47 replies to this topic

[Cript]

Now here I have quite the connundrum. As a typical midwesterner, I enjoy eating meat. However, it seems that the passiveness of the previous generations when it comes to nutrition education has lead to a down right ridiculous pro-active type of catch-up. We are constantly bombarded with statistics, documentaries and tv commercials telling us as a nation and planet how obese we are and that it's too late for any of us to become healthy again without this supplement or that ab crunching machine. Now, as an alternative to this insanity, I am very much for a proactive education system so that our future generations don't have to deal with all of this. There's no better time to learn to eat right than as a child...I just hope that health education isn't taking the place of literacy programs.

[ArchAngel.]

Well... The people that are fat isn't the only reason we are forced to eat healthier. One of the reasons it that there is more unhealthy choices at schools than healthy choices. They believe that unhealthy foods should only be a small part of your diet, and that is why they are limiting on unhealthy foods, to force us to have a small part of our diet unhealthy. I don't mind though, I enjoy eating healthy. Salads with Italian Dressing. Awesome. xD I'm a health freak, I work out a lot and eat healthy by choice most of the time.

[Martin]

I see it this way:

If you want a choice, then you have a choice. BYOL, Bring Your Own Lunch. Health is a very important thing, yet people just don't seem to care enough. The health fad right now is just a result of pressure put on proccessed food manufactures. Do they care if you're healthy? No, but the want to make it seem that way so you can shut up.
The big issue is that people are not educated about health. There are no totally safe ways to magically lose weight/get healthy. Sure we can start with incorporating healthier foods at school, but what will that do? You're gonna grab a bag of fridos and coke when you get home. If you care so much about YOUR health, take initiative.
If the schools really want to help, how bout we reform the current physical Ed. standards in our schools? Why don't we have classes for or incorporate healthy lifestyle lessons into our existing health classes? I'm all for a healthier nation, but we as individuals need to make the effort in our own lives.

I agree. Although I was one of 5 to skip "PE" this year to be a student assistant for a teacher, from previous years I must admit that the standards of PE are very low. The activities preformed at my school were not at all calorie burning sports.

Well right now my school... well old school now... has only a couple choices for the most part and they're all pretty unhealthy. Sure they offer healthy sides like cottage cheese or carrots. But with the fruit it's covered in corn syrup >_< The entrees are horrible. They have hamburgers, chickenwitches, eggrolls, vegetable lasagna (all times I have gotten horribly sick after eating), french fries, tater tots, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, tacos, and pizza. Out of those entrees... NONE are healthy. They're filled with fats. The hamburgers have grease dripping off them. It's disgusting. They DO need to offer more healthy choices because really... the only thing healthy to eat is in the ala carte place and that's a PBandJ sandwitch.

Whoa! Ill agree with you your school needs to offer more healthy choices! I guess this situation varies from school to school.

Well they do offer some healthy foods, like fruit ...
But it's really your decision to eat it.

Many people at my school get a side order of fruit/fruit cups/ect. with their lunch. At my school this is not optional. I think 98% of the people throw it away. Not that I think that supply heathly options to students is bad, but considering that this is such a waste both in food and money having fruit should be an option.

Now here I have quite the connundrum. As a typical midwesterner, I enjoy eating meat. However, it seems that the passiveness of the previous generations when it comes to nutrition education has lead to a down right ridiculous pro-active type of catch-up. We are constantly bombarded with statistics, documentaries and tv commercials telling us as a nation and planet how obese we are and that it's too late for any of us to become healthy again without this supplement or that ab crunching machine. Now, as an alternative to this insanity, I am very much for a proactive education system so that our future generations don't have to deal with all of this. There's no better time to learn to eat right than as a child...I just hope that health education isn't taking the place of literacy programs.

So my Fat-B-Gone pills dont work? Anyway you make an excellent point. If we teach children right from the start about proper eating then he/she would probaly continue eating properly throught his/her life. Although Schools are an important place to start, parents need to be taught heathly eating habits as well. From the start of a childs life most are bombarded with fattening baby foods and liquids which lead up to an overweight infant. I read online (I apologize as I cant find the link) that if a child is overweight by the age of 2 they are about 65% likely to remain overweight throughout their lives.

One thing I beleive effects many people is excessive use of video games. I know one friends who only got a game system a year ago. Before them we would do a lot of outdoor activites. Now all he wants to do is play video games. I guess the same could be said with computers and TV. We need to find some kind of entertainment that is exciting like these activites and somehow link them to physical activity. Sports, I think, just arnt enough. There have been many advancement in virtual reality games where the player actually makes physical movements when playing. This is a step in the right direction.

[Funnlecake]

Our school hasnt been hit by a very big health craze but they do offer a wide varity of stuff, such as salads, burgers, chicken sandwiches, fruits, sandwichs and hogies of all diffrent kinds, and they have specals, ect... the only thing they took away was soda and alot of the other drinks they didnt take away are just as bad and the only other reason that could have been it, was caffine, but they sell coffee.

[Wicked]

People say I am fat... I don't listen to them... I am 5' 8" and I weigh only 120 pounds.. I play sports like soccer and we run over 4 miles every day. We also make sure that we go to the gym during off season. Our school has gone as far as making sure you are in some active class every year you are in high school...

[cara]

I understand alot of you are saying you should have the choice between healthy foods and junk (yes, Im using that term. That's what it is, isnt it? ), but seriously. People often make the wrong choice and go for the crap.
God forbid you loose some weight. Yes, people SHOULD be concerned about not getting fat. You make it seem so freakin horrible! It's unhealthy, and it could cause you serious life or death issues in the future. Obesity is a real problem, and filling up the school with junk won't help.
School is there to help you make the right choices in life, educate you. Filling up vending machines full of sugary junk doesn't show much, does it? o-o
If you really think you don't need nor want to eat healthy food, then stop in somewhere after school or something?
Eating healthy isn't some punishment. It's for your own good.

Anddd eating healthy could be tasty!! See .. if they had cucumbers in the vending machines, there's something I'd buy daily. That a nice bottle of water. Or carrots! It's not that bad ..

Well there's my four cents before I fall into bed ... o_--o

[Wicked]

I understand alot of you are saying you should have the choice between healthy foods and junk (yes, Im using that term. That's what it is, isnt it? ), but seriously. People often make the wrong choice and go for the crap.
God forbid you loose some weight. Yes, people SHOULD be concerned about not getting fat. You make it seem so freakin horrible! It's unhealthy, and it could cause you serious life or death issues in the future. Obesity is a real problem, and filling up the school with junk won't help.
School is there to help you make the right choices in life, educate you. Filling up vending machines full of sugary junk doesn't show much, does it? o-o
If you really think you don't need nor want to eat healthy food, then stop in somewhere after school or something?
Eating healthy isn't some punishment. It's for your own good.

Anddd eating healthy could be tasty!! See .. if they had cucumbers in the vending machines, there's something I'd buy daily. That a nice bottle of water. Or carrots! It's not that bad ..

Well there's my four cents before I fall into bed ... o_--o

Well said Cara and I agree. People should be concerned about not getting fat.
Scientific studies show that our generation of children will have shorter lives than our parents because of our obesity...

Edited by Shadowwolves, 27 June 2006 - 06:59 PM.

[Ilya]

The oney is saving money that way..
In my highschool there was snapple, coke, any drink you can buy in the grocery was availible in my school, then they changed to "healthy" foods which was some juice of 3 flavors and little didnt they know that it wasnt much healthier then coke, those cans contained only 5% of juice others are from concentrate..

Weird.. but schools do that to spend less money..

[ArchAngel.]

Wtf... They don't do it to spend less money...
They sell that stuff to you for the same price as grocery stores, except cup noodles. They don't spend less that way, if anything, they make more. The more brand names at school that kids love, the more money they make. If that wasn't the case, then retailers wouldn't be selling any of that stuff either...

[phadedsky]

my high school tried doing that. They decided that selling pop in the cafeteria was a bad idea and the main cause for obesity in our school district. What they didn't do though, was stop selling the pop in the pop machines and still allowed pop to be sold at a seperate part of the cafeteria. Also, apparently hostess products aren't fattening because they're still being sold in all parts of the cafeteria.

It seems that schools think they can provent obesity by limiting things that they sell, yet they fail to realize that kids only eat one or two meals at the school a day and even then they might not be from the school. They could have brought them from home. Also, it's the eating habits that the child has developed not what the school is selling.

[TScully89]

I personally think society's obsession over weight loss is rediculous, but society is fucked up anyway, however its important to eat healthy. Its not good to be obese either, I agree with some of the other people posting here, there should be a happy medium between healthy and unhealthy at school cafeterias. Fortunately this solution exists at my school.

Edited by TScully89, 07 July 2006 - 12:23 PM.

[Martin]

People say I am fat... I don't listen to them... I am 5' 8" and I weigh only 120 pounds.. I play sports like soccer and we run over 4 miles every day. We also make sure that we go to the gym during off season. Our school has gone as far as making sure you are in some active class every year you are in high school...

That doesnt sound fat to me

God forbid you loose some weight. Yes, people SHOULD be concerned about not getting fat. You make it seem so freakin horrible! It's unhealthy, and it could cause you serious life or death issues in the future. Obesity is a real problem, and filling up the school with junk won't help.
School is there to help you make the right choices in life, educate you. Filling up vending machines full of sugary junk doesn't show much, does it? o-o
If you really think you don't need nor want to eat healthy food, then stop in somewhere after school or something?
Eating healthy isn't some punishment. It's for your own good.

Anddd eating healthy could be tasty!! See .. if they had cucumbers in the vending machines, there's something I'd buy daily. That a nice bottle of water. Or carrots! It's not that bad ..

Sorry I made it sounds so bad Shouldn't healthy eating habits start at home? I mean the government is deciding what foods you should eat! You could argue that the goverment should ban guns because people do happen to kill other people. Prehaps a system could go into place where if your height/age/fat ration was within normal range you could get junk food.

Many of the already obese kids in my school waddle over to stores and resteraunts so as "Donut Dinet" (an extremely fattening donut shop) Darie Queen, 7 Eleven, and many more. My school is located in a business area so I cant assume it is like this for many schools.

If schools switched to health foods one question remains in my mind. How did they get so fat? It is most likely from outside school! You can lead a horse to water but you cant always make him drink. Imagine you were a obese kid and were given healthy choices at school. Would you decide from that point to make healthy eating choices because your school is providing these foods? I highly doubt it.

Also I must agree many healthy foods are delicious! I particularly love pickles as well as broccoli, squash, and many more!

Wtf... They don't do it to spend less money...
They sell that stuff to you for the same price as grocery stores, except cup noodles. They don't spend less that way, if anything, they make more. The more brand names at school that kids love, the more money they make. If that wasn't the case, then retailers wouldn't be selling any of that stuff either...

Compare a 2 liter bottle of soda to a 3 liter bottle of store brand. In my area the store brand is $.50 cheaper than brand name soda. I think Adobe was saying that his school switched to cheaper products.

I personally think society's obsession over weight loss is rediculous, but society is fucked up anyway, however its important to eat healthy. Its not good to be obese either, I agree with some of the other people posting here, there should be a happy medium between healthy and unhealthy at school cafeterias. Fortunately this solution exists at my school.

I think its quite funny! Almost everything is Reduced Fat! Fat Free! Low Carbs, ect. However people keep getting fatter.

[Le0]

I agree with you. You are absolutely right. We actually had to debate this in one of my classes and that was one of the main points I brought up. I'm not going to pay for fruit juice when I am in dire need of caffiene (example: Coca Cola), especially when it's the week before exams and I am stressed out and tired from studying.

For some people obesity isn't an option...It's genetic. Now for those who have eaten to an extent where they are over weight, well...That was a choice. If they are at that weight then they have to CHOOSE whether or not they wish to drop the weight they have put on. Just because they chose to not eat healthy doesn't mean that everyone else followed suit and they should also bare the burden.

I'm going to use myself as an example. I am 15 years old and I weigh 100 lbs. I don't have an eating disorder...I'm not anorexic or anything like that. I simply have a VERY FAST METABOLISM. I eat more than anyone I know and I don't gain a pound. Now, because genetics are on my side and I am underweight for my age, should I be forced to have to buy a healthy fruit drink when I would much rather a soda to give me a boost of energy before I have to head to my next class? Of course not.

The fact of the matter is simple. Just because some people are lazy and don't wish to drop the weight, weight they put on themselves by not eating right, does not and should not affect the eating habbits of everyone around them. For those who's genetics cause them to be over weight, I'm sorry, but most people who are like that are usually very good at eating right anyway so they don't need to be forced to eat healthy anyway.

[Shin]

I think enforcing more exercise is more beneficial than restricting someone's diet to low-calories foods. I avoid foods that are obviously bad for me, but I don't limit what I eat too much because I exercise regularly and burn off the excess calories anyway.

All people should be given a choice what to eat. The only exception is the people who eat uncontrollably and are quite overweight and need help getting rid of their bad eating habits. For them, staying at their current situation can kill them.

[Le0]

I think enforcing more exercise is more beneficial than restricting someone's diet to low-calories foods. I avoid foods that are obviously bad for me, but I don't limit what I eat too much because I exercise regularly and burn off the excess calories anyway.

All people should be given a choice what to eat. The only exception is the people who eat uncontrollably and are quite overweight and need help getting rid of their bad eating habits. For them, staying at their current situation can kill them.

Very nicely put. I strongly agree with your arguement in this matter.

[Typhoon]

You are right that you should have a choice. But look at the obesity problems (not just in USA but in the UK too). The majority (not all) of children will eat nothing but unhealthy crap (like chips/fries, pizza etc) all the time, this change your school has brought in will be better for everyone in the long run. And if you're that bothered about having a Coke just buy one at a shop and take it with you or buy it on the way home.

The UK has just imposed a new law banning junk food in school and before I was sceptical, but my school/6th form hired a new chef last year and he's been making proper meals as an alternative to the pizza and crap (that is offered until September) and more and more people are going for his option, because the price is better and it tastes nicer, and it's healthier (which they don't seem to grasp yet). All chocolate and fizzy drinks are going as of September aswell, which I welcome aswell, if people ate healthier they wouldn't need to buy chocolate and sugary snacks for energy.

And can I ask how old you are? Because once you reach about 17/18 you'll start to mature overall and you'll act more like an adult and realise how important a healthy diet is.

[Shin]

You are right that you should have a choice. But look at the obesity problems (not just in USA but in the UK too). The majority (not all) of children will eat nothing but unhealthy crap (like chips/fries, pizza etc) all the time, this change your school has brought in will be better for everyone in the long run. And if you're that bothered about having a Coke just buy one at a shop and take it with you or buy it on the way home.

The UK has just imposed a new law banning junk food in school and before I was sceptical, but my school/6th form hired a new chef last year and he's been making proper meals as an alternative to the pizza and crap (that is offered until September) and more and more people are going for his option, because the price is better and it tastes nicer, and it's healthier (which they don't seem to grasp yet). All chocolate and fizzy drinks are going as of September aswell, which I welcome aswell, if people ate healthier they wouldn't need to buy chocolate and sugary snacks for energy.

And can I ask how old you are? Because once you reach about 17/18 you'll start to mature overall and you'll act more like an adult and realise how important a healthy diet is.

Me? I'm 17.

I know a healthy diet is important, and I try to follow it, but I don't think it should be forced onto other people. I think it's everyone's own responsibility to take care of themselves.

[Bryan]

I'm just going to say this, you don't have to be fat to be "out of shape" and you don't have to be skinny to be healthy.

Foods are one factor in a human being's healthiness. Though they contribute a lot, you can eat the healthiest foods in the world, and not excercise, and be an out of shape statisitic.

It's just an easy way for parents to bitch and moan about their kids being fat.

If you're, their is nothing prohibiting you from getting in shape. Common sense tells non-fat foods plus excercise = decent health. But then there's cholestrol and all sorts of other things.

I say schools put more money into TELLING the children what to eat, not giving it to them.

[Ives]

I usually just pigged out at the high school, then went to burn it off later that day. Now, I'm on a fairly diabetic (though I'm not diabetic) diet. Nothing too sugary, and nothing too fat. Because I'm lazier than ever, and only want to run so much.

[Grizzly]

My school doesn't even have anything healthy to eat..

They used to serve sandwhiches and heros which was pretty much the only healthy thing on their menu but they stopped.. So for 8 of the 10 months of school they served us:
french fries, tater tots, onion rings, burgers, buffalo chicken, and other random pieces of fat. They serve salads too but the dressing is loaded with crap so what's the point.

So yeah to me they're doing a good enough of a job.. for my school anyways

[mobster281]

Yeah you should choose whatever you want to eat. I howeever always eat healthy. Instead of getting punch or soda at school I was one of the rare people that got milk instead. It was cholocate milk and it has a lot of sugar but at least it has protein and calcium.

[Jewbert]

I think, in a sense, it's a good idea to have healthy stuff in school. If I still went to school, I would buy the healthy stuff. I am also really strict about what I eat, too, and not everyone is like that. I just don't think many kids would buy healthy stuff compared to the candy//chips//sodas they all love.. And besides, if they can't get it at school and it's available to them at home, they're just going to indulge at home. If not either place, somewhere else! But yeah...... I do ultimately think it's a good idea. As for cafeteria food.... I think most schools get what's the cheapest ( I know mine did...) and most of the time the cheapest stuff is what's loaded with fats and all kinds of unhealthy stuff (maybe why fat free stuff is ALWAYS more expensive??). So... since schools are required to buy food in bulk, I doubt any school would spend big bucks on the healthier alternative....unless they have a lot of money!

Edited by brookuslicious, 02 August 2006 - 08:23 PM.

[otherworld]

I think this is one of the best things schools have ever done. no not because that it means people eat healthier, its because i make alot of money ouf of it.

as people are so desperate and lazy I can buychocolate out of school and sell it for about 3 times more and people will still buy it. I buy things at about 35p and sell for a pound. Times that profit by about 8 (how many i sell roughly a day) and then by 5 (amount of school days) and thats how much money I make a week by selling chocolate.

So yeah, kinda like prohibition (except its not illegal and stuff)