Are school lunches the root of American obesity? Or is a healthy lunch program a lost cause?

It has become known over the past decade that American obesity is on the rise. From 23% obesity in 1962, to 39.6% in 2016, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. These figures solely counted Americans who were clinically considered obese, which is determined by a Body Mass Index(BMI) of 30 or higher, and an overweight person has a BMI between 25 and 30. In fact, 17% of American children are obese, and a forecast based on early long-term trends suggests that more than 85% of adults will be overweight or obese in the U.S. by 2030.

The roots of obesity lie in the foods we eat, and how we were taught to take care of ourselves. Todays students are offered a variety of options at lunch time, most of which have little nutritional value. Instead of spending more money to provide fresh, healthy lunch options for their students, American schools opt to buy cheap, processed, and unhealthy food, which in turn leaves the children feeling tired, unfocused, and lazy. In an environment where kids are supposed to be learning healthy habits, why are they fed chicken nuggets, tater tots, and cookies, calling it a balanced meal? For some students, school lunch is the only real sustenance they will eat in a day, and many arent learning how to live a healthy lifestyle at home. Therefore, a nutritious meal at school serves as an extension of the classroom in learning to live a healthy lifestyle. While school lunches do lack nutritional value, they seem to do a good job of keeping sugar levels low in the provided meals, as the sugar students do receive comes from chocolate milk, which some students opt not to take. Being a high school student myself, I walk into the lunchroom everyday to see my classmates eating macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, and tater tots for lunch, which is not what we need as students to fuel our brains to finish out the day.

Many researchers have tried to tackle the difficult topic of school lunches, but few have considered the solution of providing fewer options in the cafeteria in order to save money, and provide only one or two meal options per day, using the money to serve healthier food. This begs the question: is the solution to todays lunches attainable, or are healthy school lunches a lost cause?

Because such unhealthy foods have been served in American schools for so long, students have gotten used to the foods they get to eat, and may not want to buy school lunch if it were healthier, thus reducing the profit each school makes from selling lunch. This brings into question the priority and purpose of providing school lunch; is it for profit or to provide students with a mid-day meal to boost their minds and bodies through the rest of the school day?

Tying back to my original argument, if students are not learning how to build a healthy meal as part of their education, then they are not learning to lead a healthy lifestyle. Thus, American obesity originates in unhealthy eating habits, which are provided in school lunches. The lunchroom should be an extension of the classroom, where students learn to make healthy choices to benefit their bodies and brainpower.

Ellie Tillma

Grand Rapids

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School lunches and American obesity - Herald Review