Snack Food Prohibition
The recent passing of the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act was done with the best of intentions. The act, established as a way to promote healthy eating among kids and decrease childhood obesity, which is rising at alarming rates, sets nutritional standards for school lunches and snacks available to school-age children. That means the end of the elusive vending machine and the high-calorie snacks it contains.
But don’t expect kids to give up their sugar fix so easily…
As The Atlantic reports, jonesing students have turned to the junk-food black market… some as dealers, others as addicts.
That’s right, kids are smuggling in junk food, risking punishment, but making bank. The Atlantic reports that some kids are making upwards of $200 per week dealing in sugar, and it’s even hit student government. Yup, a student body vice president at one Connecticut school was forced to resign after buying contraband Skittles from a student “dealer.”
Parents had better keep an eye-out for candy-laced speakeasies in their basement rec rooms…
As comical as the situation is, it raises the very real question of whether banning foods is really the best way to go. Sure, the intentions are good… not having junk-food readily available decreases temptation, but as these kids have proven: they’re smart enough to find a way around the system. Would it be better to simply limit high-calorie and sugar-laden snacks, while offering more healthy options?
Believe it or not, kids don’t necessarily hate healthier foods, but when given the choice, boxed macaroni and cheese and M&Ms will win youthful hearts every time.
And who’s to say that banning junk food at school will really improve a child’s health? Schools can’t control what is available to a student once they are out the door, and telling a kid he or she can’t have something only makes it more appealing. Students may binge and stuff themselves when they can get their hands on their favorite snacks for fear they may never get the chance to eat it again. OK, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but certainly in the realm of possibility. Removing an option entirely does not help teach good decision-making skills, it’s just temporarily taking something out of the equation for 6 or 7 hours a day.
On the other hand…
Childhood obesity is a problem that has long been ignored, but as it becomes a highly-publicized national issue, the numbers are shocking. According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. These obese youths are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the CDC reports.
It’s hard to turn a blind-eye to numbers like that, and it was only a matter of time before something was done to try and lower these number and make kids healthier. Banning the foods which contribute to an unhealthy lifestyle helps to avoid the temptation all together may not necessarily be a bad thing.
I’m not convinced either way, and think both sides of this argument are certainly valid. But it does make me worry about the path little Suzy or Johnny may be headed down when they are busted for trying to sell a dime bag of Sour Patch kids on the playground…
Where do you stand on the junk food ban?
