I have terrifyingly bad eating habits. Fast food establishments don’t know me by name or anything scary like that, but I admittedly have a penchant for snacking, and I’m not talking apples and carrots. When I wake up around 7 and have a English paper I haven’t done due 2^nd period, a calculus test in a hour, and no gas in my tank, a few packs of fruit snacks and a dollar or two for the vending machine seems a lot more convenient than having to waste precious time slaving over a hot knife to make a mediocre wrap or sandwich.

But these are my personal choices, and I can’t blame anyone but myself for my laziness and bad habits. I’d like to add that I do have a membership to Bally’s, but I just say that to make myself feel better. With that said, I do see a number of flaws in the way our school handles nutritional education that could be hurting both me and my fellow students.

Kids are getting fatter every year. This isn’t mere speculation- this is a fact. According to the American Obesity Association, the rate of obesity in adolescents ages 12-17 has risen from 5% in 1976 to 15.5% in 2000. This dangerous increase mirrors the rising likelihood of dangerous diseases such as Type II diabetes and sleep apnea as well as psychological trauma from teasing and depression. The rapid increase is due to two major factors- poor eating habits and a lack of exercise- and they have spiraled out of control so quickly that media outlets have begun to label childhood obesity as an epidemic.

 Yet for the four years I’ve been at Roosevelt, I haven’t seen a single effort from our administration to mitigate this trend in our school. What I have seen seems to portray something that I know isn’t true- that PGCPS could care less about our health and wellness. Every single day, I see the care that our administrators and other school officials have for each and every student as they fight for our freedom to wear what we want, cheer for our athletic teams, and constantly implore us to work hard and do our best. But I think that this very important issue is being unfairly being placed on the backburner when I can’t see anything that should be closer to the forefront of the minds of both us students and the adults who care for and about us. Although I’m just a senior in high school- not a nutritionist or a doctor, I can count five blatant problems with the way student’s health is being placed on the line by our school- and five good solutions.

First and foremost- school lunch. I’ve never met a single person who seems to enjoy paying $1.85 (whoops- I mean $2.25 as of the 2008-09 school year) for an unhealthy, unappetizing, and unfulfilling means to satiating midday hunger. I spent freshman year eating deep-fried Mozzarella sticks and ‘spicy fries’ off of a Styrofoam tray, and my hips are still thanking me daily. Don’t get me wrong. There are “healthy” choices as well - salads topped with creamy calorie-crushing dressings and cholesterol-filled hard-boiled eggs with sides of sugar-laden yogurt, and syrupy peaches.

 I’m more upset about the fact that these salads are being marketed as “healthy” than I am about the greasy options that dominate our lunchroom. I can’t tell you how many of my peers get these “health foods”, thinking they are better than the other options. In reality, one of these salads is probably laden with more heart threatening cholesterol and saturated fats than the aforementioned fried foods.

It’s not just me that harbors these apprehensions about our school’s lunch options. The Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine gave the county a C+ on their 2003 School Lunch Report Card. My mom would kill me if I ever got a C+ (okay, well I have, but she threatened to!). I don’t think that the county should get away with it either. The committee suggested that daily vegan entrées and non-milk calcium-fortified drink options would boost the county’s GPA. I think that’s great for elementary school kids, and a good start for us too, but the fact of the matter is we’re teenagers, not little kids. We choose what we wear to school, what classes we take, and about a million other things every day, and we do all these things based upon common knowledge- about what’s hot and what’s not, which teachers give the least homework.

But when it comes to eating lunch at ERHS, we’re in the dark. We don’t know how many calories or grams of fat are in what we’re eating, or how it might affect our health in years to come. Even a trip to the newly revamped county lunch website results in nothing but a sea of links to government health organizations- what does have to do with what I’m eating?  I say that all secondary schools should be able to provide students basic nutritional information about what they’re eating- not on the website or by request, but right there by the chicken nuggets and the green beans, so that we know what harm or what good we’re doing to our bodies before we end up paying $2.25 to add unwanted padding to our thighs. Knowing these numbers may not stop all students from eating the things they shouldn’t, but at least those who want to know what is going into their mouths will be able to, and even those who don’t care may be in for a shocking surprise that changes their outlook on food. Ignorance is bliss, but not when the result is breaking the zipper on your favorite pair of skinny jeans.

Next Issue: Vending Machines

Have a question or problem with my opinions? Email us at The Raider and we’d be happy to address them personally or in the next issue.