Heather Morgan, from Project Happiness, once said, “Every time you eat or drink, you are either feeding disease or fighting it.”  One of the biggest things in living a healthy life, is having a nutritional, well balanced diet.  As the quote says, every decision one makes on what to eat affects their overall health and could potentially lead to or prevent life threatening diseases.  With this being said, it is very important that everyone, especially kids who are still developing, eat healthy meals.  Here, the problem arises with school lunches.  How are kids expected to chose the healthy, nutritional option if all their lives they have been taught to eat pizza, fries, burgers, and countless other fatty foods for lunch at school?  All school lunches served in the NASH cafeteria and in schools across America should be healthier, and well balanced to provide students with energy to learn, to inhibit childhood obesity, and to increase consumption of vital nutrients. 

Well balanced, healthy school lunches will provide students with long-lasting energy to learn and succeed in the classroom.  Most people would agree that after eating a nutritional meal, they feel more full and satisfied than after eating a fast food type meal, like those often sold in school cafeterias.  After consuming a well balanced meal, students are equipped with the necessary nutrients for their brain to function at its fullest.  Eva Selhub, a physician from the Harvard Medical School,  explains that eating is like fueling one's car.  She says that when a brain gets fueled with “low-petroleum” or foods containing lots of sugar, it correlates to developing impaired brain function (Editor in Chief).  As such, when unhealthy meals are eaten at lunchtime, kids do not perform at their best in the classroom.  For example, data collected from a research study in 2014 published in Clinical Pediatrics shows that students from kindergarten to eighth grade who ate poorly did not progress as quickly in math, reading, and science as those who chose to eat healthier foods (“Children”).  This goes to show how big of a role one's nutritional intake can have on their academics.  Parents constantly harp on their kids to do their best in school, but this can not be done without fresh lunches in school.  In addition, frequently consuming unhealthy meals often causes memory loss and therefore hinders students’ ability to learn.  According to the Society of Neuroscience, studies show that diets containing high levels of saturated fats tarnishes learning and memory (Chen).  Most of the lunches sold in school cafeterias, including NASH’s, contain an abundance of saturated fats found in foods such as french fries, cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, and the list goes on.  After the students eat these meals and return to class, they have lowered their brain power with the large saturated fat intake (Chen).  Schools could potentially achieve a higher overall grade point average if their cafeterias would serve healthier lunches to their students.  Lastly, eating burgers, fries, and other fatty foods that are often sold in the school cafeteria, are high in sugar and salt instead of the necessary nutrients like Calcium and Vitamin C.  Vitamins and minerals are imperative for brain growth and function.   Researchers from the King Edward VII Hospital in England identified the nutrients that regulate brain function.  They discovered that Vitamin C and Calcium, along with other vitamins, play a large role in converting food into ATP which is a molecule that all cells use for energy.  Furthermore, these minerals, help nerve cell membranes quickly send and receive neurotransmitters (Editor Newsletter).  Simply put, it is harder to perform well academically without these nutrients working to provide one’s body with beneficial energy.  Therefore, schools need to educate their students on the importance of eating healthier lunches and then practice what they preach to help kids thrive both inside and outside of the classroom.
In addition to providing energy for students’ academics, serving well balanced lunches at school will promote a healthy lifestyle and inhibit childhood obesity.  Recently, childhood obesity has doubled from what it was in years past and part of this has to do with the fact that kids are constantly being exposed to fast food type meals in school cafeterias.  A report by the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention discovered that in 2011 and 2012, 34% of kids between the ages of 2 and 19 ate some form of fatty meal - burgers, pizza, fried chicken, or tacos - each and every day (“Children”).  Looking at the NASH lunch menu one will find almost all of these types of foods.  There is an option to build your own burger, a taco bar, pizza, and chicken tenders sold regularly.  How do people expect childhood obesity to decrease if kids are eating unhealthy school lunches every day?  Likewise, people begin to develop eating habits when they are toddlers and children that they will have for the rest of their lives (“Children”).  Feeding kids healthy lunches at school will set them up for a long, healthy lifestyle.  On the other hand, kids that choose to eat the unhealthy foods will most likely continue to do so for the rest of their lives.  Lastly, if the trend remains and kids continue to eat poorly, starting with school lunches and then carrying that back to their lives at home, this can lead to severe health issues.  For instance, obesity can cause type 2 diabetes and cancer and stroke and heart disease and many more harmful illnesses.  Nobody wants their kids to suffer through these detrimental effects when they can potentially be prevented.    There are many reasons why the NASH cafeteria should provide students with more healthy lunch options, but one of the most important is the concept of obesity.  Consequently, it is imperative that kids learn the values of always eating healthy meals to ensure a long, prosperous life. 

Not only does serving healthier options for school lunches provide energy to students and prevent obesity, but these healthier options will also increase consumption of necessary nutrients improving one's overall health.  Firstly, vitamins and minerals are a vital part of a student’s diet.  Why would physicians often recommend vitamin supplements if they were not so key to one's health?  For instance, Vitamin C is needed for normal collagen and bone production, and it can be found in fruits and vegetables.  A deficiency in Vitamin C can lead to Scurvy which causes wounds to heal slowly and often leads to other illnesses (Marieb).  In this case, the saying, “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away” really is true since Vitamin C plays a large role in sustaining a strong immune system.   Also, lean proteins are one of the main nutrients people need.  The root meaning of the word protein says it itself, “primary importance”.  There are many reasons why proteins are necessary for the human body to function properly, but one of the most important is they digest food turning it into energy along with protecting one’s body from foreign invaders (“Protein”).  Incorporating more protein into school lunches would improve students overall health and help to minimize illnesses.  Finally, carbohydrates which can be found in starches including bread, are an integral part of one’s diet.  Carbohydrates store energy and promote a healthy digestive system (“Carbohydrate”).  Schools can incorporate healthier forms of carbohydrates simply by replacing white bread with whole wheat bread.  Thus, small changes like this to school lunches can greatly improve the nutritional value of cafeteria food and the overall well being of kids. 

It’s true, most kids are picky and do not like eating fruits and vegetables.  In fact, some might not even know what a cantaloupe or brussel sprout is if they saw one.  The fact of the matter is, the main reason kids do not eat the healthier food options is because they are given too many unhealthy alternatives to choose from.  Schools across America, including NASH, need to start implementing more healthy options to their lunch menus that give students multiple, nutritional options to chose from instead of just having a salad bar as their “healthy” option since some kids do not like salads and have to opt to eating the countless other unhealthy meals.  Although it might be hard at first, like all diets are, it is important for schools to provide students with well balanced lunches and eventually students will learn that eating healthy can be delicious and highly beneficial. 

Everyone wants to be able to live a happy and healthy life, but school lunches could greatly hinder this desire for children.  Implementing more healthy options for school lunches would ensure that students are fed the right “fuel” to reach their potential in the classroom.  Equally important, the consumption of healthy lunches would reduce the increasing childhood obesity rates and nourish kids with critical nutrients to enhance overall health that could be carried into their future.  Be an advocate for healthier kids and contact your school district's food service director or superintendent by finding their email on your district’s homepage to bring to their attention the importance of implementing healthy school lunches.