Not Quite the American Dream
By: Emily Schwendner and Bailey Shemenski
There is a growing obesity crisis today with 34 percent of Americans obese or overweight and 1/3 of our children carrying too much weight. Childhood obesity is a very serious medical condition that affects children and young people when they weigh much more than the average for their height, weight, and gender. The top 10 factors for obesity are:
1. Diet-eating too much junk food
2. Exercise-not getting out and playing enough
3. Technology-sitting around on the TV or computer all day
4. Always in a hurry-never having enough time to eat right or exercise
5. Financial pressures-can cause stress, which can trigger people to eat not-so-healthy comfort foods or spend more time at work on the computer
6. Psychological-complex eating disorder
7. Less sleep-causes stress and exhaustion; makes you too tired to cook a healthy meal or exercise
8. Health problems-could be in a wheelchair or have a heart condition where you can never really exercise
9. Out-of-home meals-often eating unhealthy fast food
10. Miscellaneous-obesity in genes
Studies have shown that students that buy their lunch at school are much more likely to become obese or increase their cholesterol. These same students are endangering their health through lack of exercise and unhealthy diets. Researchers suggest students bring their lunches to improve their health rather than buy them. Many schools are working on improving their food, but they still have a long way to go. Doctors believe it is important to teach students about healthy eating and regular exercise. Habits that kids develop when they’re young tend to carry them through life. This could contribute to helping the obesity issue in America today.
In 2009, a report showed that in the U.S., Mississippi had the highest obesity rate for adults at 32.5 percent. The other top three states in obesity were Alabama, Tennessee, and West Virginia, all of which were above 30 percent also. The state with the lowest obesity rate was Colorado with 18.9 percent. The report also showed that 2/3 of adults in America are obese or overweight. Mississippi also has the top obesity rate for children too with 44.4 percent. The states with the lowest obesity rate for children were Minnesota and Utah with 23.1 percent. Obesity rates are increasing year by year for most states as a result of the economic crisis and other factors such as stress and lack of jobs. The economy is raising food prices, making it difficult for families to buy healthy food.
There is some good news though. Several states are trying to fix this terrible problem. Now 19 states now have nutritional standards in school lunches stricter than even USDA standards. Other states are putting requirements on body mass and food sold in public places.
Here at ACC, our cafeteria lacks a microwave for student use, which many students do not appreciate. Another student complained that our cafeteria does not have many vegetarian options. Other students also did not like the greasiness of the food and the high prices. One student stated, “I’m going to go bankrupt from spending all my money on cookies. One dollar is just TOO much.” Another student thought that our cafeteria could improve health-wise by adding microwave meal options such as Lean Cuisine or Ramen Noodles. Just by changing a few things, our cafeteria could be better liked by the students.
According to Mrs. Werrline, the Cafeteria Manager, the top sellers in our cafeteria are pizza, fries, and popcorn chicken-all fried food. The pasta on pasta day is also very popular. She said that the vegetarian options available are the veggies, fruit, and salads in the middle window. Vegetables don’t really sell though. If the students wanted microwaveable meals, then our cafeteria could look into doing that. They have food committee meetings to discuss student likes and dislikes of the food. If you want to eat healthier, you should stick with the chicken Caesar salads with fat free dressing, turkey and ham sandwiches, fresh fruit, and smoothies. The smoothies are made with yogurt and real fruit. As you can see, our cafeteria does have some healthier options too. Sometimes it’s about making choices.
nice article
nice article
i like the title. it’s
i like the title. it’s really creative.
to: Mrs. Goldie
There is a growing obesity crisis in America today. Thirty-four percent of Americans are obese or overweight and one-third of children in America are carrying too much weight. Childhood obesity is a very serious medical condition that affects children and young people. Childhood obesity occurs when a child or adolescent weighs much more than the average for their height, weight, and gender. The top ten factors for obesity in America today are:
1. Diet- eating too much junk food
2. Exercise- not getting out and playing enough
3. Technology- sitting around on the TV or computer all day
4. Always being in a hurry- never having enough time to eat right or exercise
5. Financial pressures- can cause stress, which compels people to eat not-so-healthy comfort foods or spend more time at work on the computer
6. Psychological- complex eating disorder
7. Little or no sleep- causes stress and exhaustion; makes you too tired to cook a healthy meal or exercise
8. Health problems- could be in a wheelchair or have a heart condition where you can never really exercise
9. Out-of-home meals- often eating unhealthy fast food
10. Miscellaneous- obesity in genes
Studies have shown that students that buy their lunch at school are much more likely to become obese or increase their cholesterol. They have also found that these same students were endangering their health through lack of exercise and unhealthy diets. Researchers suggest that to improve their health, students should bring their lunches rather than buy them. Many schools are working on improving their food but they still have a long way to go. Doctors believe it is important to teach students about healthy eating and regular exercise. Kids tend to carry habits they develop when they’re young, throughout life. This could contribute to helping the obesity issue in our world today.
In 2009, a report showed that in the United States, Mississippi had the highest obesity rate for adults at 32.5 percent; this being its fifth year as number one. The other three top states in obesity were Alabama, Tennessee, and West Virginia, all of which were above 30 percent also. The state with the lowest obesity rate was Colorado with 18.9 percent. The report also showed that two thirds of adults in our country are obese or overweight. Mississippi also has the top obesity rate for children, at 44.4 percent. The states with the lowest obesity rate for children were Minnesota and Utah with 23.1 percent. Obesity rates are increasing year by year for most states as a result of the economic crisis and other factors such as stress and lack of jobs. The economy is raising food prices, making it difficult for families to buy healthy food.
There is some good news. Several states are trying to fix this terrible problem. Nineteen states now have nutritional standards in school lunches that are even stricter than USDA standards. Other states are putting requirements on body mass and food sold in public places.
Obesity-students lunch
Jen’s grammar changes make sense-never start a sentence with a numerial (write it out).
While there is good content, how can you make it more relevant to ACC? Weren’t you initally going to interview some students and suggest microwaves be available or some other ideas? Especially now that we are going to put out 1 BIG paper opposed to 2 smaller ones, do you not have time to beef it up?
Obesity-students lunch
Okay good that you got student opinioins but you do neglect to get any imput from the other side-not fair to readers. See Mrs. Werrlich (Ryan’s mom, she’s very nice-ask someone if you don’t know her) who runs it, about the food choices and ask her what are top sellers, what about offereing veg meals, etc. Also, recently in the news, Army generals have been vocal about the high number of young men and women are turned down for the armed services (stats were alarming). What is your opinion? Are we heading toward a nation too fat and unfit to fight for ourselves? Where does personal responsiblity begin and end?
I know you can do this and you have time!
Obesity-students lunch
A week has gone by, get the other side of the story rather than slam ACC’s cafeteria. Fix this by taking the short time to see Mrs. Werrlich, cafeteria manager, and find out what guidelines she has or what sales best. Do this before class on Tue AM.
Obesity-students lunch
Much more balanced article. Has a bit of grammar but editing should catch it.
You should give Mrs. Werrlich, the title of Cafeteria Manager.
Nice job.
Obesity-students lunch
There are 7 spelling errors and some extra spaces between sentences. This needs some careful editing. I would copy to word and then paste back.
Obesity-students lunch
I rearranged several sentences and abbreviated which reduced the article by 100 words for space considerations. Also I tacted on the last sentence because ACC’s sales contradicted complaints.