How To Make School Lunches

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.'

Children are so oblivious to the fact of what they're eating. As long as the children recognize what type of food it is and it looks good, they'll immediately eat it. They think the food they're eating is completely sanitary and taste good. But, in fact they're eating processed meat of some sort that is made in a factory and just has extra things added to it to give it a good look and taste. Some of these products are actually healthy until these multi million dollar company's pay processors to deep fry their food. The company's who makes the food has hundreds of added meats, such as: zinc oxide, copper gluconate, and potassium chloride. The company's don't care about these children's healthy, but as long as they're getting paid it's okay to

The school's lunch food, while distastful, are simply not worth the money. Especially when there is an option to spend the money on a richer in flavor and healthier choice. To put it another way, the value of the food does not compare to the price required. [Adding Metacommentary]. Likewise, the vending machines were funded money to replace the foods with healthier choices. Which did not improve students' health but decreased the students' contribution. "A greater food selection does have a positive effect upon participation" (Marples and Spillman). In Marples and Spillman's study, 43% of the students rated the school lunches as poor and only 5% referred to the lunches as good. This percentage went up significantly when asked if they would participate in school lunches if quality changed. Nearly two-thirds of the students stated that if the lunches were to become tastier they would eat it more often. Therefore, the quality of foods has a significant input when it comes to student

This value often fluctuates more than 60% from day to day, illustrating that a majority of individuals are not dependent on cafeteria food for lunches, but instead purchase them because they enjoy the food being served. Because they are often not recipients of free or reduced price meals these individuals are important to the cafeteria’s bottom line. If crowd-pleasing, sugary foods are displaced by healthier, less popular alternatives, lunch purchases will fall significantly, further increasing the cafeteria’s overall operating expenses. Requiring school meals to comply with sugar limiting standards would only exacerbate current budgetary conflicts, causing smaller proportions of the district’s already contracted funding to be available for spending on actual education. While some individuals may insist that increased spending on meals can be justified by its positive effects on the health of adolescents, once again in practice, these benefits are not as pronounced as one might

When thinking of the word “nutritious” what is the first thing that comes to mind? Everything nowadays has labels saying they have 65% less fat. Is that actually good or is it just empty calories? School lunches do not encourage proper nutrition because improper meals lead to behavioral problems, children eat minimal nutritious foods from vending machines, and school lunches serve foods that can cause obesity and health problems. The brain needs certain omega 3 fatty acids to flourish throughout the school day, not all fats are necessarily bad. The public has been wrongly informed about proper nutrition.

Schools must educate children from a young age to make the right choices in healthy foods and lifestyles. If children are allowed to develop bad habits from an early age by consuming sugary drinks and sweets we are contributing to the obesity of children which then will continue into their adulthood.

Parents can barely control what the kids eat also, they can't be right behind their backs at all time. They could have sugar and calories for breakfast a half healthy lunch and there parents wouldn't know this and give them more calories for dinner. You aren't born knowing what is right from wrong this needs to be taught.

It is no secret that school lunches are unhealthy. The problem is that on a daily basis will cause us problems beyond our childhood and into our future down the road. Eating a unhealthy meal here and there in moderation is one thing but eating unhealthy food's on a daily basis for more than half a year for over 13 years can cause obesity, lead to physical problems and lastly mental health issues. The schools are responsible for us when we are not at home and they claim they do what’s best for us but foods high in calories, fat and sugars is not what I would call doing a good job. The school system will argue that if we offer healthier alternatives that the students would not eat it and just throw it away.

Over the years, school lunches have become a very large issue in our country. Not only are they disgusting, they are unhealthy and should not be served to anybody let alone kids. In the video, “What’s wrong with school lunches,” led by Ann Cooper, she held several very strong arguments regarding school lunches. Ann cooper made several important points on what is wrong with school lunches. She mainly spoke about how it is very necessary to expose kids to healthy foods, and that we have to teach them why it is so important to consume healthy foods rather than foods that are processed. She explained that the way that all of these unhealthy/processed foods are advertised, play a very large role on not only children’s lives, but also everybody’s

While reading this article my viewpoint was challenged. Childhood obesity in the United States and school lunches have always seemed to go hand in hand because of all the national attention public school have been receiving within the past ten or so years. However, the studies that Sloviter provided made clear suggestions that school lunches in the United States may not be so terrible or unhealthy as I have been assuming. It is still slightly odd that this is so, considering in my previous research statistics have shown American school lunches to be high in fats, carbs, and sugars.

It is their money, they should be able to buy whatever type of food that they want to. Yes, they are actually trying to make the students eat healthier and help them stay healthy. The government is also trying to start healthy eating habits with the younger grades and try to start it with the older grades. It used to be that some of the schools would sever foods to the students that contained close to 50% of fat, a little bit under 50% of saturated fats, and over 50% of salt. "The american children are not doing as well in their nutrition and health as we would like to,” says Virginia Stallings, the professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (Zalan 10). Studies have shown, and teachers have also noticed, that the student’s minds can not focus and function properly on a poor diet. A healthy diet show to prove itself in the school work. “Schools have access to children K through 12, almost 2,000 days of their lives, so schools have got to play a big role…. The whole goal of education is to change behavior to [make it] more positive,” says Rhonda Clements, program director of physical education and sport pedagogy at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. (Khadroo 1). And yes, the student’s weight has been going up throughout the years. A ten year old boy weighs and is bigger now that a ten year old boy

Once parents realize that their child has reached a certain weight they now feel as it is time to step in. In order to make the situation better they tell them that what they were consuming before is now not healthy enough for their bodies to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Their parents have now confused them on what is actually right and wrong. Growing up they thought that these types of foods were okay, and now their parents decide to tell them that they are not okay after they notice that it is becoming a problem. Though, the creation of an obese child could have been prevented through educational efforts to implement a nutrition class. But, without a nutritional class, most perceive the next logical step to be a diet. Children do not need to go on diets. According to Yoni Freedhoff, there is no safe diet for children (Freedhoff). When parents place their kids on a diet it can create more harm than it can potentially help them. They do not need to step into a Weight Watchers program in order to learn what foods are good for them and what foods they need to stay away from. Rather, they need to be progressively taught about nutrition. All of the previous stated solutions are tainted; they are all reactive solutions. A school wide nutrition class would be proactive and eliminate obesity from occurring in the first place. Without proactive measures and simply reacting, it can come back around to the parents, the ones that have too not been educated in

Obese children have been found to have health problems, such as, “chronic health conditions and diseases that impact physical health, such as asthma, sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, type 2 diabetes, and risk factors for heart disease.” (CDC). Also, according to the CDC, obesity as a child leads to obesity as an adult. Obesity as an adult is dangerous, as it can cause, “serious conditions and diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and several types of cancer.” (CDC) What the CDC found shows us all why we should start a healthy food now before it is too late to help a child’s future. Healthier school lunches prevent child obesity, saving them from disease and ailments in the future. The AMDF, or the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, studied the effects of junk food on the eyes. They found that certain foods, including highly processed snacks, peanut butter, and french fries are dangerous for a child’s eyesight. They found that, “Overindulging in fat-filled snack foods may heighten the risk of developing advanced age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness and vision impairment in the United States for those over 55, researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary said in a new study.” They present that junk food is a serious problem and can lead to AMD. One way to avoid this, according to the AMDF is by feeding children omega-3 fatty acids which are great for eyesight. Healthier school lunches not only help save a child’s future, but also help save their eyesight. Preventing students from buying these unhealthy products can help to reduce the risk of AMD in adulthood, as well as protect against many other types of illness. According to WebMD and Medi Weight Loss, obesity leads to,

The problem is that kids don’t know the dangers of eating unhealthy food. In a quote said by Bittman that by “improving our diet it can improve our health and save tens of millions of lives”(Bittman 75). Just by changing the school lunch into healthy things it could change many lives. To get more healthy food the school can work with farmers and grocery stores to get more healthy food. Even though school serves some health food it may not be that fresh, and we need, to take more action to it. Also send a letter to the parents to help encourage their child's eating habit. To make school lunch more healthy take-out unhealthy snacks and drinks then put water. Jane Brody said that “It's a $24 billion industry just for kids alone”(Dr. Gortmaker 82). By encouraging good eating, it could help bring down the company that doesn’t care about people's health and just about money. “A 20% tax increase of

Our children’s nutritional education is almost nonexistent. Ask a fifth grader what the food pyramid is and you’re likely to receive the same blank stare as I did. Most children have no idea what a balanced meal is because they may have never received one. Schools provide nutritional meals at lunch, but there is no enforcement when it comes to eating your fruits and vegetables. Lets face it, children eat what’s familiar. If they haven’t had it at home they are probably not going to eat it at school. If there are no vegetables at home, they are not going to eat them at school. Home life definitely sets the tone for a child’s eating and exercise routines.