Haijemel Oliver B.
Jacobe
DVM2-C
Impact of food availability in schools to the student’s health.
Introduction
Nowadays where the phase of the world is
much faster many parents although some of
them do prepare their kids meal are too time
restricted to do it in order to compensate for
this most of them just let their kids buy foods
that are readily available at the school. The
main purpose of this study is to know whether
the foods that are available at schools are
making a positive or negative impact on the
student’s health and also to determine the
effectivity of the different food programs and
policies of each schools.
Differentiating unhealthy and healthy foods
In order for us to understand the study we first
need to know on what determines whether a
food is healthy or unhealthy one. The
researchers at the University of Sussex
determined that the best way is thru nutrient
profiling. Nutrient profiling is a method used to
categorized foods according to their nutritional
quality(amounts of fats, fiber, energy, sugar) by
using a uniform nutrient profiling like labelling it
with a high or low nutrient content can help the
consumers with their choices for example a
nutrient profiling that’s called The Swedish
keyhole mark
MW 10:10-11:30
This mark is owned by the Swedish national
food agency if the food you are going to buy
have this mark it means that it is reduced in the
following: total fat; saturated and trans fatty
acids; added sugar; salt (sodium); and/or a high
amount of fibre(36). It is mostly calculated on a
per-100 g basis but this doesn’t necessarily
mean that a product is totally healthy is just
says reduced it may still have lots sugar or fat
but it is a nutritionally better option. Another
nutrient profiling used is the developed by UK
food standards agency using point system. This
model gives a single score to any of the given
food product, by calculating the number of
points for ‘negative’ nutrients that can be offset
by points for ‘positive’ nutrients. There are
three steps to calculate the score
1. Calculate the total ‘A’ points
A maximum of 10 points can be awarded for
each ingredient (energy, saturated fat, sugar
and sodium). The total ‘A’ points are the sum of
the points scored for each ingredient.
Total ‘A’ points = [points for energy] + [points
for saturated fat] + [points for sugars] + [points
for sodium].
2. Calculate the total ‘C’ points
A maximum of 5 points can be awarded for
each ingredient. The total ‘C’ points are the sum
of the points for each ingredient (note that you
should choose one or other of the dietary fibre
columns according to how the fibre content of
the food or beverage was calculated).
Total ‘C’ points= [points for fruit, vegetables and
nut content] + [points for fibre (either NSP or
AOAC)] + [points for protein].
3. Calculate the overall score
Overall score = [total ‘A’ points] - [total ‘C’
points].
A food is classified as ‘less healthy’ where it
scores 4 points or more
A drink is classified as ‘less healthy’ where it
scores 1 point or more.
Factors to determine Obesity
For the past years the increase in obesity
among children are on the rise at an alarming
rate and national Governments have been
spending millions of dollars to reduce it because
of the health problems associated with it. To
understand obesity we need to know the how
to determine whether a person is obese or not
the most standard way to tell is thru body BMI
Body mass index (BMI), which is defined as
weight in kilograms divided by height in meters
squared, is commonly used to determine
overweight and obesity in clinical and field
research settings (McTigue et al., 2003; Snijder
et al., 2006; Stein and Colditz, 2004; World
Health Organization, 2000). However, BMI does
not distinguish between lean and fat body mass
(Frankenfield et al., 2001; Peltz et al., 2007a, b;
Snijder et al., 2006; Stein and Colditz, 2004).
Underweight (BMI <18.5), normal weight (BMI
18.5 –24.9), overweight (BMI 25.0–29.9), or
obese (BMI ≥30.0). another method is FMI fat
mass index is a method determining the fats of
person it is said that this method is the most
reliable and accurate also is the most
economical advantage and together with
convenience.
DISCUSSION
Junk food availability
The idea about which classifies as healthy and
unhealthy and the ways to determine the
obesity of the child we can now whether the
foods that are available in the schools in the
schools are affecting the student’s health or
not. Many agencies private or public have been
studying and conducting test to determine the
impact of food availability of schools. A study
done in 2012 shows that the availability of junk
foods in schools gives a statistically significant
increase in Body mass index which might be
because of the increase of junk food availability
in high school and middles school (Datar, A., &
Nicosia, N. 2012) just like the study done in
2008 the researchers tried to determine if the
consumption of soda and snacks can factor in
the child’s health the results were rather
rhetorical because it provides little evidence
and needs more data to determine
School food policies & programs
Many school programs have been implemented
by various schools but the 2 most prominent
ones are NSLP (National School Lunch Program)
and SBP (School Breakfast Programs) these two
are implemented in many schools in United
States and are budgeted by the National
Government the programs objective is to give
students in the public schools of US a healthy
and free food to help reduce the obesity and
after analyzing the results from each program it
is determined that the NBP is more effective in
reducing the obesity rather than the NLSP that
just makes it worse after this study NLSP have
been cancelled in many schools whilst the NBP
stays. Through this programs they have
determined that the lunches provided by the
schools have more Vitamins A, D, and K which is
important for a child’s proper growth and that
students who choose to have milk, vegetables
and fruits less likely to consume soda and snack
items
Conclusion
Because of the nature in schools that the higher
grade you are the less healthy the foods
availability it is hard for the government to
provide a healthier choice due to the lack of
budget. although studies done about the food
availability of schools determine that the foods
in schools are indeed unhealthy they have also
discovered that the majority of students who
have the choice to pick a healthier options
decided to go for it indicates that many
students don’t go for the less healthy foods
because they want to but because they don’t
have a choice. Some States in the US are now
starting to limit the sales of their unhealthy
foods to help prevent obesity but have a hard
time adjusting due to their budget.

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