Five days a week, children go to school without too much thought about what they will eat. So a hamburger, greasy fries, cookies, and soft drinks are piled high on the plates of students nearly everyday. A pittance is given towards healthy eating in the form of milk, and in some schools, a salad bar. This is not enough when the main part of their diets actively undermines good health and academic success. Foods that work directly against the health of our young people should not be allowed in schools.
Providing nutritionally balanced meals for school children was the intent of The National School Lunch program when it was founded in 1946. In signing the act, President Harry S Truman said, "Nothing is more important in our national life than the welfare of our children, and proper nourishment comes first in attaining this welfare."
However, the current school menu is far from reflecting the required standards of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Children are habitually served the refuse of the food industry. The parts of the pig that no food company will venture near are processed into meatballs and other forms of mystery lunch meat. Despite the fact that “processed meat increases the risk of colerectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent for every 50 grams of processed meat [the typical size of a hot dog] consumed daily.” (Expelled, 7) Processed meats supply the main course in school cafeterias, with limited and equally harmful alternatives that lead students down a path of dietary destruction.
Students buy sugar loaded soft drinks packed with caffeine, and various candy bars and salty snacks to accompany their midday meals. The food companies that profit from child malnourishment have thoroughly embedded themselves into the lunch programs. Schools have grown so dependent on these special interest companies that many “paid for special activities or other items not covered in the school’s budget with profits from vending machines and snack bar sales.” (GAO, 1). Through subsidized fast food style lunch menus and the vending machines, the young learner’s health has been sacrificed to corporate profit.
Even with mounting research verifying that greasy and high sugar meals lead to serious health problems, and that fruit, vegetables, and whole grain, are actually major preventative agents against these same life compromising conditions, schools turn a blind eye to the issue. Diets leading to poor circulation, heart problems, obesity, and Type 2 diabetes in children are maintained under the pretext of a tight budget.
If administrators appreciated how closely related meals are not only to good health but the ability to comprehend and retain knowledge, there would be as much attention paid to meal preparation in schools, as the choice of studying material.
“There are documented medical studies that show dramatic changes in children's behavior and learning capabilities from such things as small adjustments in diet or the addition of certain supplements. One recent study has found vitamin B6 to be more effective than Ritalin at calming hyperactive children.” (Wyman, Introduction)
Numerous studies have shown the importance of diet in academic success, including the highly commercialized study on how a balanced breakfast impacts classroom focus, capitalized on by several cereal commercials to recommend themselves.
There should be no choice between a school supplying healthy food for their students and buying books for a proper education.
A handful of schools around the nation have successfully incorporated meal programs that are nutritious. These schools have reported only a small difference in cost for the program. They have also recorded improvements in the classroom, towards the student’s academic success. Class attentiveness and participation improved, grades improved, and the children’s overall temperament was by far more agreeable.
The “Children’s Lifestyle and School-Performance Study,” … found that children—regardless of their socioeconomic status—performed better in school if they increased their fruit and vegetable intake and decreased their caloric intake from fat. (Whelan)
This not hard to imagine since we already know that sugar makes children hyper, unable to focus, and then as the sugar leaves their body, they become irritable. Ask any parent who has taken care of a child on a candy high.
We have a great role to play in the eventual lifestyles of their children by the habits which they allow them to form in their youth. By demanding that healthy meal be served in learning institutions, a positive difference will be made for the future of our children and our nation.
Smalling 2
No comments:
Post a Comment