Is The School Serving A Nutritionally Balanced Meal The Key To Curing

Is The School Serving A Nutritionally Balanced Meal The Key To Curing Is The School Serving A Nutritionally Balanced Meal The Key To Curing Childhood Obesity Discuss â€" Essay Example > From time to time, there are television news flashes of emaciated children in countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya. These images are sometimes haunting and highlight the utter helplessness of those on the frontlines who may have very little to offer to these poor souls. Whereas these poor people in Africa and elsewhere become emaciated because of lack of food, in affluent countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, some people actually starve themselves in order to conform to the thin image that is supposed to portray beauty. For many years, there have been concerns that the media’s emphasis on the thin image has been luring too many young people, especially girls, towards harming themselves through forced dieting, leading to the possibility of their becoming anorexic. As it turns out, it is only a small minority of these young people who are paying attention to the images of thinness and beauty. For the vast majority the taste of junk food is too difficult to re sist and their easy availability at home and in school has resulted in increasingly expanding waistlines even among very young children. In the United Kingdom and in other affluent societies, as the attention of the society has turned towards obese children and their problems, the question has arisen as to whether the introduction of healthy meals in the school system will help cure childhood obesity. As this paper argues, there is a very high likelihood that wholesale implementation of healthy nutrition programs in schools will help cure obesity, provided that parents do their part on the home front to control what children eat and to provide healthy food rather than allow the eating of junk food to undo any benefits that the children might be gaining through school nutritional programs. Over the past fifteen years, in the United Kingdom, obesity has been increasing among both adults and children. It is not in the UK alone, however, where this trend has been observed. One of the main reasons attention has been centered of late on children is that childhood obesity is linked with adult obesity. In other words, if a child is fat it is likely that he or she will grow into a fat person and experience all the associated negative elements attached to this condition, including the possibility of health problems. Factors that have been linked with obesity risk among children include “parental obesity, low socio-economic status and early maturation (Parsons et al, 1999; cited in McCarthy, Jarrett, Crawley 2001 p. 902). While children cannot choose their parents or influence the socio-economic status of their parents to any great degree there is another obesity-related element for which there could be some meaningful interventions. Regarding the prevalence of obesity among children, even at the age of 5, research indicates that “Problems include low fruit and vegetable consumption, high consumption of soft drinks and the skipping of breakfast. The study also i ndicates that ‘body dissatisfaction’ and dieting are common and that a substantial number of young people in all countries do not meet the current recommended guidelines for physical activity” (Mikkelsen, Rasmussen Young 2005 p. 7).