The argument as to whether or not schools should be able to sell junk food is a highly controversial topic. To begin with, there is the problem to defining junk foods. Are we talking about potato chips, soda, and Twinkies? What about fried chicken fingers, cheeseburgers, and pizza-foods many schools serve? Most cases, when faced with the decision, a child will no doubt choose what is offered without knowing it is a health issue. What would a change in the availability of these snacks teach children?
Some argue that removing these snacks from schools takes away rights. Although the selling of unhealthy foods serves as a source for additional revenue for schools, school administrators should ban the sale of items that promote an unhealthy lifestyle. Not only does junk food cause unhealthy eating habits that lead to child hood obesity, but it also contributes to health issues such as diabetes, heart disease. Fast food or junk food has had a big effect on the community that many people don’t realize.
The industry markets foods to kids often advertizing to them on their way home from school and during programming watched after school. A lot of the food Is high in sugar and fat. Public opinion on the issue is varied. Poor eating habits developed at an early age can lead to a lifetime of health issues. School is where children spend most of their time, and it’s where we lay the foundation of healthy habits. In an online poll 40% of parents stated that their child doesn’t eat breakfast on a regular basis.
That means 20 to 50 percent of these students total daily calories are coming from these unhealthy lunches and vending machines at school. This can be a can of soda, perhaps washing down a chocolate bar followed by a bag of potato chips. Students may be junk food junkies but the schools are hooked as well and have become increasingly dependent on the revenue that soda and candy machines bring in each year. While soda sales may help supplement the school’s bottom line, health experts are increasingly worried that soft drinks are contributing to a student’s poor health. t was concluded that teen-aged boys’ soda consumption has tripled in the last 20 years and doubled for girls. Teens now drink twice as much soda as milk. On the other hand, children are taught in the classroom about good nutrition and the value of a healthy lifestyle, but we continue to make the junk food available to them. Our children’s eating habits are engrained in them from a young age, so what are we teaching our children? At what cost is it ok for junk food to be available o them at school? For the first time, the government is proposing broad standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are healthier. Under the Agriculture Department proposed on 2/1/2013, food like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch and vending machines, to be replaced by baked chips, trial mix, and diet soda. Food sold through vending machines has never before been federally regulated.