Junk foodban

[Zen]

So they are going to ban Junk food in schools !!
Will John Prescott and Charie Clarke be backing this ?
Alcohol rationing next ?

[WaldoMcFroog]

They don't give out alcohol at schools, you know... ;-)

Anyway, surely this is a no-brainer, and hardly very contentious?

"The school meals are nutritionally awful and packed with more salt and sugar than is recommended. What shall we do?'
'Er, dunno? We could stop them feeding the kids loads of e-numbers that turn them into hyperactive midgit yobbos, I suppose?'

It's certainly not some form of totalitarianism as you appear to be implying.

[january_bug]

The only problem with this policy is how late it is.  The government, as WaldoMcFrog implies, don't exactly deserve a medal for cottoning on to the fact that salt+fat in children's diets = fat kids. 

It's also hardly a ground breaking policy that will revolutionise education.  In fact gawd knows why they think they deserve a gold star for thinking this up at all. 

However, one thing this policy is not, is a bad thing.  It cannot possibly be bad to encourage children to eat more healthily.  Parents (generally) seem (generally) to be taking less and less responsibility for parenting.  Perhaps it now sadly IS down to the school to introduce kids to fresh green veg etc etc. 

[tony1941]

I'm obviously totally out of touch with the reality of today's school life.  The nutritional value of school dinners bit sounds fine to me, BUT........... The phrase on the news which almost made me drive off the road was "vending machines".  What on earth are they there for?? Can't the little darlings survive from breakfast to lunch and then until teatime????  The only reason I can think of is that they are there to make retail profit for the installers/operators of this "service", whoever they are. (And that's another good question; who makes/takes that profit????)

[nedflanders]

If you want to make kids healthy Ban playstations, x-boxes etc!  <grampa simpson rant coming up> Kids dont do enough exercise nowadays compared to when I was a boy and I blame the rise of game consoles and the Internet!  I wasnt a particularly healthy eater as a kid but i was skinny as a rake cos all I did was run about and play football all day.  Now kids eat the same bad food but play their playstations instead.

[january_bug]

We had vending machines at school, and why not?  It's not just about profit.  It's proven that children are better able to learn if they have regular sugar/food intakes during the day.  The vending machines at my school sold crisps and chocolate and as a result, aged 15 I was two dress sizes bigger than I am now.  That was my choice though.  But putting in healthy vending machines, as many schools do, is a good thing.  The queues at "tuck shops" in most schools are manic at break time.  For 6th formers in particular, it's often fairly important to be able to grab food quickly before going back to studying etc.  For younger children, less time queing for a snack means more time spent running around at break time. 

One of the reasons why kids don't get enough exercise these days is because of scaremongers making parents (who are often all too easy to convince) believe that if their kids go to the park, they will be attacked by paedophiles.  We had a post in "news" about that recently.  I fear that some parents keep their children inside 'for their own safety', little understanding the damage they're doing. 

As I said before, if parents can't understand, there's no harm in the schools trying.  After all, gone are the days when parents teach their children to read.  So many now think that's the school's job.  By stereotype only, so many parents these days, take little interest in their children's health or education.. the burden on schools is ever increasing. 

I know there are many many good parents out there.  But there are bad parents too. 

[metagirl]

get rid of vending machines. The Coca Colas and Doritos of this world have enough cash by fleecing adults they don't need kids' pocket money.

when i was a kid, we used our money to buy pencils and homemade snacks (popcorn, fruit and juice is what I remember!) made by and served by the cafeteria workers during break time.

[january_bug]

As I said, the new vending machines being brought into schools sell fruit, dried fruit and other healthy snacks.  They combine speed and healthy food. 

What is the harm in that?

[nedflanders]

Exercise, Exercise, Excercise!  It's the only way forward!