Junk Food Bans In Schools - The Practical Side
Author: Rick Hendershot

In the face of what many see as an exploding obesity epidemic
among both adults and children, a growing number of state and
regional legislatures are passing laws that prohibit the sale
of junk foods in school vending machines and cafeterias.

The new regulations differ from region to region, but the
general drift is to reduce the availability of sugar, salt, and
fat laden foods and snacks, and replace them with more
nutritious healthy foods and snacks.

The money issue

Such good intentions are not always easy to implement. Money
raises its ugly head at numerous points along the way, making
it difficult to move to more healthy alternatives.

First, vending machine operators naturally prefer to fill their
machines with junk food because these "foods" generally have two
major advantages over other more healthy alternatives. They have
a higher profit margin, and they sell better because kids (for
whatever reason) prefer them. This means the vending operators
can offer schools attractive profit-sharing incentives when
they fill up their machines with pop and candy bars.

As everybody in the business knows, "healthy" vending machines
cannot properly compete with "unhealthy" ones until attractive,
good-tasting healthy snack products are made available at a
competitive price.

And student organizations themselves are split on the wisdom of
going "healthy". Many student groups use candy sales as one of
their primary fund-raising methods. According to Laura Thomas,
a senior at Wilcox High School in Santa Clara, California,
"These sales fit the needs of the clubs because they can sell
at school, during lunch or in class. If clubs were forced to
switch to selling other things like calendars or magazines,
they would have to drastically shift their target market.
Chances are students simply wouldn't be interested in those new
products as much as they are in candy."

In other words, not allowing junk food sales by student groups
would make fund-raising programs in the schools much more
difficult, and would threaten the current fund-raising
structure that feeds cash directly into the school program. Of
course not everyone agrees this would be a bad thing. As
another California student, Leah Karlins, a junior at Branham
High School in San Jose said "it seems no one is asking the
obvious question -- why do our schools need to sell brownies to
pay for sports teams and clubs?"

Meal changes don't come easily

There are similar problems when it comes to changing cafeteria
menus. Not only is it usually less expensive to offer french
fries every day, but it is much easier, takes less planning,
and will probably be more broadly accepted by the students
doing the eating.

Menu changes usually involve a good deal of experimentation and
have to be introduced slowly. Students are not going to switch
to "eating healthy" without a relatively long and gradual
transition period.

And of course cost is always a factor. Most school boards in
the U.S. receive a meal subsidy from one or more levels of
government, so they must keep their costs below that level. At
the same time they must meet the gradually tightening
nutritional standards. These standards are sometimes the result
of intense industrial lobbies that appear to encourage "healthy"
change, but can also make it difficult.

For instance, long-standing policies of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture tend to discriminate in favor of diets that are
heavy in meat and milk. The Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine notes that meat alternatives are not
subsidized by government, while meat and meat products are.

The result is that a low-fat, low-cholesterol veggie burger is
often twice as expensive as a high-fat hamburger. The same
thing happens with milk. Milk production is subsidized, but not
the production of low-fat alternatives. And milk is even
mandated within the U.S. federal school guidelines which
require schools to offer only milk to drink, and include it in
the base price of the lunch meal.

The bottom line is that the problem of poor eating habits among
children is not something that is likely to go away quickly.
While schools may dominate a child's daily activities, they
still only account for one meal a day. So what the children are
doing for the rest of their meals is even more important.

This fact supports the claim that what schools really should be
doing is teaching about nutrition and the importance of physical
activity, and using school programs to set an example -- as a
matter of "putting your money where your mouth is".

The objective should be to have these habits carry over into
the rest of their choices and activities. Lunch programs,
vending machines, and school activity programs are not
solutions to the problems of overweight and inactivity. They
primarily serve as examples of a better lifestyle, and point
children in a healthier direction.


About The Author: Rick Hendershot publishes Linknet News --
http://www.linknet-news.com | Get information about Nutritional
Supplements -- http://vitanet.typepad.com | Nutritious healthy
foods and healthy snacks -- http://www.healthysnackstore.com