Cafeteria food: The ultimate national threat
In the United States, everyone is aware of obesity on the rise. 50 years ago there was always 1 fat kid in the classroom. Now, there’s 2 or 3.
A group of ex-military officers are saying that today’s young population is too fat to enlist because few can pass the physical fitness standards. A report was released that over 9 million of young americans ages 17-24 are too overweight to join the military.
Are these facts surprising? Not really. Just go to your local supermarket and count how many overweight people you see and glance at their shopping cart. The retired officers are blaming school lunches but the problem is the food kids consume at home.
Today, the group is urging Congress to eliminate junk food and high-calorie beverages from schools, put more money into the school lunch program, and develop new strategies that help children develop healthier habits.
The school lunch bill, currently awaiting a Senate vote, would establish healthier options for all foods in schools, including vending machine items. The legislation would spend $4.5 billion more over 10 years for nutrition programs.
The Army is already doing its part to catch the problem earlier, working with high schoolers and interested recruits to lose weight before they are eligible for service, says U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s Mark Howell. He added that he had lose 10 pounds himself before he joined the military.
“This is the future of our Army and we are looking ahead when we talk about these 17- to 24-year-olds, Howell said. “The sad thing is a lot of them want to join but can’t.” Via AP News
So basically tax payer money is going towards healthier foods for kids because the military needs more recruits. That’s just excellent. It’s not because of the overwhelming amount of health risks people are facing everyday thanks to overprocessed foods, their concern is the national security threat obesity is causing. It doesn’t matter if you feed kids nutritious meals at school if they eat junk at home. The FDA should start by banning the most hazardous ingredients in today’s food items such as trans fats (anything that says partially hydrogenated), aspartame (artificial sweetener that has a WARNING label), high fructose corn syrup (genetically modified crap that’s no good for you), and a lot of preservatives.
Food shouldn’t have WARNING labels and it shouldn’t contain crap that metabolizes into POISON that in long run may cause cancer or horrible diseases like Lupus and MS. It’s all about the money. Food items are stuffed with cheap crap because quality and healthy ingredients are a bit more expensive, we eat the crap, buy health insurance, go to the doctor, buy drugs, and die in a hospital. It’s an oversimplified concept but it applies to a lot of people.
It’s a horrible world we are living in. You either get shot or die from eating cookies, chips, and soda.
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I don't think a ban is extremist in the case of trans fat, corn syrup, and
aspartame. All 3 have substitutes that are less harmful and cost more or
less the same, and the ban on trans fat is already in effect in several
countries. Partially hydrogenated oils can be substituted with hydrogenated
oils, high fructose corn syrup can be replaced with fructose, dextrose,
maltodextrin, or any other sugar, and aspartame can be replaced with
sucralose. The FDA bans and unbans all sorts of stuff every decade or so.
Saccharin was banned once but it was unbanned years later, I think it should
STAY banned.
There's a soda tax in a few states and reports say they're not working and
are considering a tax increase. I highly doubt that'll work. I worked at a
7-Eleven and I would see kids and adults buying Super Big Gulps (44oz) and
Double Gulps (64oz) almost daily, not to mention the huge Slushees, I could
never finish the medium sized cup by myself.
The FDA will start making companies put their nutritional facts easily
visible like McDonald's putting their calorie count on the menu or something
along that line. I'm not sure when it'll happen but it was announced. Also
there's a plan for gradually reducing sodium levels in foods during the next
10 years. Not all is bad I guess, they gotta start somewhere.
I'm all for replacing corn syrup with actual sugar (Jones soda already does this, but stores don't seem to carry them), but the only change I can see being made to school food is them just removing that stuff that is bad but makes it taste “good” (for school food, you have to use that term loosely), and not replace it with anything.
Banning things is a little extreme… Making things aware to people should be the first step, second (middle ground between awareness and banning) would be offering incentives for making food with these ingredients, or raising taxes on the bad ingredients, then the full-out ban, which is still pretty severe.