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Obesity Linked with food in American Schools

Obesity Linked with food in American Schools
By
Mahvisha Kanwal

What’s the issue?
                              In USA, elementary and primary schools takes the responsibility of providing a free lunch facility to the students. Although all of the schools have maintained the quality of food, but according to a recent study, almost one third of all the children and youth are considered as over-weight. The basic cause of this issue is that, the nutritional value of food is not being kept in mind by the school community. Another issue of increasing rate of obesity is that the schools food department attract the children by making yummy fast food which is for sure not healthy for the children. That’s why children like to eat food from the school cafe rather to bring from home.
According to WhatsForLunchNYC.com, a New York City-based website dedicated to overhauling the city’s lunch system, school lunches are in dire need of a health makeover:
“In a typical week, elementary school menus include chicken tenders, cheeseburgers, and ‘Pizza Fridays,’ with sides of cheesy rotini, mozzarella sticks or French fries. A healthy meal can be hard for students to come by in a public school cafeteria, and is especially challenging for school systems to provide.” (Cited from Reader's Digest Editors).

What’s the Background?
                                    Obesity is an excessive accumulation of fat by the body which increases health risks and problems. It is obvious that a person who is obese is more likely to get a disease as compared to the person who is not obese. Unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity is the main cause of obesity. Amongst children, diet is the main issue. In schools, diet, beverages that is high in calories and lack of fruits and vegetables contributes to obesity. In schools, due to good taste of food, oversized portions are being eaten by the students which lead to obesity. Due to deliciousness of food, children are more likely to eat from the school cafe.
About a quarter of 2-5 year olds and one-third of school-age children (including adolescents) are overweight or obese in the U.S. (Ogden et al., 2014). About 30 percent of low-income preschoolers are overweight or obese (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011).  Overweight and obesity rates tend to be higher and have increased more rapidly over time among African-American and Hispanic children than Caucasian children (Freedman et al., 2006; Ogden et al., 2012; Ogden et al., 2014). The prevalence is also higher among children living in the Southern region of the U.S. (e.g., Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky) (Singh et al., 2008).”
What’s the Proposal?
                                  There should be proper guidelines in every curriculum. Free breakfasts should be provided for all the eligible. The barriers related to time and space should be available for the school meal programs. Marketing strategies can be used for promoting increased participation in school meal programs. Every school should have a nutritionist and a physical training staff. Health education and physical fitness should be included in student’s assessment sheets. Experts should educate the staff regarding the nutritional value of the food. There must be a garden in every school, where children should plant different vegetables under the supervision of experts. There should be a separate class weekly in which children should be taught the benefits and risks of plant food, animal food and sweets. Staff should cook food which is healthier in nutrients and minerals. Attractive and cool presentation of the salads and vegetables should be kept in the display counter. To keep this activity enjoyable, children should be allowed to help the staff in making different vegetable sandwiches to build their interest. Small amounts of meat, cream, butter can also be used in the menu. Sea food can also be used in menus.
The students must be regularly monitored bases on their body mass index.
What’s the debate?
According to WHO child Obesity in Particular is one of the most alarming epidemic in this present era and is considered as the one of the most important public health issue of this century.
The main debate here is to avoid this onslaught of obesity in the future generations of United States. Children and kids who are obese are more likely to be obese even when they are going to be adults. In America one third of the population of the children who ages like 2 to 19 are considered as obese.
So to stop this from happening we have to manage the root cause of the obesity linked with the food in educational Institutions in the United States of America. Solid measures must be ensured because, obesity is like the mother of all other diseases like cardiovascular disorders, Diabetes, bone and joint problems etc.
Besides medical problems obese people may face social discrimination in certain aspects of their lives.
What’s the conclusion?
From the above discussion we can draw following conclusion: only proper guidelines being implemented can solve this problem. These guidelines can be:
1.      Implementation, and evaluation of healthy eating and focussing on regular physical activities.
2.      Promotion of a healthy environment in the educational institutions.
3.      Provision of the meals according to the dietary Guidelines of America
4.      Discouraging the use of foods with high calorie content like carbonated beverages.
5.      There must be proper session regarding educating students about the need of a healthy diet in our lives.
6.      There must be proper collaboration between school authorities and the families to cope this problem, as this is the most important part to be played by both parents and authorities of the schools.
7.      There must regular wellness programmes encouraging students to take part in the physical activities.
                 
References

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