Obesity: Changing School Requirements for Students Martin 1

Obesity: Changing School Requirements for Students

Erin P Martin
Saginaw Valley State University
Obesity: Changing School Requirements for Students Martin 2

Introduction: Most Americans in our society have designed poor alternatives that led to

inappropriate eating habits over the years. Unhealthy eating habits happen when people start to

form unbalanced eating patterns over time. Eating habits typically are carried on like a “family

tradition” which starts in families and continues. Children developing poor eating routines and

diets are at extreme risk. Considering that children have been developing corrupt eating

behaviors, these behaviors have led to outrageous impacts on the levels in childhood obesity. In

addition, the abnormal rates of obesity in young children dramatically increased from 16.8% to

24.5% in less than a decade from 2010-2015 (LiveScience). Obesity is defined as “a medical

condition that occurs when a person carries excess weight or body fat that might affect their

health” (Brazier, 2018). The condition lies within the human body dealing with excess body

which negatively affects children’s physical health. Doctors over the past decades have

researched the effects of obesity and calculations of determining whether or not a child is

categorized as overweight, leading doctors to use a method called Body Mass Index (BMI)

which determines how much body fat an individual has. BMI is adequate for determining obesity

for children between the age of two years old and older. Children simply don’t think about what

foods or nutritional value or how many calories they consume daily. Individuals at any age

should be educated on eating healthy and how to obtain well-balanced dietary habits. In order to

change this subject matter, having students start a foundation in a nutrition-based course such as

health class or physical education (PE). With students’ knowledge and inquiring these changes

mentioned will better help the students with the overall change. I propose that students have

further knowledge and care for themselves if they are allowed to directly participate in the

progress of making and serving their own food, instead of being served preplanned daily lunches.
Obesity: Changing School Requirements for Students Martin 3

Analysis: Healthier choices and different ways of eating are difficult to maintain and understand

the knowledge behind it. With that in mind, it all starts from humans acquiring poor eating

patterns constantly in their daily life leading to obesity. Obesity has caused genera complications

not only in adults, but young adolescents as well. The Centers for Diseases Control and

Prevention (CDC) stated, nearly one-third of the average adult in America are obese (Obesity.

2017). Obesity is a severe and dangerous medical disorder that’s not just involving America. To

confirm, it was noted in a TED talk video, that relates how obesity isn’t just affecting America,

it’s a worldwide issue (Oliver, 2010). Obesity t has worsened over the previous decades,

becoming a global problem. The previous two decades that obesity has worsened was from 2000

until now. If change doesn’t occur obesity will continue to become even worse along with the

causes. Causes of obesity are leading into other primary medical complications such as certain

types of cancers, metabolic syndrome, strokes, diabetes, heart disease and more. Metabolic

syndrome alone deals with key issues like high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and

diabetes. The article “Heart Disease” expresses that, “Heart disease is the leading cause of death

for both men and women” (Heart Disease Facts). Obesity categorizes by two central groups,

lifestyles and behaviors. That obesity levels are strikingly high in young adolescents from the

age 2-19 has contributed to serious concerns of how obesity is associated with not only poor

mental outcomes but reducing the quality of life leading to death at an early age. Since theses

health issues are occurring already at young age, it’s all coming from one main source doctors

have been noticing; it’s simply what a human consumes during their daily life. In other words,

obesity is preventable between physical activity and eating a balanced nutritious diet. Most

young adolescents such as students eat inappropriate dietary foods continuously. The

recommended amount of fruits and vegetables consumed by children is tremendously

Obesity: Changing School Requirements for Students Martin 4

insignificant. In “Correlates of Fruit and Vegetable Intake in US Children” research study states,

“children and adolescents contained less than the recommend amount of fruits and vegetables

daily… with both fruits and vegetables an average of less than ½ cup a day (Lorsen, 2009). Not

eating correctly, causes individuals to have mental problems such as depression. The researchers

prove that by stating, “people who were obese had a 55% increased risk of developing

depression over time, whereas people experiencing depression had a 58% increased risk of

becoming obese” (Mental Health Foundation). Studies completed by countless researchers prove

that maintaining a well-proportioned diet including fruits and vegetables can cause an increase in

mental health. Overall being knowledgeable is crucial about an issue, especially when its

affecting humans daily around the global. Hence uncertainty if students can be educated at a

young stage during their life on how to eat healthy. The results from students in what they

endured through the course of time would be greatly impactful.

Detailed Plan: To start, we need to be looking at the local district community schools. In

particular, I live in a small populated city called Flushing located in Michigan. There are four

elementary schools (Central, Seymour, Elms and Springview) containing 1st to 6th graders, one

middle school containing 7th-8th graders and one high school containing 9th-12th graders. This

plan will contain multiple series of changes in this solution. The main objective to this resolution

would benefit students from elementary and above to learn about nutrition and the values with

the importance of healthy eating and understand why it’s important to your health. Schools in the

community need to acknowledge the lack of education, district board members are providing in

order to seek adjustment in board of education requirements for students. Each school will be

required to hire a full-time certified nutritionist, hire more lunch ladies to help supervise students

preparing lunch, and also with more certified teachers who will teach this area of education. The
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schools will be ordered to provide healthier choices that aren’t preplanned during lunch time.

The schools would have to organize each grade level and how the classes will run meeting the

standard requirements. This would happen during a course of year, however, slowly start making

the changes in where the next following school year this can be incorporated. Each year the

student will advance in the knowledge of healthier eating habits. At the end of month, the

students will attend an assembly about what they learned about healthy eating. Students will

receive a folder that includes healthy magazines, coupons or bonus cash offers to help families

provide more of a healthy lifestyle outside of school. With this purpose in mind, it would help

the families afford the better eating lifestyle as well. Magazines would educate parents on how to

make healthier dishes by providing recipe examples. For example, elementary schools would

have to arrange a designated time that informs each class to participate in a home economics. It’s

proven in our nation schools are starting to take action with “Team Nutrition” (Nutrition

Education). In middle school and high school students will have to be required to participate in

one hour of a physical education (PE) class (nutrition, gym, health reproductive, home

economics) for each semester. The next position that will occur is having extracurricular

programs after school for students to participate on certain weekdays. Furthermore, every parent

will receive in the mail a very clear pamphlet with a permission slip indicating their student may

engaged in helping prepare lunch. Each student will be assigned a specific week in the

preparation of lunch each day. The effectiveness of preparing lunches allows them to fully

engage in the activity as well as given the knowledge with materials to fully comprehend and

complete a healthy balanced meal. As a result, students will be adequate towards helping their

parents cook certain meals with the prior knowledge.

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Cost-Benefits Plan: To be exact, cost and benefit analysis is crucial for a proposal because it

gives a clear idea about the future values being determined. In this strategy the benefits will

surpass the cost. By hiring the nutritionist, certified teachers and more lunch ladies would

indicate the district to create a new district budget. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states,

“Between 2014-2024, the projects nearly 1.9 million job openings for teachers of preschool

through postsecondary school” (Vilorio, 2016). Educators should make dedicated time for

creating a flexible daily schedule for students in preparing healthier food choices for lunch,

due to some students being not in class for helping with lunch. Teachers have to make sure

they aren’t missing other valuable information. Each teacher would have to rearrange time

for this additional class course. With understanding of this issue, plenty of effort and

extensive time planning will cost. The New York Times released an article, “Why Students

Hate School Lunches” which stated, children are dissatisfied ever since Hunger-Free Kids

Act, took place because lunches got even more unhealthier by using not real ingredients

(Murphy, 2015). When educators are preparing healthier food with ingredients that aren’t

artificial, kids will enjoy preparing lunch. Even students will be less resentful towards the

change. The results if students learn how to incorporate healthier food styles which is a

permanent advantage towards the issue. As time passes, they will automatically start

choosing and making healthier eating patterns. Years will show a decreased amount in

obesity and other medical illnesses.

Conclusion: In conclusion, American childhood obesity has been at an alarming high rate and

rapidly increasing over the years. Children continue to eat meals without knowing the

ingredient’s or will overeat resulting in gaining weight quickly. Eating healthy has become less

important leading to physical and mention health issues, but with a proper eating proposal plan,
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childhood obesity will decrease. In order for children to understand what they’re eating, they

should preplan their meals. This will result in making better eating choices and upstanding how

many calories are within one serving portion. It’s very important that children learn nutrient and

healthy eating habits to live a healthier life; physical and emotionally. This plan will stress

children to eat more health resulting in a better life.

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References

Brazier, Y. (2018, November 2). Obesity: What is it and what causes it? Retrieved November 18,
2019, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323551.php.

Diet and mental health. (2018, November 7). Retrieved November 14, 2019, from
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/d/diet-and-mental-health.

Heart Disease Facts & Statistics. (2017, November 28). Retrieved November 21, 2019, from
https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm.

High-Fat Diet Bad For Mental Health. (n.d.). Obesity and Depression. Retrieved November 14,
2019, from https://www.obesityaction.org/community/article-library/obesity-and-
depression/.

LiveScience. (2015, January 31). US obesity rate reaches new high. Retrieved November 14,
2019, from https://www.foxnews.com/health/us-obesity-rate-reaches-new-high.

Lorson, B. A., Melgar-Quinonez, H. R., & Taylor, C. A. (2009). Correlates of Fruit and
Vegetable Intake in US Children. American Dietetic Association, 109(3), 474–478. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2008.11.022

Murphy, K. (2015, September 26). Why Students Hate School Lunches. Retrieved November 22,
2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/sunday-review/why-students-hate-
school-lunches.html.

Nutrition Education. (2016, April 9). Retrieved November 26, 2019, from
https://www.actionforhealthykids.org/activity/nutrition-education/.

Oliver, Jamie. (2010, February). Teach every child about food. TED.

Vilorio, D. (2016, June 10). Teaching for a living : Career Outlook. Retrieved November 14,
2019, from https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2016/article/education-jobs-teaching-for-
a-living.htm.