Bravo! thought I'd share this story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060202/ap_on_he_me/diet_school_food

Good for her. And for the kids.

This has already happened in the UK. Last year, a tv show hosted by jamie Oliver (a celebrity chef) highlighted the poor nutrition in school canteen meals. The worrying fact was that 3 times as much government money was invested in the nutrition afforded prison inmates than children in school per meal .
Things have now began to change, with a national ruling on what should be offered in school canteens, and funding adjusted accordingly.
The only fear I have is that the rulings will have the opposite effect to their intentions, and that kids will come to see indulgence in 'junk' food as yet another form of rebellion, along with smoking, drugs and alcohol.
Removal of choice does not lead to the removal of the problem. An increase in 'nanny state' politics is never good IMO. Where will this end- good ol' boys running burgers across state lines? Speakeasy's selling candy to shifty characters in the dead of night?

The atttitudes of a free society can only be changed through education, enforcement, no matter how benevolent sets a dangerous precident.

I remember Jamie Oliver's program, he seemed to do pretty well with it too. Those of you who saw the documentary "Supersize Me" will remember the schools that had implemented a healthier policy on canteen food and also vending machine contents. These schools claimed to have improved overall behaviour and concentration of their students.

Cord has a point about education, you can't expect someone to believe you about healthy food by force, like the man said it's a recipe (pun not intended) for rebellion. Education is and always will be key to helping people understand about better health practices.

Things have to change! We cannot continue feeding our children on such rubbish. But the schools can only do so much. Parents seem too eager to pass the blame. If their child gets fat they blame the schools, if their kids rob, steal, fight and generally cause a nuisance in public they blame the police and the council and the school!

It's time parents took responsibility for their own children and teach them the importance of health and nutrition. Parents who don't, are potentially setting their children up to live poor quality lives which IMO is very cruel indeed.

I don't think we should ban junk food, just more of an emphasis on healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle and change the habit of giving kids junk food as a form of reward or treat!

Sorry for the rant, it's something which I see of as a huge importance within our society. Sorry, I had to try out a new smiley ...or two!

One thing that I was amazed about was the fact that one of the schools that Jamie implemented his regime at had a lot of asmatic kids and the school nurse had to go around twice a day to administer all the puffers to the children.

They went back a month later and not 1 kid had needed their puffer since. Surely with the amount of money they could save on the medicine, they could put into the school dinners?

Quote:

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Surely with the amount of money they could save on the medicine, they could put into the school dinners?

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If only our government took such an approach. I'll stop there to prevent getting into politics for fear of having this thread locked.

The average budget for school dinners works out at 30 pence per pupil. However the buddget for MP's to eat is £13 per head. Hmmmm, I wonder where their priorities lie?!

I don't really think putting tax on junk food will work. How would distinguish what is junk food and what isn't? You couldn't base it on fat or calorie content alone or you'd have foodstuffs like cheese labelled as a junk food. The government have increased taxes on tobacco in order (or so they say) to try and discourage smokers smoking as much, but needless to say this hasn't had any effect.

The way, I believe, to tackle obesity and implement a healthy lifestyle mentality within our society is through discipline and knowledge although this isn't a change that can happen overnight obviously. The change will only be effective if society alters its culture. Look at countries such as Italy and France and most other mediterranean countries. Food plays a major role within their culture but as far as I'm aware they have relatively low levels of obesity. They seem to have much more of an attachment or connection with food in regards as to how it is produced/grown etc although sadly it seems that this is beginning to fade.

My friend is a infant school teacher who teaches children who are between the ages 5-6. they didn't even know that an egg comes from a chicken (or is it the otherway around?)! Most kids see their meals come out of packaging or foods so thoroughly processed that it doesn't resemble any kind of veg, fruit or meat!

We're currently in a vicious circle where a lack of knowledge, discipline and awareness is effecting the current and future generations. If parents of today don't know how or want to live a healthy lifestyle, then their child is likely to end up same if they are not brought up with sufficient guidance on living and eating healthily. Kids usually learn by example.

I don't think that a tax on junk food would work mainly for the reason you gave. Although if they did find a way to tax just junk food it might help a bit.
I was mainly posting it so people in other countries could see it.

I think I recall seeing news about a study done in Canada in the 90s about raising tax on cigarettes and cigarette use did actually go down. This was before they tried it in the US.

Would it work on food? I don't know. I think people are much more addicted to food than to cigarettes.

I think the only real solutions is education on proper nutrition. And that includes information on cooking/recipies and help from the food companies providing more balanced meals/products at a reasonable price.