Killer Snacks

Killer Snacks

Killer Snacks
Today’s children are learning a dangerous habit everyday at school that one day could lead to their death.   Nutritional habits are seldom taught in elementary, middle or high schools across the country, even though the youth of the United States are more obese than ever (“Update” 2).   Elementary, middle and high schools should not be allowed to sell sugary, high fat, high calorie snack foods and beverages on school grounds, during school hours.
Bad nutritional habits start early in life, but can lead to an early end to life.   Childhood obesity causes serious health complications such as heart disease and diabetes; the percentage of six to eleven year old children in the “obese” range has more than doubled from the late 1970’s to 2003 (“Update” 2).   For more than twenty years, there has been a debate over whether or not schools should sell unhealthy snack foods and beverages on school grounds.   In 1983, a federal court overturned a USDA regulation that had previously prohibited the sale of junk food in schools from the beginning of the school day to the end of the last meal period (Ruskin 15).   Although the debate did not heat up for almost twenty years, the effort to limit junk food in schools has grown to include former presidents as well as large corporations.   In 2003, California became the first state to ban the sale of soda in elementary and middle schools, which then expanded to cover high schools in September 2005 (Maxwell 7).   But the biggest step in the right direction began in 2006 when the William J. Clinton Foundation teamed up with the American Heart Association and reached an agreement with Pepsi Co. Inc., Coca-Cola Co. and Cadbury Schweppes PLC (the three largest soft drink manufacturers) to limit their sales to include only low-fat or non-fat milk, pure fruit juice, and water to elementary and middle schools; as well as diet soda, sports drinks, and non-pure juice drinks to high schools by 2009.   Then in October...