Schools have been considering and enacting bans on unhealthy snacks, from eliminating soda machines to setting strict nutritional standards for foods that are brought in to sell to the cafeteria at lunch. The goal is to avoid putting students into situations where, perhaps due to peer pressure, they choose nutritionally poor foods over healthier ones. Some obesity-conscious educators want to take things even further and ban outside snacks from the school yard. This would not only effect the treats that teachers bring in to celebrate birthdays and other events, which would no longer include cupcakes or cookies, but could potentially change the way that parents pack lunches for their children. A few schools even have bans of sweet foods at school parties, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"Every bite counts because of concerns over childhood obesity, experts say," but they also should look at the amount of time children spend in school, and what they're doing with that time. Suggesting that parents provide smaller or healthier treats is certainly a positive step towards combatting childhood obesity, but it is not a suitable solution to the obesity problem when schools are also cutting the length of and funding for sports programs and recesses. Nutritionists say that diet and exercise together are the keys to a healthy lifestyle, not diet alone. That standard is the one that should be enacted in more schools before kids are left with only celery and raisins at snack time.
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