Junk Food

Here’s an essay I wrote for school.

Junk food in schools

Nationally, obesity rates have almost quintupled among 6 to 11 year olds and tripled among teens and children ages 2 to 5 since the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention(CDC). Junk food should not be banned in schools because most causes of obesity are not school related, schools have done a lot to make sure kids aren’t fat, and kids need to take responsibility for their health.

Kids are getting junk food from vending machines (inside and outside of school) and buying foods that are not good for them. Kids will eat food that tastes good, not paying attention to what is good for them. “Kids will eat chocolate and look for caffeine. It goes with the territory, like the hormones”, Blair PTSA President Sallie Stenbarch said.

Although the schools are worried, they get money from the vending machines and snack bars. In a 10 year agreement, Pepsi paid Montgomery Blair, a high school, a one time $100,000 fee in March 1998, $55,000 annual commission, and $1,450 in promotional materials for the school in exchange to place along with a minimum of 18 soft drink machines throughout the school. This shows that this is actually helping the school pay for things in this economic crisis.

With kids eating sweets, people are doing something. “There is such a variety in levels of commitment to nutrition standards”, says Rosemary Dedericks, who is the director of the food services department at the University of Minnesota. Some states, like California, have passed laws limiting sales of junk food in schools. A recommendation would prohibit high sugar sports drinks from elementary and middle schools. Those drinks and some high calorie content would be allowed in high schools, but only times after school hours, the report states.

In 2006, Bill Clinton and the American Heart Association announced a deal with several top food companies to make school vending machine snacks healthier. In 2007, major snack/beverage businesses made voluntary pledges to limit junk food in public schools. Janice Mills, principal at Laurel High in Prince George’s, has prohibited Pepsi’s Mountain Dew. She also banned candy bars and licorice. Laurel’s $42,269 in vending profits last year ranked 11^th among the county’s 20 high schools.

Some people say young may overeat because they are following an example set by their parents and/or friends. By the time U.S. students graduate from high school, they “have accumulated more hours before the TV than in school, and this must be added to the hours people spend with video games and computers”, Dr. Brownell writes. Kids are watching too much TV and not exercising enough.

“One of the biggest challenges school meal program managers face is the competition with foods that are marketed to children through multi million dollar glitzy and sophisticated advertising campaigns”, a report stated. This is making kids want to eat more things that are not good for them. Many U.S. families live in sprawling suburban communities where stores and other businesses are not within walking distance, which adds to an inactive lifestyle because this is causing them to drive everywhere. Health and Human Services(HHS) studies have found a striking decline in physical activity as a young one’s age and grade in school increases. “Nearly half of American youths aged 12-21 years are not vigorously active on a regular basis”, according to the HHS. Although kids are getting fatter, schools have done so much that I think we do not need to ban junk food.

Dunham, Will. “Expert panel urges junk food ban in schools.” RUETERS. FRS, 25
     Apr. 2007. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. <http://www.reuters.com/article/
     domesticNews/idUSN2528576820070425?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0>.

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