The Negative Effects of Junk Food on Students

            There has always been debate on whether serving junk food and snacks in schools was the best decision. Jennifer Van Hook, PhD, professor of sociology and demography at Penn State University says "What we found basically is, there is no relationship between going to a middle school that sells junk food and gaining weight," This may be true as far as the studies show, but did they check back on the same children in their high school years to see their health conditions? Giving young children the choice to buy junk food in schools is questionable. If you give a child the choice between a plate of vegetables and a bag of chips then most likely they will choose the chips Even though junk food sold in elementary and middle schools is not the primary source of weight gain it is still a contributor and should be taken out of the schools.
             There is no question that young children want materialistic things when its right in front of their eyes or it's been presented to them. Junk food works that way for the children. This brings us to the first reason why junk food should not be in elementary and middle schools. They see it in their cafeterias and they want it because it's offered. After a week or two of junk food being gone out of schools children would likely forget that there was ever a choice to have junk food in there cafeteria lines. Children who are not served junk at home are likely to go for the junk because that's the only time it's offered. Children who are allowed to eat junk at home do it because that's just what they've been allowed to do. Either way taking junk food out of the schools would better the situation. Outside of schools parents control what their children eat, but people complain that children will eat more junk food at home if it's taken out of schools. This is only the case if parents are allowing it. Marlene Schwartz, Ph.D., deputy director at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University studied children in schools and says "we found that when you take soda and high-fat snacks out of schools, students did not compensate at home.