The first lady is taking first place when it comes to fighting obesity.
Childhood obesity is a growing problem (pun intended), but teachers and schools cannot solve this problem.
No matter how many people may struggle with this health problem, it remains an individual problem. Despite the growing, widespread nature of the issue in schools, telling students what they may or may not eat will not deal with the underlying matter. Students are eating over something -- perhaps a world that gives them so much, yet still leaves them yearning for something more.
The parents hold a greater responsibility when it comes to the health and nutrition of their children. For many of them, the need to be accepted by their kids has hindered them from giving their children what they need as opposed to what they clamor for.
Instead of rewarding young people with food for a job well done, invite them to participate in activities which they find rewarding. Regulating the food that they eat, however, will not solve the greater issue of obesity among youth today. Even Los Angeles Unified is facing the dreaded reality of the black market on campuses, in which students now smuggle in junk food and sell these goods to the highest bidder.
Instead of cracking down on children's poor eating habits, remind them of their worth and potential regardless of their appearance. Remind them that health is a choice which they get to make every day. Rather than forcing them to obsess over what they eat, direct their focus to worthy activities, to non food-related interests. A sedentary lifestyles sometimes begins with the unbelief that there is little worth doing, or that life holds little worth for them. We need to fight these follies, not withhold food from them by force.
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