“Healthy & nutritious food now costs three times as much as junk food”. Accessibility to good quality, cheap but healthy food has become a major issue for those living and studying in the less affluent areas in Liverpool. Schools in Liverpool claim that ‘healthy’ casket of foods was more difficult to obtain and more expensive than a similar ‘unhealthy’ basket (Johnson & Hackett 1997). Eating in school should be a pleasant experience; a time spent sharing good food with friends and teachers together in a relaxed environment. The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) states “children aged 4 to 18 years show that in 1997 typically a quarter to one-third of the daily energy intake of fat, fibre, iron, calcium and vitamin C came from the meal they obtained at school.” (Nelson et al. 2007, p. 652-662 cited in Gregory 2000). Poor nutrients can impair our health, wellbeing and minimise our ability to lead a pleasant and active life. In schools, the vending machines are filled with chips, sugary sweets and chocolate bars. There are some schools across the state which put forth the attempt to provide students better food options, most want to go the cheap and convenient route; processed foods that take solely seconds or minutes to heat up in massive quantities and serve, which clearly does not contribute to any health benefits to the body.
In 2004, a survey was carried out on school meals in 79 secondary schools in England with the choices of 5695 pupils being reported. The children’s choices were shown to be nutritionally poor as the majority of choices were high-fat foods, chips and potatoes cooked in fat, and soft drinks (Nelson et al. 2007, P.652-662 cited in Nelson 2004). In 2006, 617 million school meals were served in England alone and 50% of primary school meals contained too much added sugar (Parliament 2009). But currently, food provided across the school day or lunchtime only for children and young people in maintained schools in England is required to meet national criteria for school food. The aim of the introduced criteria is to improve the food quality provided within schools in England and encourage school-aged children to make healthier food choices and so led a healthier lifestyle in the future.
As snacks play a major and growing role in children and teenager’s diet, unhealthy snacks like crisps, sweets, soft drinks are almost impossible to avoid. It’s so easy to reach out for and often times we don’t notice how often we do it, especially when it’s sold in schools. Excess of this can lead to health problems like overweight and type 2 diabetes. Considering the consequences, the research of Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (2007) shows that 28.6% of 2 to 10 year olds and 33.3% of 11 to 15 year olds were overweight or obese in England, 32.1% of 2 to 15 year-olds are overweight or obese in Scotland in 2003 and 33% of children aged 2 to15 were overweight or obese in Wales in 2008 (Parliament, 2009).
Vending machines in school are seen as an issue in many schools in the UK. At a time when schools in the UK are encountering similar problems, it is encouragable that the access of crisps and sweets in the vending machine should be substituted to a more nutritious quality of snack foods such as granola bars and a small handful packet of unsalted mixed nuts, soft drinks substituted to water and diet drinks. Although granola bars may seem healthy but some self-claimed “low or no fat granola bar” are typically prepared from a major amount of cereal base agglomerated using a coating syrup. Syrup is an example of non-milk extrinsic (NME) sugar and can play a significant part in tooth decay. NME sugars should contribute no more than 11% of food energy on average for the population. In 2008 and 2010, children aged 4-18 years old exceeded this recommendation (Manual of Nutrition, 2012). Things that young people thought should be done to facilitate healthy eating included reducing the price of healthy snacks and better availability of healthier foods such as grilled and roasted salmon and chicken, salads, healthier pasta at school, at take-aways and in vending machines.
However, some schools have claimed that it has been difficult to implement healthier government standards, such as increased or switching to whole grains, greens and decrease oil because students have complained that they were still hungry, or was unsatisfied with the texture and taste of certain foods. Even so, some students may find difficulties in adapting to the newly implemented criteria. As some students are having difficulty in adapting to eating clean or other factors such due to large a number of students under one educational institution, school canteens are unable to provide variety choices, they can improve the food quality by providing fruits as a part of a meal for free, pack more vegetables into food recipes or add nuts, seeds, beans to the suitable meal. Fruits, nuts, seeds and beans are a great source of fibre and fibre prevents constipation and limits intake by lowering the energy density of the food, thus allowing time for satiation to occur before large amounts of energy have been consumed(Astrap, 2001). But, some students with greater nutrition knowledge and more favourable attitudes would be more likely to engage in healthy dietary practices and would use nutrition labels more frequently (Cooke & Papadaki 2014). Thus, they can volunteer to work with the department in the school canteen by gathering information and labelling out all the ingredients used in the food cooked and the benefits of it in every dishes made. Influences like this may allow the student to be aware the health benefits of certain foods so they would consume more and feel good about themselves. In addition, ENHPS suggests that catering service can collaborate with the school’s canteen to provide healthier options and to revise existing recipes e.g. reduced fat, seasoning and salts, availability of chips, limited to twice a week etc (Bowker et al. 1999, p. 139). Other aspects that could be taken into account are (1) Reorganisation of the school dining room so that the salad bar/fruit counter etc., are more easily accessible/require shorter queuing time than the less healthy options. (2) Use special events on healthy eating as a way to introduce the ENHPS project to the school and its wider community, and to raise awareness of the project. (Bowker et al. 1999, p. 140)
Generally, some healthy foods sometimes being expensive has a significant impact towards students on an average budget. If salads sold in school canteen costs more than less nutritious food and due to the wide availability of, and personal preferences for, cheap fast foods, students on a budget tend to neglect the idea of eating clean and they will gravitate towards eating junk food or less nutritious food. Nutrition studies by Carlson and Frazao 2012 use the price per calorie view it as a determinant of food choices, interpreting the findings that healthier foods have a higher price per calorie than less healthy foods to mean that healthier diets are not affordable, particularly to lower income households (Carlson and Frazao 2012). While school should provide more healthy & nutritious food, healthy foods sold in school canteen should be at a reasonable price to ensure that students from a poorer background are able to afford it.
Efforts to improve the quality of foods in schools could include farm-to-school programs, which link the farmers providing fresh locally grown produce to school food service cafeterias(Glanz et. al. 2007). Occasionally, the school can commence a classroom nutrition related education to complement modification in the school environment to elevate student’s skills for developing healthier lifestyles. Besides that, the school can implement a ‘once a week 50% discount’ program on all healthy foods sold in the canteen. This strategy does not only helps to improve and encourage healthy eating in students, it also benefits students on an average budget. Besides that, the school canteen can improve the student’s eating habit by having them to pay cash for desserts, snacks and soft drinks. David R. Just and Brian Lansink states that “They can’t mindlessly put it on their debit card or on their pin account, they have to take out the dollar they might otherwise spend on an iTune and ask themselves how bad they want the cookie.”
School food should have a balance of good and bad because having a balanced diet is very crucial. This also ensures that children in school do not get bored of what they eat. The unhealthy section should not be removed, but slightly restricted. Although healthy food is important, but a few unhealthy foods are fine because the more unhealthy foods are generally more enjoyable than healthy foods, and if the unhealthy foods are eliminated from the school canteen, students or children may not eat at all because some don’t buy healthy food, making learning a difficult task. School should support good health and be a place where a student can depend on eating healthy as some of the students may be consuming more than half of their calories a day in school.