Junk Food Ban and Physical Education - Essay Example

The ban only serves to reduce funds that schools receive for extracurricular activities, and in some cases, extracurricular activities such as sports could help to combat obesity. Moreover, students like sodas because sodas help to keep them awake in class.
The junk food ban does not get to the bottom of the obesity problem. In my opinion, the junk food ban is the only solution to combat childhood obesity. A total approach that involves schools, parents, and the government is needed.

A solution that combats the obesity problem at its roots is influencing lifestyle changes in kids. Influencing kids to adopt a healthier lifestyle involves not only schools but also families. Furthermore, lifestyle habits form at a young age. Therefore, parents and schools should inculcate healthy eating and exercise habits in their children from young.
Other than banning junk food, schools should also encourage physical activities. In addition to Physical Education classes mandated by the curriculum, schools could encourage physical activities during recess and hold sports events. Teachers should encourage a healthy lifestyle even outside school compounds. Schools could also share effective methods of teaching Physical Education and Health Education classes. To foster the outcome of the junk food ban, schools should promote healthy diets. They could introduce programs such as the milk program to cultivate healthy eating habits.

To inculcate good lifestyle habits, parents should begin by setting a good example for their children by eating healthily and exercising regularly. Next, they could educate children on the detrimental health consequences of obesity. In addition, they could educate children on portion size and serving size. Also, they should not use food as means of punishment or reward. Furthermore, children should be discouraged from eating while watching television programs, as research has shown that junk food consumption tends to increase while watching television programs. During these times of consumerism, advertisement plays a great role in influencing the wants, needs, and tastes of children. Parents should educate children on the motives of the advertisements. Besides, parents could encourage healthy diets by offering children variety.

More importantly, flavor need not be sacrificed in a healthy diet. Parents could try out new recipes that combine flavor with a low-carbohydrate, low-fat, and low-sugar diet. Regular exercise goes hand in hand with a healthy diet in the solution to obesity. Parents should show children that exercising is fun. They could spend quality family time with their children by jogging, bicycling, swimming, walking in the parks, playing at the playgrounds, and engaging in other fun physical activities instead of planting themselves in front of the television. Parents should educate children on the health benefits of physical activities. Lastly, parents could support their children’s efforts to stay healthy by participating in school and community events.
Other than introducing the junk food ban, the government can also work on other aspects including sports facilities, the media, health checkups, regulation of advertisements, and taxation. In the face of urbanization, less land is being devoted to greenery and open space.

The government should therefore build more and improve accessibility to sports facilities such as gyms, swimming pools, and jogging tracks. More pedestrian pathways and bicycle lanes could be built and the existing ones maintained to encourage walking and bicycling. Also, the government could work with the media such as television and radio stations, magazines, billboards, and newspapers to promote a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, obesity should be detected early when lifestyle habits are easier to change. Schools should conduct health checkups at least once a year. Furthermore, legislation should be introduced to regulate advertisements targeted at children. Lastly, the government could impose taxation on the sale of junk food to fund campaigns that promote healthy lifestyles.

When healthy diets and regular exercises become part of lifestyle habits, the junk food ban may no longer be necessary. Read More