h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the light of the " global epidemic" of obesity as described by verious nutritionists around the world, I was wondering whether it is possible at such a stage to revolutionise the way students in schools pick their food and to raise awareness among students on the pros and cons of the things they eat everyday? Is there any way to launch such a revolution? Is it feasible to us alternative but potentially radical new methods such as lobbying for government support to subsidise organic and higher quality foods in schools? Let me know of your opinion please, because this is also part of a research project that i am conduting at the moment. Thanks!

Well, yes..... First, they can stop putting on food in schools that we don't want children to eat, a bit of a education by force, but if we take the chips pizza and burgers for a start of the daily offerings in the school canteen, and replace them with some more healthy, and tasty food sorts, then the kids will at least be able at the school, if not at home, to taste and try and eat them. When faced by the choice of eating or not eating, I guess they'l go for the eating choice, and when the only 'eats' on offer are the 'healthy' ones, rahter than a couple of healthier options besides some chips and pizza and burgers, then they'l have to eat and try them.... Increasing the amount of money per child available for each meal, would obviously help, but I don't see any particular need to go down the organic route, a selection of dishs made with real ingrediants (weather organic or not) would be a good start:To this end, it'd probably be nice if more school canteens went back to preparing food on site, with kitchen staff/cooks, rather than having outsourced companys bring th e food in and the kitchen staff just reheat it/keep it warm/serve it, which is what seemed to be happening a decade or so ago when I was school (I think the downturn in food quality started mid way through my schooling; up till about 10 or 12, the food seemed to be being cooked by teh staff in the school kitchens, after which time, it was not .....)

I agree, this is an incredibly important issue.

What part of the world are you in? Have you seen Jamie Oliver's work on this? Check out: http://www.feedmebetter.com/

I saw his TV series on how he went into English schools and changed the school dinners. The TV series is definitely worth watching as it has not only all the problems he encountered, but also the creative and lateral solutions he came up with. I'm normally not enthralled with reality TV but I was extremely immpressed with this series, and what Oliver managed to do in that time.

Also because of Oliver's upfrontness it was blatantly obvious that kids get fed absolute sh*te at school and that with a bit of time and effort kids can be fed good healthy REAL food.

Unfortunately there were some political shufflings after his successes and the govt decided to introduce new low fat low sugar quotas instead of implementing Oliver's ideas more widely. So no the kids will get fed low calorie sh*t food instead of real, healthy food.

The great thing about Oliver's programme is that he showed that it *can* be done, that we can feed our kids well.

btw the TV series is available on DVD.

On the states sometimes he's on The Food Network channel.
Now the thing of the matter, is that there are a few alternatives already in place. For ex: Sometimes you can purchase a sleightly greater variety of things to choose from to eat "ala cart", also there is usually always B.Y.O.B. Bring your own bag, you know, 'brown bagging it.' In some colleges the food is all "ala carte" or if you have an "open" campus, during lunch-time you can like go to a restaurant or home to eat lunch as long as you are not back late (Of course that'd only work for kids that lived close enough to school, or schools that were close to food shops). I know that because I live in CA, for example, there are lotsa places that make particularly superb salads. 'Cuz there is easy access to fresh vegetables, etc. hate to scare the vegetarians , but I kinda like salads that also have meatr in them the best. You know, stuff like the "Chef's salad" or the various "Ceasar" interpretations. The problem I found in the public schools in which I went to, kinda counter to the recent "issue of concern," which you folks are speaking of. I disliked the cafeteria portions because they were always really small (minimum amount of food per kid possible to save money). I'd be too hungry afterwards so ever since then I would bring my own from home. I'm now at the age of 18yr.s almost 6'2"T x about 1' W (more or less) across max. kinda like a scarecrow w/ a light build. Now the thing of it is is that I think there was also a study about how in schools where people only drank soda all the time instead of milk or juice then what some of them started to get brittle bones, or something bad like that. :I forgot the specifics, and have probably blabbed too much.

well it would be a chance if they shut down takeaway bars etc and open healthy places

Hmm... well...
Not sure, would need to produce economic incentives, ta make the greedy s actually *want* to change things...

"Junk food to be banned in schools"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4287712.stm




az

yes but they come out of school at there dinner hour or home time and go into burger bars etc ,so how would the problem end if we just banned it in schools ,all that would do is pupils would be having less school dinners and going elsewhere.

one way to look at it , eat healthy well ban all types of junk food from everywhere , stop people smoking ban the making of tabaco , why not , because its like everything else there's too much money to be made out of both so thats why they will never be a complete ban .only us humans can ban us fron going to junkbars or smoking

And yet, let us not forget that sometimes it is by forcibly banning things, that more people are encouraged to do or use the "banned things" secretly. Look @ prohibition of Alcohol in the U.s. back in the 1920's for one example...
I'm not saying that I completely disagree with you, as there are plenty of good points in the argument case which you have made.