Darrell E. Honey
EN1420
Project

November 25, 2014

All Food Sales in Schools Should Offer Healthier Options

(Should Junk Food be Banned in Schools ?)

Upon hearing these topics, one may be inclined to label me as: 1) a health nut, 2) a physical fitness nazi, or 3) possibly a kid hater. These topics are usually discussed with emphasis on childhood obesity. But there are more ominous reasons other than being overweight which are rarely discussed. The reason I am a proponent of only providing healthy food options in schools is because today’s children are at a disadvantage that begins at the moment of their conception, when compared to previous generations. This disadvantage manifests itself in the form of toxins passed from the mother to the fetus via the umbilical cord. The toxins are industrial chemicals, pollutants, and pesticides (Grisanti). Add junk food (food items that have little nutritional value and excessive amounts of potentially harmful ingredients) supplied by the mother’s diet and the results can be devastating. Society should take some responsibility in trying to purge some of these toxins from their bodies while they are still young and have not yet started to feed their selves with food items known to cause obesity. One way to attempt this would be to only provide healthy food options in schools. If this responsibility is left to the children, budget conscious school administrators or the food industry, then the situation may never improve. Schools should be the focal point because children spend a large part of their lives in school. They begin attending school at age five and most remain there until age eighteen. Nearly every school in the nation serves at least one and often two meals a day, five days a week over all these years. In short, schools offer a prime target for those like us who want to reduce rates of obesity and