Essay on The Factors Of Children's Nutrition

As a kid, how many times have you tried to sneak sweet food into your lunch or tried to convince your parents to buy you sweet food? I bet a lot, right? But now as an adult, many try to prevent their kid from having sweet food since it is not nutritional. This is also one of the reasons that many kids do not get school lunch and even if they do, they do not eat most of it. To overcome the challenge of providing nutritious food that kids will eat, I propose that school lunches should include foods that kids tend to enjoy, more sweet food as their main dish, and have some sort of food incorporated along with it.

It should be noted that it is important that there is nutritional food that the kids like on the menu. According to passage 1, most kids do not get enough time to eat a full breakfast and their dinner might be later than the normal timings, so they depend on lunch to keep them going. Author Argentine states that some kids' bus gets here at 7:07, and if they wake late, they might not even get a bit of breakfast which means that they must wait for lunch which is not until 12:30 P.M. This means that technically, lunch will be the first meal they have, so it must be energy filled and enough to get the kids through the rest of the day. In addition, if there is not something that the kids like on the menu, they might think that lunch is not worth their time. Especially when their parents are not there to tell them to have their lunch, so the kids just forget because they have too many other things to do (Argentine 10). It is stated that school lunches might not be as structured as lunched prepared at home, so kids do not always choose the healthy stuff (Argentine 9). But it is important to have a good lunch available to you during school because this is the time that your body is growing, and it needs a lot of powerful food to keep it nourished. “When they have healthy eating habits, that really sets them up for good lifestyles for the rest of their life” (Argentine 10). With the evidence provided above kids will not eat their lunch if it is something that they do not like. Especially when they are not around.  

Furthermore, I feel that there should be sugary food included in the meal. According to passage 2, “Growing bones need plenty of energy and sugar provides it powerfully and quickly” (Andre-Clark). A study done by Psychologist Susan Coldwell portrayed results that clearly showed that the kids with the most  NTx – the ones who were growing fastest – were the same ones who were growing the fastest. Having sugar in a kid’s lunch can give them tons of energy. Now, too much sugar might be a problem but there are many positive sides to it too. “For growing kids, eating sweet food can take the pain away” (Andre-Clark 3). The passage also said that when kids with strong sweet preferences held a sugary drink in their mouths, they could keep their hands underwater for a longer time. So, if the kid is having a dreadful day, or not feeling good, this lunch might just make their day a bit better. Not only can sugar help with physical pain, but it has been proven that depressed kids may prefer sugary food. This proves that kids like sweet food not just for taste but how it makes them feel (Andre-Clark 3). Many kids wish that nutritious foods tasted as good junk foods, and sugars get the job done. However, many parents say that sugary foods can make us gain weight, get cavities, and take us away from vegetables. But, according to Coldwell, a growing human body’s desire for sweets will start decreasing by the time they get to be 16 years old. Finally, we can see that sugar not only helps give the kids an enjoyable and tasty lunch, but it also can take away any kind of pain for a while and might just make a child’s day.

It must not be forgotten that some fruit should be included in a child’s meal. According to passage 1, fruits came in the first place when a surveyor asked kids what they would eat once they got home. Fruit can give kids the power they need before heading back to class. As stated in the previous paragraph, if the lunch that day does not have sugars, a fruit can easily give you natural sweetness which satisfies a child’s taste buds. “When you are rushed and hungry, the easiest things to grab are pre-packaged snacks like cookies, candy, and chips. But those foods do not always give you nutrition, complex carbs, healthy fats, protein, and vitamins that your body needs.” (Argentine 8). When in a rush you cannot take your whole lunch, and instead of grabbing something that is super sweet, the kids can just grab some fruit which can provide all the things listed above and as a bonus, it tastes good. This way the kids get nutrition and sugar.

With the evidence presented, it is obvious that it is important to have a nutritional lunch. This can be accomplished by having food that the kids actually enjoy eating on the menu, having sugar in the main dish, and incorporating some fruit into the overall meal.