By Jenna Barbone
Do you smell delicious warm chocolate chip and vanilla cookies lingering the hallways? Me neither. Due to The United States Department of Agriculture’s new policy, supported by Michelle Obama, our school no longer smells like a bakery. Every day kids looked forward to our school store cookies, and now they’re lucky if the establishment sells protein bars with chocolate chips in them.
Starting in 2010, schools were required to limit the amount of fat, calories, sugar and sodium served in school lunches. A few months ago, House Republicans were debating whether they should allow specific school districts to opt out of standards if they affected school budgets. Michelle Obama heard about this and stated to congress, “The last thing we can afford to do right now is play politics with our kids’ health.” She added, “Now is not the time to roll back everything we have worked for.”
The United States Department of Agriculture took Michelle Obama’s comments into consideration and revised the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was created in 2010, by launching The School Day Just Got Healthier. This document explains reasons for the changes in school lunches and guidelines schools should follow. In the first bullet it states, “Since many kids may consume as many as half their meals in schools, school meals play a critical role in helping children learn how to lead healthy lifestyles.” But is taking away the fatty foods really teaching kids how to lead healthy lifestyles? When you take something away you’re not “teaching” anything. Teaching means to inform and educate students on a topic. Instead of authorities taking away these foods, we should be taught about moderation —the benefits if we eat this way and the side effects if we don’t. This can be done by going more in depth in health classes on healthy eating or having students take mandatory nutrition classes. Yes, we all know if you eat too many unhealthy foods, you will gain weight; however, this shouldn’t be the only fear. There are worse scenarios with eating unhealthy such as diabetes, heartburn, sleep, and behavior issues, etc. that students should be aware of so they can make their own decisions in school and outside of school.
The document does state that providing foods with less fat and carbs will improve students’ performance in school and overall health; however, some students refuse to purchase these “healthier” foods and are still bringing in food from home. These kids will continue to not buy the healthier foods and should be taught to eat healthier but not forced too.
It may seem that a solution to unhealthy eating is to take away the unhealthy foods, right? But it can actually make these eating habits worse; psychotherapist Dr. Jane McCartney who has helped people overcome eating problems explains this in an article on dailymail.com. He states that one of his male patients in his forties, “had parents who only ever kept apples and fig rolls in the house as snacks for the children – so whenever he went to parties at the houses of other children, he gorged on treats and cake.” He saw a common trend with similar patients and came to conclusion that taking away unhealthy foods can make problems worse. He’s not trying to persuade people into eating junk food every day but suggested that it should be eaten sometimes. Students will have more of a desire to want the junk food if it’s completely prohibited at school, for example, when they have a chance to get a hold of a delicious school store cookie somewhere else, instead of eating one, they would most likely binge eat.