Fast Food in the Cafeteria Essay

Many people think that fast food is bad for our health and that it shouldn’t be allowed in school. More healthful options should be promoted but what’s the use of healthy food in school if the kids don’t want to eat it? Nobody least of all adults LIKE eating healthy if given a choice everyone always goes for the fast food. When we eat lunch at school we get the bad end of the stick. they feed us cardboard pizza, meat that isn’t even meat and has been washed in ammonia to kill bacteria, we get fries that aren’t fries, slimy ravioli, and lunch that generally looks unappetizing and tastes little better than that. the dilemma is should schools offer fast food such as KFC, Taco Bell or McDonalds? I say yes. Based on 2009 US Industry report, there were 303,989 fast food locations in the US alone. â€Å"Fast food was the main food source for up to 38% of children† stated researcher Shanthy Bowman, PhD, with the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland. She also demonstrated that when kids eat fast food, they eat more food all day long and over one year time period, a child can pack on 6 extra pounds because of high fast food eating. The result of overeating is a nation that is becoming obese and overweight. The result of obesity? More illness and soaring healthcare problems. When we say fast food, we are thinking ‘junk food’ yum†¦ (insert drool here). Fast food has become one and the same from hamburgers to pizzas, to French fries, hot dogs and more. Fast food has high calories, fats, saturated fats, sugar and salt content. The fats, sugar, and salt in fast food draw us kids like a magnet and because fast food doesn’t contain much fiber we don’t feel full afterward so we tend to eat more later on. Compared with kids didn’t eat fast food, fast food eaters ate an average of 187 more calories a day. At that rate, â€Å"the child would gain 6 extra pounds each year, if they didn’t get enough exercise to burn it off†, wrote PhD Bowman. At the same time, fast food causes a number of health problems in children. The excess of sugar in fast food and sodas lead to diabetes in children; their bodies failing to produce the insulin that controls the sugar levels and metabolism. Fats and saturated fats lead to high levels of cholesterol in the blood, Cholesterol leads to various heart problems, These heart problems increase the risk of major heart diseases such as Coronary Heart Disease. Also the lack of vitamins can make the children become anemic, lethargic and get tired very easily. Deficiency in calcium makes their teeth, nails and bones weak. Many times the added preservatives and coloring agents used in fast food can cause cancer in children. The most common and the core cause of all the diseases in children, is obesity due to fast food. Obese children spend little time doing physical activities or sports, and this lack of activity leads to a sedentary lifestyle, which further on leads to mental stress and other emotional disturbances. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, results from 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that 17 percent of children and teenagers ages 2-19 years are obese. That means one in 6 children is obese. Are you tired of eating nasty, dried, greasy, overcooked, overpriced cafeteria food? I know I am. It’s time to make a change. It would be a good idea for a fast food chain to consider opening their newest location in schools because doing so would help students and increase money for the school. â€Å"As they try to keep pace with student taste, lunchrooms across the country have given up meatloaf and mashed potatoes for brand-name fast-food items. † (source B) Bringing in a fast food restaurant as a matter of fact would be good because it would help students. Students would stop skipping lunch a start eating in the cafeteria, Eating lunch is better than not eating. Studies show how test scores improve when students eat. When students like lunch, they’ll eat it! They won’t be tempted to throw it out or give it to another student. In addition to helping students, a fast food restaurant in the cafeteria would benefit the school because first of all, the restaurant would give a percentage of its profits to the school and secondly the restaurant might even participate in the Adopt-a-School program. With more students buying lunch, profits would increase, and if other students hear that that school has fast food in the cafeteria they might be attracted to the school because of the restaurant, increasing profits even more. All this extra money could be used for supplies, computers, or books, all of which would make our educational experience at school much better than it is now. Helping students and schools is something that everyone enjoys doing. Putting a fast food restaurant in place of cafeteria food would do both. Hopefully if we got this restaurant no one would ever think of the food as being nasty, greasy, overcooked or overpriced, everyone would be happy. Cafeterias are a vital part of a student’s high school career. It is a place of social interactions and various degrees of shenanigans, whether it is over breakfast, lunch, or walking to classes with friends. Cafeterias are not just for keeping society’s niches alive, however, as school cafeterias are also used to provide a form of food for the general student body. Cafeteria food has been a theme of debate for years and will remain to be so for years to come. From the bagged-lunch versus the school-prepared dilemma, to the question of what exactly is in the meat-like substances cafeteria food has an air of mystery and intrigue. While there are admittedly many reasons not to consume the cafeteria food, it has a few redeeming qualities about it. Food provided through the public education system can sometimes have a less-than-savory flavoring when first chewed over, but soon becomes edible when the taste is acquired. Cafeteria food may be tasteless and inedible at times, but remember: â€Å"what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. † After four years of consuming the bland entrees, students graduate high school with brand-new taste buds and an aversion to all things flavorful and delicious. If variety is the spice of life, cafeteria food is as spicy as a Flamenco dancer. One never knows what he or she will receive on Wednesdays- pizza, hotdogs, or a creative combination of the two. Not only is the student unsure of exactly where the â€Å"chicken† patties come from, or what they are really made of, but the school lunches provide an array of fruit and salad. Most students have no choice in what they eat for lunch they eat it because they are hungry and have no other option. fast food in the cafeteria though would change that. Students could eat what they liked and even if they paid for it the funds would go to the school and the school could use that money to buy things for the students that would enhance our learning experience. every student would go to lunch and actually eat the food even if they had to pay for it because it’s something they like to eat, not tasteless junk. So overall putting fast food in the cafeteria is a good thing but also a bad thing. It’s a debate that would probably go on forever but nobody would win. decide whether to put it in the cafeteria or not. either way it makes no difference except to our taste buds. BIBLIOGRAPHY Nicole Harms ehow contributor â€Å"obesity & coronary heart disease† Monycutza007 â€Å"Children Adn Fast Food† 11/27/10 < http://www. cyberessays. com/Term-Paper-on-Children-Adn-Fast-Food-23508/> Amy Kalafa August 22nd, 2011 â€Å"Whats in Your Childs School Lunch? † â€Å"The unsavory nutrition facts on cafeteria food† google. com fast food in the cafeteria.