Action That Should Be Taken To Prevent Child Obesity

Sure it tastes good, but it isn’t healthy for you or the children of America. Step up your game, America., schools should not be selling junk food, and need better lunch choices. Children’s lives are going downhill thanks to the in and out of school food choices. It’s hard when everything around you isn’t healthy, Children aren’t getting enough of the vitamins they need to be healthy. After all, they are always sick because they don’t get what they need in their bodies every day., and children are living an unhealthy life. They need healthier foods seeing as how most kids are doing some sort of sport almost every day.

“In 2003 and 2004, almost 19% of children between the ages of six and eleven were considered overweight, along with more than 17% of those aged twelve to nineteen,” (National Center for Health Statistics). The NCHS has analyzed and graphed data of children’s meal options and choices. This means that schools should be offering healthier food items for students because it plays a big part in child obesity. Having junk food being sold in schools leads to assorted weight-related health problems, and students spend a lot of time at school, so for their health, junk food should be restricted or controlled in schools. It is hypocritical for schools to teach good nutrition to students and not apply it to the way they make students’ meals.

“The government should take action to encourage the food and restaurant industries to produce healthier food and to better inform consumers about the food choices they make. Measures such as soda taxes or requiring that menus display calorie counts are appropriate government-led actions that will lead to a healthier population,” (Infobase Learning). Schools are most likely the reason for high obesity rates. “In the past few decades, the number of obese and overweight people in the United States has risen dramatically. The obesity rate among adults is twice as high today as it was in the 1960s, and among children, the rate is twice as high as it was in the 1970s. Indeed, the United States now has the highest obesity rate in the world.” Obviously, schools back in the 60s and 70s had better lunch choices. It shouldn’t be about what’s cheaper, but what’s better for the children.

The children are our future, so we need to treat them like they are our future. “While parents are ultimately responsible for their children’s health, there are some obstacles parents cannot overcome alone—such as the relentless marketing of junk food to young consumers, the lack of fresh produce in some low-income communities, and the lack of safe public spaces for children to play,” (Infobase Learning). Think of your future. You probably don’t want your future to be filled with people dying all the time due to their obesity all because schools couldn’t sell healthier lunches to the students. It sounds kind of terrible. Schools in other countries have almost like a four-course meal, they have an appetizer, main course,

“Diet and nutrition are individual, not government, responsibilities,” (Infobase Learning) Although they have a proving point if parents are ok with these food options handed to their children then that’s ok, yet again, it is hypocritical for schools to teach nutritional guidelines, but not follow them. Even though your nutrition

Schools should not be selling junk food, and need better lunch choices. Children’s lives are going downhill thanks to the in and out of school food choices. It’s hard when everything around you isn’t healthy, children aren’t getting enough of the vitamins they need to be healthy. After all, they are always sick because they don’t get what they need in their bodies every day, and children are living life unhealthily. Schools are the main source of child obesity. Everyone says that the children are our future, and it’s true, they are. If our children continue eating the way they do or the things they do, our future isn’t going to be as bright as we wish it to be or there wouldn’t be much of a future.