How often do you walk through a shopping center only to catch the scent of a fast food take away shop around the corner? The smell of the food instantly fires up your appetite for the greased up substance people consider food. So you tell yourself why not? It’s there, it’s cheap, it’s easy, and so you indulge yourself and tell yourself, “Only a little bit won’t hurt, will it?” While snacking on a large McDonald’s meal, and why not a box full of greasy goodness for the kids. It comes with a toy, what a bonus! But is this the example we want to be setting for our kids. For many years now obesity in our nation has become a clear problem in our society. It has taken over possibly even faster than when the flu spread over our once healthy nation a century ago. This is a trait we have unfortunately passed on to the next generation with childhood obesity on the rise. Recent studies have shown 1 in 5 adults are obese, with roughly 20% of children either already obese or overweight, which will in most cases progress into adult obesity. But what is the cause? One of the solutions could quite well be in the hands of our beloved school canteens.
In our generation a lot of parents are finding it harder to prepare their kids breakfasts’ let alone their own. Like a new trend breakfast skipping has become quite popular in schools, with many students coming to school unfed waiting for recess to snack on the fried food sold at the canteen. But this isn’t the answer, not only are the students already under-nourished from skipping breakfast they are digesting large amount of fat and unhealthy foods from the canteen to compensate skipping breakfast. Most schools around Melbourne start their recess in between 10:30 and 11 o’clock; would you want your children eating this junk at that time in the day? I certainly wouldn’t, and it’s likely than 75% of the canteen ladies wouldn’t want their children munching on this garbage in the morning either. So why do they do it?
