Thursday, February 24, 2011

Healthy Eating Habits or a Lifetime of Confusion?
       Childhood obesity has risen dramatically over the past decade and continues to plague our nation. Since children spend a majority of waking hours in school some believe that soda and vending machines are to blame along with nutrient lacking school lunches. 
“Competitive” food being served in a high school cafeteria.
Since the 1940’s schools themselves have been responsible for providing lunch, often taking much criticism for lack of nutritional value in the meal that for most kids is the most important meal of the day.   While lunches have improved over the years, vending machines become more and more of a normal staple in the school cafeteria and hallways. Even “competitive” food vendors are setting up shop in a lot of our high schools and junior high school cafeterias. 
We are sending children mixed messages by telling them to eat healthy and to make healthy choices but when the lunch bell rings we send them to a cafeteria filled with high fat and sugary foods.  Schools are even signing contracts with top “competitive” food and drink vendors stating that the funds will help to pay for things at the schools that have recently been cut back due to the financial crisis our country has been facing.  While some support these money making ventures other’s believe our children’s our in great danger of health problems now and later on during life.  Type ll Diabetes and other obesity related illnesses are on the rise and schools are steadily teaching poor eating habits out of the classroom while trying to teach good eating habits in the classroom.
            Supporters of revenue making vending machines and “competitive” food say that they believe children will find other ways to get junk food and sodas if the schools don’t provide it.  Which they say then becomes a safety concern of children leaving school during lunch breaks and being injured.  Even though everyone doesn’t agree with making money off of selling junk food and encouraging bad eating habits to our children they just simply don’t know any other way to raise the kind of money these schools need. 
            So while it is easy to sit back and criticize it is also easy to understand where both sides of this argument our coming from.  On one hand we our giving our children too many unhealthy food and drink options so that schools can have more money for the school system while also teaching our kids to make healthy eating habits by not eating high sugar and high fat foods so that they can live a long and healthy life. 
Junk food in schools. (2007, January 24). Issues & Controversies On File. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services,  Retrieved February 22, 2011, from the Issues & Controversies Database.



Monday, February 7, 2011

Money over Health?

Money over health?

            My lunch in high school ranged from about eight to ten dollars on any given day.  I always chose two servings of cheese fries and a slice of Pizza Hut pizza usually washed down by a large soft drink and all of this was served from the convenience of my high school cafeteria.  Not only was it costly to my parents wallet but to my overall eating habits and health.  Not to mention, gym was an option class meaning you could choose a different class instead of gym.  I gained 10lbs alone my freshmen year of high school.  The school system is not only robbing parents of their money but also their children’s health. 

The number of overweight adolescents has tripled over the last 20 years (Greenblatt, 2003).  Greenblatt states “Physical education is being dropped by schools even as fattening snack foods are welcomed onto campus.  And children are spending more time playing computer games than sports.”  We are sending our children a message that it is ok to eat and drink high sugar foods while not staying physically fit by exercising or by engaging in daily activity.  Most agree that money is the biggest factor to selling soft drinks and fast food chains in school.  Schools across the country rely on soft drink vendors for an important source of revenue (Greenblatt, 2003).  The article Obesity Epidemic, Can Americans Change their Self-Destructive habits by Alan Greenblatt hits on many reasons obesity could be on the rise but it focuses more on poor food and drink choices that start in the school system. 
I myself believe the article was very informative in reinforcing how we as a society make it acceptable to be medically obese.  We send our children to school where money is being made by our children making poor food and drink choices.  I think school does play a major role in childhood obesity.  Changes in our public school systems need to be made across America to ensure our children are learning to make good food, drink and exercise choices to ensure our children remain healthy.  I just hope something happens soon so the rising number of children becoming obese will begin to drop and that children learn how to make the best decisions to promote a healthy lifestyle.
Greenblatt, A. (2003, January 31). Obesity epidemic. CQ Researcher, 13, 73-104. Retrieved February 5, 2011from the CQ Reasearcher Database.