Food at school

J

Jane1975

New member
I have a younger sister who is still in high school. Acutally she is very pretty I would say. She lives quite far away at mom's and dad's house and that is why we don't see each other very often. But when I saw her the last time I was quite shocked. She got a very fat belly and she is still a teenager. I really don't want her to look like me when she gets older and so I talked to our mom. She said that it was the food at school which made her becoming so fat. Is the food at school really that unhealthy? What would you suggest a teenager to do who probably has fast food for lunch every day!
 
she has to want to do something - you cannot make her do anything she'snot ready to do... it just leads to problems down the road.

The same thing she should do is what everyone should do -

move more and keep track of her calories - just be aware of whatshe's eating.

She doens't have to have lunch at school every day, she could bring lunch from home a few days a week... if the choices aren't great ones
 
Hi,

Is this her first year in high school? Sometimes it's not the food, but the emotions she might be going through. High School sometmes can be a tough time for kids. I would just make sure she isn't having any issues that she is using food to console herself. Don't know if u moved away or recently went to college, but maybe not having you there to talk to or confide in, she chose food. Just a thought. This is coming from someone, that is an emotional eater, correction, was.

But as Mal said, she has to think there is an issue and she has to want to do something about it.
 
Hello.

Yes food at school is a big problem, here is money factor talking, they sell what the "kids" want to eat. Of course there are healthy choices but who we are to judge their choice of a slice of pizza instead of cooked vegetables?

That's one thing that parents should be united and talk with the school directors or a bigger level... At my country they made schools switch the candy and chocolat machines by machines with healthy food and other things.

But the major point is making your sister wake up for a reality that can turn very badly for her...
You can be radical: tell your mom not to give her money, and then she'll take food from home. But this can be hard for some people because of the shame...
But you have to do what is best for her...
 
Ianthe said:
Hello.
Of course there are healthy choices but who we are to judge their choice of a slice of pizza instead of cooked vegetables?
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What school do you go too? Mine doesn't even have cooked vegetables and that is being honest. That is why I just dont eat at school and wait till after to eat.
 
Bigguy2007 said:
What school do you go too? Mine doesn't even have cooked vegetables and that is being honest. That is why I just dont eat at school and wait till after to eat.
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Where are you from?

It's hard to believe that a scholl doesnt serv cooked vegetables, and healthy food at the canteen :| I'm not talking about the bar... At least here we always have a bar and a canteen
 
Ianthe said:
Where are you from?

It's hard to believe that a scholl doesnt serv cooked vegetables, and healthy food at the canteen :| I'm not talking about the bar... At least here we always have a bar and a canteen
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They healthiest thing that my school serves is sandwich and chips(By the way expensive as hell).
 
No she has been to high school for three years. And she is also very happy there I think. She has many friends and she is also quite at school. So I don't think that is has got to do with emotions or something. I am sure that is just the food. And I also don't think that they prepare real healthy food at school. This is probably the main problem.
 
Gosh School in New Zealand is Much Diff than other countrys everything we have has the "HEART FOUNDATION"Tick which is a new zealand orginizeation which aproves healthy foods but i think the problem is the choices she is making its not the food its the freedom she has 2 that food i think but maybe im wrong... thing is in NZ u have healthy food at school but there are diary's on the way home from school which supply the children with unhealthy choices.
 
I'm not a parent, but I'm...er, was, I guess since I'm eighteen now, an overweight child. Schools fix what sells and what kids will eat, not what's best for them, and they think, the faster we can make a lot of something, the better. And they also have a lot of snack machines in a lot of schools, as well as soda machines; at my school we had at most ten drink machines, six or seven of them filled with just soda, and only two or three with just water or juice. However, with our lunches they only allowed us milk. At my high school, there were two entrees to pick from and you had to take whatever side dishes they had, and a salad bar that was just nasty. Your sister probably has to take whatever she can get.
 
lindseybot3k said:
I'm not a parent, but I'm...er, was, I guess since I'm eighteen now, an overweight child. Schools fix what sells and what kids will eat, not what's best for them, and they think, the faster we can make a lot of something, the better. And they also have a lot of snack machines in a lot of schools, as well as soda machines; at my school we had at most ten drink machines, six or seven of them filled with just soda, and only two or three with just water or juice. However, with our lunches they only allowed us milk. At my high school, there were two entrees to pick from and you had to take whatever side dishes they had, and a salad bar that was just nasty. Your sister probably has to take whatever she can get.
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Hi lindseybo73k, thanks a lot for you statement. It is very interesting to get some information about food at school from somebody whose schooldays are in the recent past. Gosh I don't even remember all the food we used to have at school...
So these machines are probably a big problem too. I don't think we had those ones when I was a pupil. Anyways do you have any good advise for parents what they could do if they want there children to eat healthy at school?
 
The best thing to do is to send them to school with a lunch and a healthy snack, really, and give them a healthy breakfast in the morning and have a healthy snack already made for them when they get home. Oh, and don't give them snack money if you're really scared that they'll get something really bad from the snack machines.

You don't want to give them something to crazily healthy though; I knew this one girl whose parents would send her with the weirdest health foods like dried dates and figs and she would just throw the whole thing away. I suggest something simple like a sandwich (like maybe turkey and cheese on white-wheat or wheat bread?) with a fruit and have them take a juice box or a bottle of water with them. Some healthier snacks that I liked were granola bars (Quaker makes really good chocolate chip granola bars that are about 100 calories each that are delicious) and the 100 calorie snack packs are great if you want to give them something junk food-ish.
 
Yeah this might be right, but nevertheless kids have their pocket money to buy the unhealthy food at school. Have you never bought any unhealthy food although you parents told you not to do it? I think if kids really want this kind of food they will find a possibility to get it. But maybe it is worth trying. At least I am going to tell my parents about it. Thanks a lot!
 
Just a word on those 100 calorie snack packs - the majority of them contain HFCS -which is one of hte worst things that you can put into your body... at least according to all reading I've done on it... (only corn producers seem to think it's not bad for you) You're better off getting some ziplock snack size baggies and getting your own healthy snacks (kashi crackers and cookies are quite tasty and HFCS free) and making your own snack packs. and it saves some money too and the environment without allthat additional packaging

Read labels... Avoid trans fats and HFCS as an essential ingredient...
 
Jane1975 said:
Yeah this might be right, but nevertheless kids have their pocket money to buy the unhealthy food at school. Have you never bought any unhealthy food although you parents told you not to do it? I think if kids really want this kind of food they will find a possibility to get it. But maybe it is worth trying. At least I am going to tell my parents about it. Thanks a lot!
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Yeah, I was really guilty of that. My mother, although I was on a diet she and my father put me on, would give me two dollars everyday and I'd get snack food- especially cookies and candy bars. At that time, I was fourteen and I thought that it'd be okay as long as I didn't eat the school lunch and waited till dinner.
 
Granted, my school days are long behind me...but until I was in high school there was only the one option for school lunch. Some days it was better than others but it was always a balanced meal. In high school the option of having a hamburger instead of the regular meal was added in. The only machine that vended anything was an apple machine. We were a much slimmer generation too.

Maybe they shouldn't sell so many crappy options to the kids and just serve up a one size fits all (everybody can bitch about it it) school lunch meal again.
 
grades 1 - 8 we had a cafeteria that we could get milk from but you were supposed to bring your lunch from home... high school - there was a hot lunch option that was usually gross, a salad bar that was also equally gross or the grill which was burgers and hot dogs... or you brought lunch from home - only seniors were allowed to leave campus during the day...

there was a school store, that the proceeds would benefit one of the classes - where you could get sodas or candy but on a daily basis that would add up... when i got an allowance, I wasnt going to waste it on food -when I started earning my own money at age 12 or so... it was even more so - money was used to buy stuff - music, clothes, etc.. not food...

Kids don't bring lunch from home anymore?
 
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No not really. I think most kids buy their lunches at school. Parents don't care so much about the weight of the kids as they had gone fat as well. I think this became an important problem in our society. If parents don't show their kids how to eat healthy the kids aren't able to learn it. And I think most parents are overstrained and couldn't show their children even if they want to. So in my opinion this became a task of public utilities like schools but they don't accept this challenge yet.
 
Kids don't bring lunch from home anymore?
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When I was a younger kid, I brought my lunch from home (sandwiches, veggies, etc...) and I was a slender little thing.

When I got into middle and high school, I began eating junk food at the school cafeteria and my weight ballooned.

Coincidence? I think not. I eat more like a little kid who takes their lunch now (by cutting out fast food), and it's definitely helping the whole weight loss thing.

My kids are going to take a lunch all through high school, I've decided. I'm also going to raise them on healthy foods, so that's what they're used to.

If when they get older they want to waste their own money on junk that's just going to give them self esteem issues the rest of their adult life, they can go for it. But I'm not going to help them.
 
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