School lunches are supposed to fuel your brains, but you don’t need to be a nutrition expert to know the food offered in schools is not the healthiest, not even close to being healthy. While some schools have tried to increase the healthiness of their menus, students keep choosing the greasy pizza, fries, chicken nuggets and chips which doesn’t exactly scream “nutrition.” Despite small improvements, school menus still fail to properly address the issue with unhealthy food’s damage to people’s overall health, especially children’s.
Every day, nearly 30 million of students participate in the National School Lunch Programme (NSLP); about 21 million children receive free or reduced- price lunches, meaning that for many kids this is a critical meal in their day. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. On top of that, The Nutrition Source shares that there is a “rising prevalence of type 1 and 2 diabetes in adolescents ages 10 through 19 years, with increasing obesity cited as a key contributor,” which shows that students’ eating habits are getting worse with time. While schools focus on improving Math and English scores, they should also worry about the eating habits they are making their students develop, which are putting students’ health and lives at risk.
The National Library of Medicine notes, “Higher consumption of ultra-processed food is associated with a 22% higher risk of all-cause mortality. However, ultra-processed foods have been served in schools in many countries, including Brazil and the USA,” highlighting that despite the concerning impact of ultra-processed foods on people’s lives, schools are still offering it to students constantly, making them develop habits that they will continue at home. TuftsNow shares, “Today’s school meals are much healthier than they were for the parents of American kids, but still 1 in 4 school meals are of poor nutritional quality. ” While some schools added healthier meals during the past years, many students argue that nobody wants to eat the “healthy options” schools serve, simply because they don’t taste good. An article by Pennstate explained, “Students, in all grades, waste vegetables and fruit the most, representing more than 50% of their plate waste.” But even though schools offering cupcakes and sugary snacks as breakfast, and Doritos, chips, or greasy meals as lunch seem more appealing for student’s eyes, they come with several risks for every student in the short and long- term. Paying attention to this is important to start helping students around the world be healthier and avoid money waste.
To maintain a great school performance it is important to have good nutrition, as studies have confirmed that it directly affects learning. If students eat balanced meals they will have better memory, attention, and test performance, while those who skip meals or eat poorly often struggle to focus. The School Nutrition Association reported that those who eat breakfast have shown to achieve “17.5% higher scores on standardized math tests and attend 1.5 more days of school per year,” highlighting how important nutrition is for students’ academic performance.
To really make a difference, schools should consider maintaining a healthy and balanced menu with good options that could work as a nutritious meal at least three to four times a week and a day with not too strict meals, so kids learn to keep healthy habits. Healthy eating shouldn’t feel like the most terrible thing someone is going to experience; it should feel like an opportunity to grow healthy, think clearly and improve habits.
