Synthesis essay Essay Example

Synthesis essay Essay Although it does not mean that if children eat doughnuts they will literally turn into one but may cause them to feel sluggish. Eating healthier foods allows one to feel better than if junk food was eaten. As a result of eating mass amounts of junk food, people are seeing the repercussions in their children. With an attempt to end childhood obesity, parents have been pushing for the government to become involved through improved Options to eat in schools, tighter control Of the F-DAD, providing more ways for people to become educated on what they are eating, and cheaper options to get healthy food. Due to the increase in childhood obesity along with the poor quality of food offered at schools and to the lower class, the American Government has the responsibility to intensify its role in keeping people healthy in order to counteract obesity and keep its citizens healthy. The issue of obesity is rapidly increasing as it is seriously affecting children, triggering parents to promote government intervention. Defined as goods lacking nutritional value, junk food has become prevalent in schools. Recently Michelle Obama has begun to increase schools promotion of healthy alternatives to junk food snacks and hot lunch meals. She explained her stance on schools roles in promoting healthier living by saying, The idea here is simple-?our classrooms should be healthy places where kids arent bombarded with ads for junk food. We will write a custom essay sample on Synthesis essay specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Synthesis essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Synthesis essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Because when parents are working hard to teach their kids healthy habits at home, their work shouldnt be undone by unhealthy messages at school (The Associated Press). She, like many other people, is concerned with schools reversing what parents are trying to do at home: promote healthy living. However, schools are making that impossible through the foods they offer for lunch and in vending machines. Because a schools goal is cost effectiveness, schools often put making money over providing healthy food. Kids and their parents believe that they are being provided with healthy options for lunch because it is being supplied by public schools and is regulated by the government, but they are mistaken for many of their options are unhealthy. It is explained that the USDA manages lunch striation and is in charge of supporting nutritional programs for schools. Most of the foods these companies purchase for schools are animal products such as meats and cheeses. Over 50 percent of all of the foods for schools nationwide are animal-based and need to be processed before they are sent to the schools. The process Of preparing these foods adds a great deal of sodium, sugar, and fat. All of these additions are unregulated (Smith). Because of the way they are prepared, many of the foods served at lunch lack nutritional value. To prevent this from happening, the government needs to jugulate all steps in the process of schools serving lunch to kids. It would be better if the government offered school providers a discount for purchasing foods so that they can provide healthier food at school. Because schools are not offering nutritional options at lunch, the lower class is suffering greatly because the low-income families receive discounted or free lunch at school. Then at home, they can only afford unhealthy, processed foods so they are not consuming a healthy meal at all during the day. The government should convert its regulation of food at schools to one in which a better variety of odds high in nutritional value are offered. While it is costly to make this change, the value of providing healthy foods to students is far greater. In addition to promoting healthier living at schools the government needs to take steps to promote eating healthier at home by increasing the economic accessibility to healthy food. Because healthy food is often more expensive than processed foods, lower class families believe they cannot afford to eat healthier. A new study exposed that on average, eating healthy costs about $1. 50 more per day than the least healthy diets (Krieger). While that does to seem like a large sum of money, to many low income families it is money they cannot afford to give up especially when there are multiple children in the family. As a result, these families find themselves resorting to processed foods that are often prepared with high amounts of fat, sugar, and sodium. Not only do they have to have unhealthy foods at home but also then they continue this at school establishing unhealthy living habits that often last a lifetime. This calls into question why healthy foods are so expensive when they are the better option. Many scientists have begun researching why there s such a large price gap in healthy and unhealthy foods. A professor at Harvard, Ray, and her colleagues concluded that the methods of manufacturing are to blame for the price gap. They claim that manufacturing favors the production of less healthy foods. For example, skinless chicken and leaner meats requires more work at the processing plant (Krieger). They also stated that inexpensive, high volume commodities like corn have contributed to cheaper prices (Krieger). Ray suggests that producing healthier foods costs more so consumers have to pay more. In order to fix his problem, the government should place a tax on junk food so healthier foods are cheaper. It also encourages food producers to make healthier foods so that they can avoid the junk food tax. This would allow low-income families to buy healthier foods and would even encourage them to buy healthier foods. The government needs to provide a way to lower the cost of healthy food so it is more accessible to lower class people and is encouraged to be bought rather than junk food. The issue of foods being unhealthy is primarily because they are being processed in unhealthy ways by farmers and manufacturers. Foods are no longer being produced naturally, but now industries are replacing their methods with ones that maximize production. Producers are manufacturing more food at one time and need to preserve those foods by adding substances which lack nutritional value-?such as salt-?in relatively large quantities to enhance taste and increase the shelf-life of food (Ward). While mass-producing goods is cost efficient, the substances that are needed to be added to preserve the food causes them to lose nutritional value. In addition to adding unhealthy ingredients to foods, manufactures also removed items from food that decay quickly. For example, Omega 3 oils were removed from cooking oils and spreads because they may decay quickly and make the products rancid (Ward). Fatty acids and other essentials removed due their tendencies to perish quickly now are scarce in manufactured foods. Numerous people also are unaware of the fact that these nutrients are now missing and therefore do not consume them in supplementary foods. Along with changing these methods comes a change in the quality of food being produced. This is greatly seen in the meat industry. While many people are aware that the meat they are now buying is from factory farms, they are not aware of the health risks brought on by factory farms. These risks caused by growth hormones or antibiotics used in animal farming, small amounts of pesticides and herbicides in plant-based foods, and compounds such as biosphere A or phthalate that enter food from packaging influence cancer risks by acting as hormone-like substances in the body (Rosen). Unfortunately people are uninformed on the risks associated with the meat they are now buying and are continuing to purchase it. People deed to be informed on what farmers and manufacturers are now doing to their products. Unhealthy processes of producing meat on factory farms such as the overuse of antibiotics can fuel the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the use of arsenic and growth hormones can increase the risk of cancer in people and crowded conditions can be a breeding ground for disease (Solely). If people were informed of the risks of consuming processed meats and other foods, perhaps they would not buy the products and the manufactures would have to return to their old methods of producing food, which would be healthier. Not only is it concerning that people do not know what they are eating, but is also concerning that manufacturers are able to accomplish this without punishment from the FDA It is worrisome that the government does not intervene enough to ensure that only safe foods are sold to consumers. The government needs to interfere further in food production to ensure that foods sold to consumers are not contaminated with pathogens that cause bedroom illness and will not cause further health problems later in life. While the unavailability of foods and the nutritional hanged of food are large problems surrounding the issue of unhealthy foods, the dominant problem is that people are uneducated. They fail to see the consequences Of what they are eating and the various health problems could occur further down the road. While it is important that adults be informed about the consequences of their health decisions, the real target should be children so they continue to make healthy decisions throughout their lives. Health classes need to begin as young as elementary school so children can begin to practice healthy habits rather than forming lifelong unhealthy habits. Simply put, We dont expect children to master riding a bike without a little practice and training Why, then, are children expected to immediately like new foods without a little instruction or practice? (Solely). Training students in school to make healthy choices will help them be better informed on the importance of eating healthy and will allow them to be healthier adults. Teaching children about healthy eating at a young age would also allow the information to be passed to the parents of the family. Generally parents help their children with homework more when they are young, so in eloping them learn about this material they would also become informed as well. Informing children at school at a young age will help them to make healthier choices throughout their entire lives. The government needs to take responsibility for its citizens by intervening more in regulation of food so the country is healthier as a whole. Through stricter regulation of the food supplied by schools along with an increase in the education of the importance of nutrition, the government can ensure that obesity and other health problems are prevented. In addition to schools hanging their promotion of healthier diets, the FDA should also be monitored more closely to ensure healthy foods are sold.