...Nick Conklin English Period 7 Snack and soda machines should be removed from schools because students are attaining unhealthy eating habits. In recent years, schools have been pushing to reduce obesity levels. Students have a higher risk of diabetes, hyperactive behavior, and hypertension. This is happening in teens under 18. Schools want to encourage their students to eat healthier meals, but students don’t have many options for a healthy choice. Most machines are filled with sugary snacks like cookies and potato chips. “Access to and consumption of sugary and unhealthy foods and drinks have led to a childhood obesity rate that has tripled in the past 30 years, with one of every five children obese,” reports the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most teens receive 13 percent of their calories each day from sugar-sweetened drinks, including sodas, sports drinks and specialty coffees. A single can of soda has about 150 calories. A child can increase caloric intake by 300 calories. In fact, a study conducted by the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota showed that school aged children who drank soda consumed close to 200 calories more than those who didn't. A pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. This is a potential weight gain of almost 20 lbs. a year from drinking soda. Snack foods or "junk" foods, such as chips, cookies and crackers are usually high in fat. A gram of fat is worth about 9 calories, but a gram of protein or...
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...What happens when you remove soda from school vending machines? Sugary soda has been cited as a major cause in the obesity and the associated soaring rates of diabetes 2. Yet a lot of people, including young people, continue to drink sugary soda often. Banning vending machines from schools may not be enough to reduce soda and fast food consumption among students, according to a recent study. A recent study from the University of Illinois at Chicago found that taking soda away from school vending machines could actually have an adverse effect. Even though it is an action intended to make students healthier, it is not enough of an impactful change, the research found. Interestingly enough, students who did not have access to buy soda at school were more likely to drink at least one soda per day. The study found that 23 percent of teens drank at least one soda per day if they had access to vending machines during the school day, compared to 28 percent who did not have access. Showing a similar effect, students were more likely to eat fast food when vending machines were removed from schools. However, these differences were only observed in states where soda was taxed less or students were able to buy soda from the school cafeteria or the school store. The study´s lead author, Daniel Taber, explains, “There may be unintended effects if you only make small-scale changes. When more comprehensive changes were implemented, there were no unintended effects” The authors...
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...is America considered one of the laziest countries in the world? It is not fair to point a finger at the soda and candy industries, the fast food restaurants, or the grocery stores because they are not the ones at fault. The United States is a free country. Living in this free country, we are allowed to pick and choose what restaurants we eat at, what we order at those restaurants, how much food we buy at the grocery store, the kind of food we buy at the grocery store, etc. The blame cannot be put where it is easy to put it. The only people we, Americans as a whole, can blame for the obesity problem, the successful soda and candy industries, the wealthy fast food restaurants, and the laziness of our nation, is ourselves. Over the years, numerous lawsuits have been filed against soda and candy companies, blaming them for the overweight children in our country. For example, the article “Lawyers Ready Suit Over Soda” written by Caroline E. Mayer on the Washington Post website, explains a lawsuit that a group of lawyers created in 2005. They compiled the lawsuit against soft-drink companies that sell sugared soda in schools, and are aiming to have soda machines removed from all schools. Richard A. Daynard, an associate dean at Northeastern University School of Law, is leading the lawyers into the trial, and he claims, “The idea is to get soda machines out of schools because they are clearly making a substantial contribution to the obesity epidemic.” Google.com defines the...
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...more liquids.” - Michael Douglas Investor, Coke’s Chairman and CEO. “Public schools are funded by the public to educate the children as provided by state law. It is totally inappropriate that its facilities and employees are being used by corporations to increase their own profits on public time and with public dollars.” Dr. Brita Butler-Wall, Executive Director, Citizens’ Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools, US. THE RECALL On June 13, 1999, Coca-Cola[1] (Coke) recalled over 15 million cans and bottles after the Belgian Health Ministry announced a ban on Coke’s drinks, which were suspected of making more than 100 school children ill in the preceding six days. This recall was in addition to the 2.5 million bottles that had already been recalled in the previous week. The company’s products namely Coke, Diet Coke and Fanta had been bottled[2] in Antwerp, Ghent and Wilrijk, Belgium while some batches of Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite were also produced in Dunkirk, France. Children at six schools in Belgium had complained of headache, nausea, vomiting and shivering which ultimately led to hospitalization after drinking Coke’s beverages. Most of them reported an ‘unusual odor’ and an ‘off-taste’ in the drink. In a statement to Reuters, Marc Pattin, a spokesman for the Belgian Health Ministry explained the seriousness of the issue: “Another 44 children had become ill with stomach pains, 42 of them at a school in Lochristi, near Ghent, northwest Belgium. We have had five or six cases...
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...day in school, it is the schools responsibility more than the parents to give each student the daily amount of exercise, healthy meals choices for breakfast and lunch, and to educate students to eat nutritionally well. The movie, Supersize Me, is a documentary film where the experimenter, Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days straight for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Besides eating just fast food, Spurlock and his team also did several investigations on contributing factors to obesity such as what is in the food that people eat, and the amount that a person can get at one time. In the movie, Spurlock spent time connecting obesity, fast food, and children. Spurlock went to three different schools and analyzed how the schools foods contributed to childhood obesity. The first school in Naperville, Illinois shows how school staff turns a blind eye towards what students buy and eat. Even when a student buys nothing but candy or chips, the staff believes they brought a sack lunch with healthier foods, this is realistically never happens. This particular school food is serviced by Sodexho, which is one of the lowest and cheapest food services around. Sodexho supplies over 400 kindergarten through twelfth grade school districts nationwide providing foods such as Little Debbie snacks, Gatorade, and candy bars to students. Sodexho also operates prisons and feeds thousands of inmates worldwide with the same kinds of foods fed to children in our schools. A Sodexho...
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...concentrates and syrups, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia. The Coca-Cola formula and brand was bought in 1889 by Asa Griggs Candler (December 30, 1851 - March 12, 1929), who incorporated The Coca-Cola Company in 1892. On June 13, 1999, Coca-Cola (Coke) recalled over 15 million cans and bottles after the Belgian Health Ministry announced a ban on Coca cola's drinks, which were suspected of making more than 100 school children ill in the preceding six days.This recall was in addition to the 2.5 million bottles that had already been recalled in the previous week. The company's products namely Coca cola, Diet Cola and Fanta had been bottled in Antwerp, Ghent and Wilrijk, Belgium while some batches of Coca cola, Diet Coca cola, Fanta and Sprite were also produced in Dunkirk, France. Children at six schools in Belgium had complained of headache, nausea, vomiting and shivering which ultimately led to hospitalization after drinking Coca cola's beverages.A week after the reported ilnesses, the Coca cola company responded.They said that The Coca cola company`s highet priority is the quality of our products.We deeply regret any problems encountered by our European consumers in the past few days.At this time, the company identified two specific production and distribution problems:(1)Off-quality carbon dioxide that affected tha taste and odor of some bottled...
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...six and a half hours a day at school, eight hours sleeping, a few hours of bus time, and an hour to get ready in the morning. This leaves children approximately four hours of time awake at home. So children are spending more time at school than home during the five day school week. With that in mind one would hope schools are providing a nutritionally, as well as educationally, sound environment for children to develop. Unfortunately, as long soft drinks are in schools they are not. Permitting soft drinks to be readily available to students is detrimental to their health in several areas of concern: growing obesity trends; weakening of the bones; and of course there are several other concerning area. Overall, the consumption of soft drinks should be limited by everyone, especially children, and the first place to start is by eliminating the option at school. Fizz Weight In today’s society one is fixated on bigger is better and moderation has lost its way. “During the past 40 years, the obesity rate for children ages 6 to 11 has more than quadrupled (from 4.2 percent to 17 percent). And for adolescents ages 12 to 19, it has more than tripled (from 4.6 percent to 17.6 percent)” (Keeping Kids Healthy). Soft drinks fall into the top of the food pyramid, which means they should be consumed very seldom. With moderation thrown out the window consumption of soft drinks are high and so are the obesity rates. The distribution of soft drinks in schools should be eliminated entirely...
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...id=10853&emailErrors=true&username=Angela&recipientAddress=angelawilson44@aol.com&friendsFName=&errors=Please%20enter%20your%20friend%27s%20first%20name. Should states ban junk food in schools? In response to rising obesity rates nationally, 16 states have recently adopted school nutrition policies 2006 * PRINT * EMAIL * | | YES America is facing a crisis because of our eating habits. Sixty million adults (20 percent of the population) are obese. Nearly 300,000 people die each year from complications associated with being obese or overweight. Poor eating habits developed at an early age lead to a lifetime of real health consequences. School is where children spend most of their time, and it is where we lay the foundation for healthy habits. That's why New Jersey is the first state to adopt a comprehensive school nutrition policy that bans candy, soda, and other junk food. If you go to school in New Jersey, your vending machines and school stores, along with the a la carte lines in your cafeterias, will no longer be able to sell snacks that are high in fat and loaded with sugar. Items that list sugar as the first ingredient will be eliminated and snacks will contain no more than eight grams of total fat and not more than two grams of saturated fat. Soda and junk food will be replaced with more-nutritious alternatives. You will still have choices, but instead of candy or chips, you may have to decide between an apple or carrot sticks. It has always...
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...from self-esteem issues were ever one in four, and children living in financial hardship were one in three. Richards, E. P., Shimabukuro, M. L., Combs, S., & Kreuter, M. W. (2004). Innovative legal tools to prevent obesity. Journal Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 32(4), 59-61. This article mentioned that vending machines were added to schools for financial benefits due to budget cuts. Studies have shown that this caused students to get into the habit of eating constantly. Children who get into the habit of eating constantly are more likely to become obese. Seo, D., & Lee, C. G. (2012). Association of school nutrition policy and parental control with childhood overweight. Journal Of School Health, 82(6), 285-293. Retrieved Jan. 15, 2015 from doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2012.00699.x Due to the rise of obese children, there is also an increase in children with major health problems. Pediatric hypertension, hardening of the arteries, diabetes, liver disease, and breathing disorders are becoming common in today’s youth. Studies also show that children who attended schools where sodas where sold where more likely to be obese than children who attended schools who were not. Shah, N. (2013). USDA wants limits on junk foods sold In...
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...The most serious dietary issue affecting today’s American children is obesity – the result of eating more food than is needed. Childhood obesity in the United States has doubled in the last ten years (Cohen). Overweight rates are increasing day by day a major cause of which is the advertising and marketing by fast food companies on television in schools. Today television advertising is filled with fast food i.e. soft drinks, burgers, pizzas etc. Fast food marketers have long known that children make attractive customers but attention to this group and to younger and younger members within it is increasing sharply. The pressure of advertising messages by the fast food companies reaches even the youngest child. 44% of the advertisements on the Saturday morning television are for foods with limited nutritional value. McDonalds, burger king and pizza hut account for 11% of these advertisements. (Cohen) To reach young children advertisers use a variety of methods, advertising on television and the Internet is just one of them. The amount of money spent on marketing directed to children and their parents rose from $6.9 billion in 1992 to $12.7 billion in 1997 (Nestle 179). Advertising must be controlled if we want to control the increasing overweight rates in the nation. Advertising is not only limited to television or the Internet its goes beyond them. Food companies such as McDonalds put their logos, symbols on toys games and other supplies. They also distribute coupons. McDonalds...
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...appropriately. Children spend a large portion of the year in school consuming many of their daily calories from school lunches; something must be done to make the food they eat healthier. School lunches are full of fat and calories and do not offer the right type of fruits and vegetables, no appropriate proteins and dairy items. The government has partnered with farmers to provide the food to the schools but in doing so has not offered our children the healthiest options. In addition schools do not have the budget to purchase healthier options on their own and will often subsidize the food program by selling name brand fast food in the cafeteria for a marked up price. Changing children’s eating habits in schools will be very difficult because you can’t force children to eat. It is uncertain if changing school lunches would decrease obesity or not. Though children are in school for a large portion of the day they still have time at home and if life changes are not made changing how they eat in one area may not do much of anything. Another assumption I have made is that by increasing recess time rather than decreasing it children would not be as obese. The same goes for making physical education mandatory in elementary schools and requiring physical education be taken in each semester of high school. Simply changing the lunch menu and offering more lunch time would not necessarily decrease the obesity rate among school age children. Without any type of education to go along with...
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...body fat content and absorption of energy. “Heritability of obesity from parents also influences obesity in children.” (Karnik, Kanekar, 2011). The behavioral factor of childhood obesity is directly correlated to lack of physical activity. A lot of children spend a great deal of their time indoors watching television, playing video games and being on the computer. Television advertisements related to unhealthy snack foods contributes to a child’s choice for unhealthy, eating behaviors and obesity. The children of today want instant gratification, and what better way to get it by grabbing a bag of candy, chips or something else that is readily available, and takes no time to prepare. Environmental factors are seen in settings at home, school and community....
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...Jared Leibowitz Professor Hudson English 101 15 March 2015 Conscious Eating Matters The fast-paced world in which we live makes it easy to forget how important nutrition is to the body. We are constantly on the move: going to work, going to school, hanging out with family and friends, shopping and other activities. Most of the time we are trying to get a quick meal to coincide with our quick lifestyles which makes it seem hard to focus on the aspects of our lives that matter most, like what foods we put into our body. Each and every one of us has a unique body that requires a vast amount of nutrients which many of us are not getting each day. “In a study completed at the University of Illinois it was discovered that many American adults are not getting enough vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, and iron [in their daily diet]. Americans have a tendency to eat far more saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium than is normal or recommended” (Bushak). Things like fast food, soda, and sugar-based foods are replacing highly nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables in people’s diets. This is why it is important to be conscious of what food you put into your body alongside the benefits of good nutrition. Making sure to eat fruits and vegetables every day is extremely important because they offer lots of beneficial nutrients for our bodies to run properly. According to Webber, “It is recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to average 2 cups of fruit...
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...video games while consuming fast foods instead of nutritious, home-cooked meals. On average, a child will spend four hours a day playing video games while munching on potato chips and a high calorie soda. This type of activity is directly linked to terrible grades in school, reading fewer books, and not exercising as much as they should. Obese children are plagued with medical conditions stemming from high blood pressure to diabetes and most of them will develop low self-esteem and depression which will continue into adulthood. From fast food to electronics, quick and easy is the reality of today's busy families. Childhood obesity in America can be reduced if a lifestyle and reduction of junk food is integrated into a child’s day. The main contributors of a sitting lifestyle consist of the Television and Video game. A child, through TV, absorbs thousands of commercials featuring junk food/ fast foods. The same child, by high school, will have spent more time playing video games than they have in the classroom. This will contribute to poor grades, aggressive behavior, and the inability to act socially with other peers. Lawrence (2010) notes that “70% of obese children will continue to be obese through adulthood” (para. 2). These numbers will continue to rise until parents and school officials incorporate ways to counteract this lifestyle. Another contributor to childhood obesity is the enormous amounts of junk food or fast foods consumed on a daily basis. Fast food obesity...
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...video games while consuming fast foods instead of nutritious, home-cooked meals. On average, a child will spend four hours a day playing video games while munching on potato chips and a high calorie soda. This type of activity is directly linked to terrible grades in school, reading fewer books, and exercising less. Obese children are plagued with medical conditions stemming from high blood pressure to diabetes and most of them will develop low self esteem and depression which will continue into adulthood. From fast food to electronics, quick and easy is the reality of today's busy families. Childhood obesity in America can be reduced if a sedentary lifestyle and reduction of junk food is integrated into a child’s day. The main contributors of a sedentary lifestyle consist of the Television and Video game. A child, through TV, absorbs thousands of commercials featuring junk food/ fast foods. The same child, by high school, will have spent more time playing video games than they have in the classroom. This will contribute to poor grades, aggressive behavior, and the inability to act socially with other peers. Lawrence (2010) notes that “70% of obese children will continue to be obese through adulthood” (para. 2). These numbers will continue to rise until parents and school officials incorporate ways to counteract this lifestyle. Another contributor to childhood obesity is the enormous amounts of junk food or fast foods consumed on a daily basis. Fast food obesity...
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