Supersize nation

MSNBC: Report says school food making kids unfit to serve

There's a group of retired military officers saying that school lunches are making kids obese, and therefore reducing the number of people that would actually be able to pass a military health exam in order to enlist.  The article also mentioned that many service members are now being discharged for weight problems.  Ironically, the military is the same group that helped institute the school lunch program to begin with.

Despite the silliness of the headline (really, most headlines lately are absolutely ridiculous-sounding), they do make a valid point.  Obesity really is detrimental to our national defense. If we end up having a nation of overweight people who either physically can't exercise or are too lazy to exercise, the country as we know it is going to go down the shitter pretty quickly.  Imagine: an overweight police officer trying to chase down some young criminal.  Granted, if they're both overweight I suppose they'd be easily matched, but chances are the young person's going to be smaller, more agile, and quicker than someone with 40 or 50 extra pounds on their frame.  Another scenario: a firefighter wheezing under the weight of his equipment.  These people now would never be allowed in those services, but if our country consists mostly of those who are overweight, those are going to be the only people left to fill those roles.

Between this new report, Michelle Obama's crusade against childhood obesity, and television shows tackling the problems in school lunches, I hope that some effective measures will finally take place.  Thinking back to my school days, many of the lunches were not the most nutritious.  Throughout high school, I ate pizza most days simply because there either were no other options or the options available looked disgusting.  A few times they would offer vegetables, but I couldn't stand eating them.  The corn was way too watery and really funny-tasting.  The beans were simply a rubbery, atrocious mess.  Any meat they offered was processed- chicken patties and those weird ground-up meat concoctions that were molded into the shape of ribs. [1]  I think part of the problem is the standardized lunch system in public schools.  We used one company, Sysco, which sent their food in huge vats.  Clearly, the company's focus seemed to be on mass quantities of food, forsaking the quality of that same food.

The article also discussed healthier options in vending machines, something that I think gets missed a lot.  At my high school, I think the district did a good job restricting options.  We had a milk vending machine (yes, milk) as well as one that I believe sold Nestea and other similar drinks.  If I remember correctly, there was also one that sold chips, which you could also get in the cafeteria itself.  Soda was one thing not sold there. [2]  According to people around school (so, pretty much hearsay as it was in high school), Coca-Cola offered a huge project to the school district that would provide massive renovations and remodeling, plus laptops for every student.  In exchange, the district would put Coca-Cola vending machines in the schools.  In an amazing show of doing the right thing, the district turned it down (Liverpool, however, did take Coca-Cola up on the offer- they have a pretty amazing school now, but at what cost?).  When we've got corporations interfering in schools, there's a huge problem.

Quite honestly, with all the people advocating for healthier school lunches, if anyone can get it done it's the military.  I'm glad they're on board with combating childhood obesity, regardless of the reason.  As defense spending is an exorbitant amount of our national budget, it is clear that the government sets a high importance on the military.  If they say something should be done for their benefit, it will get done.

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[1] To tell the truth, those two were actually my favorite lunches (besides West Genny pizza day).  Sad that mystery meat can taste that good.
[2] The sale of soda in schools has been a huge issue in this obesity battle due to the general unhealthiness of soda.