Delicious and Nutritious Lunches For All

SHANNON HO
Staff Writer
It’s no big secret that obesity has reached alarming levels in America. We are the fattest country in the world, with one out of four Americans obese. Obesity is now one of the top causes of preventable deaths, outmatched only by smoking.
Learned habits lead to life-long trends, and now many lawmakers are fighting to fix the obesity problem by starting with our nation’s children. First Lady Michelle Obama has publicly declared her stance against obesity, promising to promote education on nutrition and exercise and endorse a healthy lifestyle for children.
Recently, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was approved by Senate, which sets new nutritional standards for schools and provides over $4.5 billion over the next ten years for child nutrition programs, which includes healthier meals.
The fact that it has taken so long to pass a bill like this puzzles me. Children need to learn healthy habits early on in order for these habits to stick and become ways of life. Even in high school, our lunches are passable at best.
Though our cafeteria tries to adhere to national nutrition standards, the food is greasy, soggy and sometimes strangely colored. What schools around America need is innovation—unique and interesting ways to provide fresh, healthy foods for students without being boring or tasteless. It is possible to make popular foods such as pizza, nachos and spaghetti with low-fat, wholesome ingredients. Tasteless bags of wilted celery sticks and carrots served alongside tater tots and french fries are unappetizing and not very inspiring.
Much of our school’s lunch is packaged, frozen, shipped from a location, and warmed up for our consumption. Some schools make their food from scratch and claim that it costs, more or less, the same than all of the pre-packaged stuff we get. Many of my peers are turned off by the lack of variety and mediocre taste, so they resort to the vending machine. Fortunately, AHS’ vending choices are far healthier than before—all soda is gone from the school, and options such as baked chips and mixed nuts are available.
However, what students eat is not the only problem. Mention physical exercise to the average American high schooler, and most will probably wrinkle their nose and shake their head. We don’t take exercise as seriously as we should—AHS only requires two years of P.E. credits—and that is a major contribution to the high obesity rate in our nation. Educating students of all ages about caloric intake, healthy foods, and being active is crucial to changing our country’s obesity issues. I believe that our problem stems mostly from ignorance about just how harmful overeating high-fat foods and lack of exercise can be to the body.
While high school lunches all around the nation have plenty of flaws, I am glad the Healthy Hunger-Free Act targets children. Being young and easily impressionable, they will eat whatever is served to them without really giving it a second thought.
Besides working to provide schools with healthy lunches that consist of more fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains, the bill also expands the number of children who are eligible for free or reduced lunch, which means more kids will be able to easily access a more balanced, nutritional diet.
The Healthy Hunger-Free Act is just the starting point of what I hope to be the beginning of a large health reform movement in our nation. It’s sad to stand by and watch as our nation slowly eats itself to death simply because of the lack of information and programs available to aid Americans to a healthier lifestyle.
Who knows—perhaps there will be a day when high schoolers and elementary students alike will look forward to eating school food.