Should Soda Be Banned From School?
Yes. Public schools should not allow the sale of soda on school grounds. The sale of these beverages at these institutions not only promotes their consumption, but also unhealthy nutritional choices in general.
The US Government spends millions of dollars annually promoting healthy nutritional choices for teens through a variety of mediums. By allowing the sale of these beverages in public schools, they are essentially contradicting these campaigns and undermining the message they are attempting to send out to youth. Schools are intended to be institutions of education that provide students with the tools and opportunities to make healthy and beneficial decisions. Promoting the consumption of these beverages which are shown to cause obesity, dental problems, and unhealthy bones, promotes an unhealthy lifestyle and sends the message that it's okay to consume these on a daily basis. Many times school officials cite the financial assistance of athletics programs from major soda vendors such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, as the reason behind the continuation of the sales of these beverages on school grounds. The message that this sends is quite clear: economic benefits outweigh healthy nutritional choices. Districts would rather receive this funding than see the availability of healthier, alternative beverage options. This selfish and twisted view is a far cry from the call for action against the rapidly rising childhood obesity rate. Some opponents state that schools don't have the right to ban soda sales, however this statement is completely false. Public schools have the freedom to ban the sale of these products on their own grounds. The sudden outcry within the last decade to combat the childhood obesity 'epidemic', as it has been termed, has been met with the urge to provide youth with a better selection of affordable nutritional choices. By banning soda sales in public schools and replacing them with options such as water, milk, chocolate milk, and natural fruit juices with vitamins and antioxidants, schools can promote healthy decisions. ~Michael Q. | No. Soda and other junk food should not be banned from schools. It simply would not be successful. Even if students were to stop buying and consuming junk food at school, that would not make them exercise, which is just as much of a cause of childhood obesity as their diets. A ban on junk food isn’t going to make students quit eating or drinking unhealthy products either. By taking away unhealthy food and drink options from schools, you’re making children incapable of purchasing these products for approximately 7 hours per day. However, that does not mean that the children are not capable of bringing their own snacks from home. In some cases, the students even have the opportunity to go off campus to buy some snacks. Given those opportunities, the students will take advantage of them. On top of that students still have the ability to eat unhealthy foods outside of school. After all is said and done, the ban will have done very little if anything to combat childhood obesity. In addition, this would cause schools to lose money due to lower snack sales, especially if students have the opportunity to go off campus. In many cases, a soft drink company will give money to a school to only sell their product. A ban on soda would take away that source of income as well. Financially, it does not make sense to have a ban on junk food, especially when it probably isn’t going to achieve the goal of ending childhood obesity. What a child eats should be left up to his or her parents, not by some governmental body that believes a certain product is not fit for consumption by students.
~Nick V. |