The Importance Of Balanced Lunches In Schools

One of the most controversial issues today is the question of how to address childhood obesity. Because of the large proportion of meals that children, particularly low-income children, consume in schools, cafeteria food has been targeted by dietary reformers as in need of a major overhaul. However, while many different types of new school menus have been proposed, the extent to which healthier foods can be offered remains controversial. Opponents to reform state that children will not eat healthier lunches, and that changing the food that children eat will have minimal impact, since the children will either bring food from home or eat food at home that is more 'kid friendly.'

Since 2009 Schools have been improving there healthy choices of food like fresh fruits and salad bars,but those foods take longer to eat (Hellmich). Turning school lunches into an actual sit down meal rather than a feeding frenzy is a good way of improving health (Parker-Pope). Students usually have less than 20 minutes to eat lunch which makes it less likely for them to choose the healthy choice (Elsevier). Kids often like to eat there favorite foods first,not giving them enough time to eat the healthy food (Hellmich). An increase in school lunches could encourage students to eat the healthier choice(5 Elsevier). School nutritionist suggest that students need to have atlas 20 minutes to eat (Hellmich). Research shows that when people consume meals faster they take in more calories because they get hungry sooner (Chen). The shorter lunch periods are starting to lead to more and more obese and overweight kids ( Hellmich). Doctors are saying there are more and more kids getting diabetes and other illnesses due to the lunches and something needs to be done about it

School lunches are not the epitome of meals in the world. Raising the level of nutritional output would highly increase the healthiness of the student’s body. For example, if a child were to drink only water at school the health benefits would help that student, just by cutting out the sugar and the calorie intake. If schools were to serve grilled chicken instead of fried chicken, the student would not have that extreme carb intake just from the fried part alone. Chicken and vegetables should be the entrée for most school lunches, of course, this does not allow for a great variety of meals, but the healthiness of the students would increase over time and could possibly be the healthiest thing they eat that day, but the only thing that they eat at all. The poverty in Mississippi is abundant, which may mean that children do not get three square meals a day, but maybe only one, which is at school. Therefore, the best way to affect student’s healthiness is by putting good, nutritious, and energizing food on the plate in front of

The author’s intention is to inform the reader that the healthy lunch programs are failing. The author provides plentiful information and research on the failing school lunch programs in the U.S. “In the war to get America’s children to eat healthier, things are not going well.” Kids are not eating their vegetables. This has become a big problem in America and steps need to be taken to stop unhealthy eating. Like The Agriculture Department mandating that students in the federal lunch program choose a fruit or vegetable with their meals. This solution didn’t work and actually worsened the problem. “Their consumption of fruits and vegetables actually went down 13 percent after the mandate took effect.”

Many state public high schools in Michigan are progressing towards possibly allowing an open campus lunch policy for its students. The trend would allow students to depart from school to a distinct location of considerable distance by the school. Recent studies have shown that providing high school students the choice to a better quality of healthy food during lunch could lead to higher test scores. (Michael, Justin, & Elizabeth. “How the quality of school lunch affects students’ academic performance.” www. brookings.edu). Changing school meals to accommodate healthier options is a cost effective way to fix other issues like students who struggle with obesity. Revising eating habits could help fight high health risks in students to improve

In the article, “Are Our School Lunches Healthy Enough?” the author, William Rice, states how healthy school lunches are superb and should be accepted by all Americans. William Rice specifically writes about how too many American children are affected by obesity, and how students, as well as parents, should be educated on this matter. Throughout this essay you will learn the PROs of healthy and should be convinced to be on the PRO side.

Therefore, modifying the Healthy Hungry-Free Kids Act of 2010 is a great start to meeting the needs of a more diverse student body. In deciding to keep the program the same, active and athletic students leave school undernourished everyday. Consequently, students not receiving their nutritional needs could also quench their hunger with unhealthy alternatives. For example, they could choose to visit a gas station before a sport practice to get through the practice. A healthy lunch program is ineffective if, in effect, it causes students to consume more unhealthy alternatives. Overall, this either causes undernourished students or students indulging in unhealthy alternatives. Neither of these is a good outcome for the students health, it would more effective to offer a second serving of healthier food during

The goals,is to improve school food, teach nutrition, support sustainable food systems, and create an education program focused on understanding the relationships between food, culture, health, and the environment.By the time today’s kindergartner finishes high school, she may have eaten well over 4,000 school meals—4,000 opportunities to strengthen her body and mind, introduce food pleasures that will make her a lifelong healthy eater, and deepen her engagement with the natural world. The more than 5.5 billion lunches and nearly 2 billion breakfasts served yearly in school programs, along with complementary education programs, can have a profound effect on issues of public health, academic performance, economics, justice, national security,

As of 2017, millions of families in the United States live in poverty. As a result, this forces parents in between a rock and a hard place. This position of food insecurity, when someone is in a state where they are not able to access good quality food, leaves families with some cheap, unhealthy choices for food. Yet still, there are many other reasons as to why the United States is pressed with the major issue of food insecurity. One reason stems from the quality of American school lunches compared to those in other countries. Another is the link between hunger and obesity and the long-term health consequences of relying on processed foods for sustenance.

People who support Obama's food policy claim that parents need having their kids eat at school help because cannot ensure their kids are eating properly at school.of course parents can't know everything they eat at school.my second reason is even thinking that schools need to limit food choices this doesn’t make government control right.even though i think they don't have to do that but of course i know you have to watch your food limit but it doesn't have to be like that all the time.my third reason is ‘ The federal standards have faced criticism from nutrition officials as well as students. The independent Government

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.

School lunches, the fight to provide healthy food for kids at school, is a battle that has been going on for years with little progress. Here at SVMS, precautions have been made to help kids make healthy choices, sugary sodas aren’t sold, candy isn’t available for kids to purchase, and there is a health program that teaches kids about nutrition, but kids can still be found with lunches made completely up of chips and other unnatural food products. I think there is a different approach to helping kids get the proper nutrition, by focusing not so much on the calories and percent of sugar in each food item, but the context of where the food came from, and how the kids attain it.

Parents should continue to support the school meal standards program that Michelle Obama, the first lady, has made a campaign for. Michelle Obama has devoted herself to this campaign and is not trying to do anything other than to help the health of students around the United States. Many schools are involved already, and it would be more effective and helpful if more parents got involved with the way their children eat and make choices at school everyday. Even though students will argue that the new food that is served for school lunches is gross, there are more factors that are more important and relevant to the purpose of this campaign.

To children, juicy burgers and salty French fries are much more appetizing than dry chicken sandwiches and baked sweet potato fries. However, due to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, the diets of children are being filled with the latter as a way to implement a healthier diet into their lives. Many students in public schools across the United States are unhappy with the many changes such as this. Is implementing a healthier school lunch program a lost cause? We need to find a better way to improve students’ diets, rather than forcing this unbeneficial program on them.

To illustrate this idea, the author describes, “In 2012, 1 in 3 American children were overweight or obese. Overweight children may develop diseases, including heart diseases, and diabetes.” That is to say, out of three kids one is overweight or obese which could bring serious consequences a later age. It seems to me that, schools giving nutritious lunches is beneficial for kids with overweight problems. In short, having this program would help with the situation of childhood