Last week I forgot to bring a lunch to school and found myself at the vending machines in the La Guardia High School cafeteria. I expected to find a small, reasonably healthy snack to get me through the day. When I looked, all I saw were chips, cookies, pop tarts, pretzels and rice krispie treats. The one healthy choice- a bottle of water- was sold out.
Although the evidence that child obesity affects school performance is limited, nutrition clearly affects academic performance. Poor nutritional status and hunger interfere with cognitive function and are associated with lower academic achievement.
While school health classes encourage balanced and nutritious diets, the vending machines competely contradict this message.
Schools are concerned that if they change vending machine selections to be more healthy, they will loose money. However, in many cases where more healthier options were given to kids there was no decrease in sales.
I also know from talking to kids in my school that there are a lot of people, especially girls, who would be grateful for a healthier choice in their vending machines. Being overweight is a really difficult thing for a kid to go through. A lot of kids today are interested in eating well, and it's important that schools encourage this.
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3 comments:
Iagree
Hey toni ur right I am a vending machine operator thatsells healthy snacks and will like to place a machine in ur school. Let me know who I can speak to the snack I offer r natural and organic call me 3476935910. Jsfncalcano@yahoo.com
Healthy Vending Machines in Schools - The natural and organic solution
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