Marina Vicente

AP English 12- 3
Mr. White
31 October 2016

Fighting Against Obesity Common Among Children

National childhood and adolescent obesity rates have skyrocketed within a matter of a
few decades, alarming communities, schools, and political leaders to take affirmative action on
the global epidemic thats presenting serious health issues for the young. The percentage of
obesity in children and adults has nearly tripled since 1980, revealing a serious problem in the
nutrition among this particular age group. The frightening numbers of obesity, especially within
the school age population, has led school leaders to adopt more food regulations within their
school campus, including regulations concerning school lunches and physical activity. In
addition, more health programs are being instituted to advise and aid school students in making
better lifestyle choices, if not nutritional changes, at least in activity to lower their future risk of
becoming obese.
Hundreds of food regulations have been and are currently being established in order to
promote a healthier variety of options for students to consider buying during school hours. For
example, numerous regulations have been inaugurated by the Child Nutrition and WIC

Reauthorization Act to provide children and adolescents with a healthier, more active school
environment (Plaza, 2016). Ever since the first lady, Michelle Obama advocated the HungerFree Kids Act, schools were forced to adopt new rules regarding which foods could be sold to
students during breaks or lunch time. At school, regulations before allowed the selling of chips,
sodas, and candy bars, but now the new instituted regulations are stricter, allowing only the
selling of light popcorn, peanuts, and granola bars. Just as the variety of snacks available has
changed, so too have the school menus to introduce healthier options for students. The main
entrees now include improved salad options for both regular and vegetarian diets, and also
yogurt parfaits and muffins for those looking for a more filling lunch (Kennedy, 2001).
Alongside those meals, fruit portions are now distributed to each student as a mandatory policy
(Kushner, 2006). Even students stores have changed their snack options, which does deplete
their overall revenue, but is overall meant for a better cause (Beaver, 2006). Not to mention,
vending machines in schools now also face restrictions on what items they are allowed to sell,
like schools in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles can no longer sell soda,
including many other different snacks because they nurture bad diets and obesity (Plaza, 2016).
Another school regulation taking action in many schools spanning the United States is
that involving physical activity. New regulations are requiring students to participate in physical
education programs. Schools have allocated more money, than ever before, towards gym
equipment and physical education programs to motivate and encourage students to be more

involved in school activities, such as dance or school sports, because its provided at a free cost
for any student, disregarding their financial situation. In particular, for those students whose
families cannot afford to put them in sports outside of school, this policy has facilitated the
sports to come to them (Atkinson, 2016). Additionally, since most students cant afford a gym
membership, most high schools and even middle schools offer fitness equipment for students to
use during their physical education period. Then if thats not enough, physical education
programs have also been adopted to provide students with significant information about the risks
of not maintaining an active lifestyle, both for the mind and the body. These positive changes are
providing school students with great opportunities to get plenty of exercise daily (Atkinson,
2016).
Moreover, other health programs have also contributed to a large disappearance of
obesity, but not necessarily the majority. Because malnutrition is still a predominant issue on
school campuses, taking a health program has become a serious requirement for high school
students, and not taking them could potentially prevent them from obtaining their high school
diploma. Schools are trying to implement programs that share awareness of obesity, but the
programs only offer limited help because not everyone, especially the younger group, choses to
follow, listen, or do something regarding to the problem (Atkinson, 2016). Because eating
unhealthy is a bad habit, its understandable that it takes a great amount of effort and dedication
to change ones lifestyle thats why not even all the knowledge provided in health programs can

be enough to change peoples eating habits. A good example is how the Active Programme
Promoting Lifestyle Education in England resulted to significantly increase knowledge and
awareness about nutrition, but childrens nutrition habits changed only slightly, proving that
indeed children are less likely to make any dramatic improvements respecting their health
(Atkinson, 2016). Therefore, for the future, extra funding for public policy changes and
additional research are needed to create more effectual methods of integrating education on
nutrition and physical activity into the school curriculum.
Altogether, these adopted changes are only one step to reaching the ultimate goal, which
is to diminish obesity greatly, if not all, on school campuses. The preventative actions taken are
already an accomplishment, now its just a matter of perfecting school regulations and
introducing better solutions beside physical and health programs, to truly halt the problem. There
is widely held thought that school cafeterias are the cause of children obesity, but schools at this
moment are the only institutions arduously working to substitute their older nutrition to a adopt a
healthier one. Ongoing research and funding is allowing schools not only to bring even more
considerable awareness to children and adolescents, but also guaranteeing them a successful
future at minimizing obesity to their school population.