New measures are being taken every day to combat the national problem of childhood obesity. Unfortunately, those measures just aren’t drastic enough.
Former President Bill Clinton has recently cut a deal with five big snack food companies, including Mars Inc. and Dannon, that agreed to discourage schools from stocking vending machines with foods high in calories, fat, sugar and salt, instead replacing them with nutritious snacks that meet guidelines set by the American Heart Association. The new plan is voluntary, but Clinton is prompting schools to take the initiative and do their part to combat the nationwide weight battle.
According to The Associated Press, schools will be urged to “buy healthy, rather than cater to student cravings.” A noble statement, but not a drastic enough move. The schools are still free to buy whatever they like, and most schools, I assume, would continue to buy foods that the students purchase. Students addicted to junk food are not going to buy yogurt and baked chips just because that’s what’s filling the vending machines. Instead, they will get their junk food fix outside of school, and the school in turn will lose money.
This is by no means a new argument. In 2004 the American Academy of Pediatrics released a new policy statement which said doctors should contact superintendents and school board members and “emphasize the notion that every school in every district shares a responsibility for the nutritional health of its students” to force everyone to have a hand in combating the obesity crisis.
A number of schools since then have opted not to offer soft drinks anymore, instead supplying vending machines with 100 percent juice, milk and water.
The director of the National Soft Drink Association, Jim Finkelstein, said the policy went too far and that “soft drinks can be a part of a balanced lifestyle and are a nice treat.” Sure thing, Mr. Finkelstein. And cigarettes haven’t been proven to cure cancer, either.
So maybe that’s a drastic analogy (though these days sodas are as liable as anything else to give you cancer), but his statement is irrelevant. Sodas can be a nice treat, yes, but most children lack both moderation and also the knowledge of practicing good nutrition because many parents don’t practice healthy eating at home.
Options are not what children need, even into high school. That may sound a little tyrannical, but experience shows adolescents lack the ability to make healthy eating choices when presented with them.
Herein lies the problem, which extends beyond vending machines and school cafeterias, and there is one problematic principle underlying it all. That problem is choice. Beginning in the mid-’80s, schools began supporting vendors who offered chips, soda and other junk foods. Children naturally bought these instead of the school lunches, and it’s been downhill ever since.
At my high school, for example, every day the lunch room offered pizza and fries for about $2 each, while the daily “school lunch,” however unappetizing it might have been at times, was about $1.75 for a balanced meal including an entree, salad, fruit and bread. Students, on the whole, chose the more expensive junk food over the outrageously cheap school meal. Soft drinks weren’t offered in the cafeteria, but there was a vending machine of ice cream treats, so those moves cancelled each other out.
I knew kids who ate pizza and fries every day. Not only were they greasy and calorie-laden foods, but they weren’t even good pizza and fries. They were mass produced, and as far as I’ve experienced, the quality of food goes down as the quantity produced goes up. So why the expensive, not particularly satisfying indulgence? The novelty, of course, which is the same reason vending machines offering low-fat snacks and fruit juices “among other choices” will never succeed.
The kid is going to choose the meal that his mom wouldn’t choose for him. Being able to choose what to eat, that first little bite of freedom, tastes that much sweeter (or saltier and greasier) when washed down with imitation pepperoni and hot cheese that comes out of a big bag.
It’s the same freedom students experience when they begin college, and the reason so many parents put their children on meal plans at first. Then, at least, they can sit comfortably at home and tell themselves their children are eating nutritiously.
So how does this relate to us as college students? Is college that much better? I was on a meal plan my freshman year and will freely admit that the meals I ate at Perry Cafeteria were both delicious and healthy. There was always a lengthy salad bar, multiple hot vegetable options, meats and pasta. The frozen yogurt was even low-fat.
I can’t say the same for the Greek houses on campus, who claim to plan healthy menus, but from what I hear from friends in sororities, this isn’t typically the case. I’ve been told numerous times that on nights with such abysmal dinner offerings as fried broccoli, the girls simply ate a salad. Not much better than high school, if you ask me.
The moral of the story is that it’s not good enough to simply offer healthy food “options.” Adults are only kidding themselves if they believe most children will choose the healthy option over the junk food option. The school ban on soda and the reduction of junk food offerings is a good step toward combating childhood obesity, but it’s not enough.
The schools must drop all of the unhealthy foods cold turkey if we want to see a change in the health of the nation’s adolescents. Hey, might as well even offer cold turkey. There’s a healthy food.
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