Let them eat cake

No, actually, don’t. 

As of late, more and more schools and school districts are switching to healthier foods, removing junk foods from vending machines, and encouraging healthy eating. 

If you go to most schools now, you won’t be able to buy a soda. All carbonated beverages have been removed and you can now choose from healthier choices, such as water, sports drinks, milk, and tea. If you want a snack from the vending machines, you can choose from whole grain snacks, baked chips instead of however they normally do them, or rice based products. Many schools also limit food during lunch, like at mine. Desert is only served once a week and the number of sides you can get is limited. Some elementary schools will have a staff member check the snack that a student brings to make sure it’s healthy.

Some may say that the school or school district should not have control over this aspect of the students’ lives. However, this is a very beneficial thing. 

Most students do not buy groceries and make meals for themselves. It’s usually the parents’ responsibility to do that. This gives the student little to no control over their meal. But since they attend school, they do get to decide what they eat for lunch and for high schoolers, what they eat as a snack. 

By only giving students a healthy choice for meals and snacks, this could impact their future habits. If they’re only around unhealthy food, then they’re more likely to continue those habits once they become independent. By exposing students to healthier options, this could potentially lead to more sound choices and an overall healthier population. 

One argument against this deals with staff members checking elementary students’ snacks. Many say that they cannot afford to buy healthy snacks for their children and must resort to unhealthy snacks such as Doritos. I find that hard to believe when one bag of Doritos costs from $2.50 to $3.50 and a bag of apples can cost the exact same, if not less. So that argument is clearly invalid. Having staff “ok” snacks could also encourage parents to buy more healthy food for their families. 

So while many think the educational branch is overstepping its limitations, they are really just trying to encourage good habits. This will hopefully promote a healthier America and increase the overall health of our population. 

To see the other side of the argument,  visit http://finleysawesomeblog.blogspot.com/.