Junk Food in Schools Across the Country

Many schools around the country allow students to purchase foods in the cafeteria and vending machines throughout the day. These facilities often retail unhealthy, unsafe, and unnatural foods that can affect the health of young children to teenagers. Many schools are unaware of the actual dangers these items can downplay on anyone’s health. The high fructose corn syrup in Pop Tarts can lead to obesity, when the body fails to send messages to the brain that it is full.

The white rolls sold at lunch offer no nutritional value and are classified as enriched grains. Schools around the country only focus on the profit these forms of wholesale bring to the school, but they need to evaluate the health of their students as well. My school is seeking out ways to reduce the amount of junk foods in the school. For instance, our hot lunches are only sold with whole wheat products such as bread or pasta. We also offer fruits and salads as a healthy side to an average lunch. Our school no longer offers soda as a drink but water, milk, or Snapple instead.

But like many other schools in the United States, we still offer hazardous foods in vending machines. There are rows of Doritos, Goldfish, and even Lays potato chips in machines located around the school. My school has raised the price of these items not to prevent people from buying them, but to make more money. The issue of junk foods in schools reflects the way people eat at home. If people enjoy eating Sun Chips as a snack, they will most likely purchase them in a vending machine as well. As America has become one of the leaders of obesity in the world, the issue of junk foods has remained the same.

This topic needs to be solved immediately before young children develop poor eating habits for the rest of their lives. Laws need to be passed ending the sale of french fries and unhealthy products in school vending machines. Children’s health is at stake and schools around the country are at fault.