Should Junk Food Be Banned at School
Should junk food be allowed at school?
Junk food is generally defined as “a diet high in processed foods and soft drinks” (Wiles et al., 2009, p.1). By definition, junk food contains artificial food colorings and preservatives, including fast food, oily foods, snacks and high sugary beverage. Students usually eat snacks between meals. According to McPhail et al. (2011), the snacking habit among students has increased in the past twenty years. This means students are taking more junk food in a higher chance every day. It is generally recognized that junk food is bad for health, while some scholars and researches argued that healthy snacks are beneficial to adolescents.( Martine et al. , 2011) However, the effects of junk food to teenagers offset the benefits to them. This essay examines reasons why junk food should be discouraged and eventually banned at schools. Apparently, junk food has low nutritional value which is not beneficial to adolescents. Based on a survey carried out by McPhail et al. (2012), adolescents eat snacks about three times per day on average, and 27% of calories that are consumed as junk food. In addition, junk food is high in fats, solid oil and added sugar. The finding demonstrates that junk food has low nutritional value. However, adolescents still consume junk food frequently. A research shows that children consume snacks mostly in the afternoon at school and after school (Richards et al., 2009) because students can buy snacks and soft drinks from tuck shop at school easily. The review concludes that if junk food were banned at school, the probabilities of adolescents to consume high calorie junk food would be greatly reduced as possible. The second problem brought by junk food is health disease. An American study has contributed to the thesis that junk food in schools leads to adolescent’s obesity (Datar & Nicosia, 2012). The main reason is that junk food is easy to access around school either from vending machines, canteens, tuck
Junk food is generally defined as “a diet high in processed foods and soft drinks” (Wiles et al., 2009, p.1). By definition, junk food contains artificial food colorings and preservatives, including fast food, oily foods, snacks and high sugary beverage. Students usually eat snacks between meals. According to McPhail et al. (2011), the snacking habit among students has increased in the past twenty years. This means students are taking more junk food in a higher chance every day. It is generally recognized that junk food is bad for health, while some scholars and researches argued that healthy snacks are beneficial to adolescents.( Martine et al. , 2011) However, the effects of junk food to teenagers offset the benefits to them. This essay examines reasons why junk food should be discouraged and eventually banned at schools. Apparently, junk food has low nutritional value which is not beneficial to adolescents. Based on a survey carried out by McPhail et al. (2012), adolescents eat snacks about three times per day on average, and 27% of calories that are consumed as junk food. In addition, junk food is high in fats, solid oil and added sugar. The finding demonstrates that junk food has low nutritional value. However, adolescents still consume junk food frequently. A research shows that children consume snacks mostly in the afternoon at school and after school (Richards et al., 2009) because students can buy snacks and soft drinks from tuck shop at school easily. The review concludes that if junk food were banned at school, the probabilities of adolescents to consume high calorie junk food would be greatly reduced as possible. The second problem brought by junk food is health disease. An American study has contributed to the thesis that junk food in schools leads to adolescent’s obesity (Datar & Nicosia, 2012). The main reason is that junk food is easy to access around school either from vending machines, canteens, tuck
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