Lawrence Owens IV
Period 3-4 1-30-17 Junk Food Ban It is said that 25,000,000 children living in the United States are obese or overweight, and by 2018, a staggering near half percent of the US population will be obese. There are articles that relate to this there are such as sources A, D, and E by John Dively, Sherzod Abdukadirov, and Roberta Alexander and Nina Lincoff, respectively. Already 16 states adopted recent nutrition policies in schools to ultimately ban junk foods such as soda, chips or candy in response to the alarming obesity rates throughout the nation. But will this move be effective at all? It would seem more logical if junk foods were not banned because, it will not be beneficial to education, junk food can easily be accessed, and health habits. To begin with, it will not be beneficial to education. The ban just dilutes personal and local responsibilities. For instance , Paragraph 10, source A, “...the American education system is designed to give communities control over their schools through local school boards. This principle of local control lies at the root of our democracy. We believe that locally elected school board members are in the best position to make policy decisions that reflect the opinions and needs of their individual communities.” It is said that any type of decisions such as the one to ban junk food should be determined at this level. Another point, Paragraph 11 in Source A, “ ...an important part of education is learning to make good choices. An across-the-board junk-food ban does not teach young people how to make healthy choices; it simply removes some of their options.” This is just to show how there can be way more efficient ways to approach this epidemic such as more physical activity instead of removing some unhealthy options to eat at school which won’t do much. To continue, even though junk food is obviously unhealthy, the easy access to the kind of food such as vending machines, 7-Elevens, or fast food restaurants doesn’t help one bit. In Document B, Paragraph 3, “...in some low-income communities, fast food is easy to access and affordable, but healthy food is inaccessible and very expensive.” Certain families could only afford fast food and that’s the easiest way for them to have food, many fast food places do have healthier options. Another example of this in Source Lastly, choosing healthier habits is the right way children can start eating healthy. A point in Document C, “Nearly 8 hours a day are spent on watching TV, playing video games, using computers, talking on cell phones, and texting.” A larger factor to obesity rates is no physical activity. Pushing kids to be more physically is way a way more efficient way to keep children fit. It states in Source D, Paragraph 5, “While the problem and the negative health consequences that the policies try to address are real, the solutions offered are often based on nothing more than a hunch.” Yes, schools are in fact trying to take action in this situation, but banning junk food without other strategies is a is a shallow cure that dilutes personal and local responsibilities. In conclusion, there should be a well thought out solution to this obesity problem and schools aren’t approaching it correctly. We should not use it to blame this epidemic. In reality junk food should not be banned because it will not be beneficial to education, junk food can easily be accessed, and health habits.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
June 2017
Categories |