, do schools lose out? With the increase of childhood obesity, some schools have completely banned the sale of junk food in vending machines and the cafeteria, because they believe it will encourage students to eat healthier. Although students shouldn’t eat junk food, schools should allow for it to be sold, because it increases profits for the school, gives students a choice in what they eat, and allows schools to teach about healthy nutrition and responsibility when it comes to eating.
Food and drinks located at school are healthy and state approved. If these students don’t eat our food they’ll eat greasy and fatty food sure to give them health issues. These young teens idea of food is a burger with friends and a large soda; this is sure to get the overweight.
The current state of affairs isn’t ideal for school children as many schools offer children foods of minimal nutritional value with some schools still allowing fast food restaurants to provide their services in high schools and middle schools. The current policies actually contribute to the toxic environment that many children face both at home and at school as those most impacted by the obesity epidemic are minority and poor urban children who don’t have healthy choices at home or in school. Part of the problem
Childhood obesity is a rather new reality in the United States due to intake of sugary snacks and beverages, childhood obesity is the result of a sustained energy imbalance. Most youth never eat the required daily servings of fruits and vegetables; its noted only one in five eat the required servings (21%) (Moore, Wilke, & Desrochers, 2017). The availability of sugary snacks and beverages in schools are what one would call “junk food”. According to a study conducted by Ashlesha Datar and Nancy Nicosia (2012) students could purchase more than one single food and beverage items either
The organization of Debatewise stated that controlling the foods that students consume is important in combating obesity, as the dieting habits that most people form originate from when they were young. This is why it’s so crucial for schools to introduce healthier options in schools. If these unhealthy habits are developed, the students are “at higher risk for having other chronic health conditions and diseases that impact physical health..”, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These conditions can affect them emotionally and physically, including depression and obesity, which are important health issues both linked with the consumption of junk foods. The selling of junk food in schools is not a small problem either, as it concludes from a study by the Institute of Medicine in 2003 that elementary schools earn approximately $442 million annually from junk food sales. The importance of changing the school lunch programs to implement healthier options is high when there is so much money being spent by the students. Although obesity is a real problem due to the selling of junk food, it can lead to other problems that leading a healthier way of living could fix. For instance, the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension states junk foods, due to processing that removes vitamins, minerals, and fiber from the product, are empty calories that are ultimately worthless to the body. This alone contributes to unneeded weight gain and provides no additional sustenances that help the body grow. The Harvard Health Publications describes this to be a serious problem, and acknowledge not only this to be a complication, but mentions the unnecessarily high amounts of sodium levels in the foods, stating that “...the average
Nationally, about 17% of people under the age of 20, about 12.5 million are considered obese. School districts that serve students food that are high in calories and fat are to blame for the growing numbers of obese children. Although school lunches provide students food at minimal costs, the poor quality of food served delivers inadequate nutrition and is responsible for the rising numbers of obese minors in the United States. In order to combat this growing problem, school districts must limit student choices in the lunchroom and provide healthier food nationally. Although some school districts may argue this, it is necessary to do so as school districts in Pennsylvania and Mississippi and university studies support this claim.
Healthier school lunches will help to stop the ever-growing percentage of obese children. According to the CDC, or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity is caused when more energy is consumed than energy burned. This means that the heavy, caloric lunches that are being served across the nation are too sugary and lead to obesity. Healthier school lunches also mean that purchasable sugary snacks will have to disappear to keep students as healthy as possible. Moreover, a YRBS (Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance) survey was conducted every other year since 2003. Since 2005, states such as Oklahoma, Nebraska, Delaware, and New Mexico have had a rapid increase of obese teens. Oklahoma’s teen obesity rate rose 2% between 2005 and 2015,
In reality, most of the junk food eaten on campus is brought in. Trying to eliminate it from schools is a waste of time, money, and Education” (Metallo). A lot of people see banning fast food from our schools as a waste of time and money. True that even if schools don’t allow fast food in schools, kids will still sneak it in. For high schoolers who leave campus for lunch go to fast food chains anyway, and the schools cannot necessarily control that. It isn’t necessarily the school's job to control what the kids eat, ultimately it comes down to the parents teaching the children healthy eating habits. Many people see it like that, but as human beings shouldn’t we do the right thing no matter what the circumstances? So yes, you cannot completely ban something from schools, but it’s worth a shot even just to show that we
The obesity epidemic is a widespread problem in children and turning it around will be a huge challenge. However, the right place to start attacking the epidemic is at our schools. American children and teenagers are consuming more unnecessary calories than ever, resulting in health problems and rising obesity rates. Schools should provide healthier foods to promote good nutrition and to prevent obesity and health problems. According to an article titled “Attacking the Obesity Epidemic by First Figuring Out Its Cause” published in the New York Times in 2011, systematic approaches to lower the obesity rate include schools increasing the price of unhealthy foods and drinks, schools providing a larger selection of healthy food, and introducing
Obesity has substantially increased in the American population, affecting both adults and children. According to the Mayo Clinic, the definition of obesity is defined as a condition of increased body weight that is caused by an excessive accumulation of fat. Many factors contribute to weight gain such as the two important ones, poor diet and physical inactivity. As people are exposed to high fat foods and have very low physical activity, it’s so easy for that person to become overweight or obese. As in today’s society children tend to overeat, many changes in a child’s life are the reason why there is an increase in overeating. The place where children should be fed healthy and should influence them to eat healthy is actually where the problem starts. School cafeterias have been known to serve food with large fat content and low nutrition. School cafeterias even supply students with soda and candy machines (Kempster, 2004). According to a study done by King et al. (1999) has shown that fruits and raw vegetables given in school cafeterias has decreased substantially. Instead they provide unhealthy meals for these children like, pizza, tater tots, and many other numerous high level fat foods. At school children should have the access to eat healthy, however they are exposed to fast food choices everyday, making it difficult to support healthy eating (Kuntzman, 2004). The lack of physical activity is another major factor in the cause of childhood obesity. Due to the increase
Many people in today 's generation are constantly are craving junk food. It is patently evident junk food plays a major role in the cause of obesity. According to a study called "Psychological science", Obesity leads to numerous health issues including heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. The treatment of these health issues cost billions of tax health dollars (Physiological science, 2014). Permitting junk food in schools will cause greater chances of obesity. Students will be heading on a venture. Furthermore, obesity is a continuous major problem since the past several years. In 2010, a 4 year old girl named
Overweight and Obesity in America’s Children: Causes, Consequences, Solutions by Amy Jordan mentions how being overweight doesn’t mean you are obese but they are both unhealthy and are issues that should be resolved whenever they can. The article mentions that of course since the parents influence their children it’s their responsibility to choose between what kinds of food to feed their children. Unfortunately, parents cannot always be around with their children, which is why the article also mentioned the kinds of food that are available in schools. Schools contain snacks that tend to be fattening which makes a child’s body mass index greater. Children are so tempted to eat junk food that there’s a higher chance of them eating unhealthy if
Junk food, junk food, junk food is around all corners of schools. Chocolate, cookies, soda, potato chips, and Sour Strings may sound delectable to some people, but are they nutritious? Some people wonder if there should be a change. Encouraging exceptional nutrition in schools is essential by reasons of students will consume foods that are better for them, schools will pay less for meals, and fewer students would go hungry.
Restrictions should be made against junk food in school in order to decrease the rate of obesity and diabetes.“Junk food can be addictive for children and complications like obesity, chronic illness, low self esteem and even