Healthy Food Proposal

What is the one way in which we can make students eat healthier at our school? That one way is by educating the students to eat healthier. The way I’m proposing to make students at Madera South High School is by having a salad/fruit bar once every month in every physical education. Each student will have a plate on which they will serve themselves. While they are eating there serving the physical education teacher will teach the students the nutrition that fruits and vegetable and the health benefits of eating healthy.

Where I got this proposal was from the charter school that I attended, Ezequiel Tafoya Alvarado Academy. Every month during P.E there will be a salad/fruit bar which we serve ourselves and then the teacher will teach us the nutrition and benefit of eating healthier. Sometimes we will get books and papers and did our own research on why we should eat healthily and what not having a healthy diet can lead to.

Having this in P.E classes will be important because this will educate students to eat healthier because of all the benefits and nutritional value that are in vegetables and fruits have. According to the report from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “Less than 10% of U.S. high school students are eating the combined recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables”. This is due to students not knowing the benefits and the nutritional value and having the salad/fruit bar with the teaching of the benefits every month.

Educating students the what an unhealthy diet can lead to many diseases. The Heart Association says cardiovascular health depends on seven-factor: not smoking maintaining a normal weight, eating a healthy diet, being physically active, and maintaining low blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. But a study found that less than 50 percent of U.S teens had five or more of their healthy heart components and none of the teens that participated met all seven criteria for an ideal cardiovascular heart. Being overweight and not having a healthy diet can lead to having heart disease which can lead to having a short life. Educating students on why eating healthier while they have healthy food in front of them, will motivate the student to eat healthier.

In 2011-2012 about 1 in 5 adolescents age 12 to 19 were categorized as obese. This makes 20.6 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 19 years are obese. Being overweight can increase the first of health problems such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and asthma. This is something that we could change in our school by educating the students to eat healthier and by educating them are the consequences of not having a healthy diet.

The student at this Madera South High School wants to see this happen. I made a survey and went around asking students questions. The first question is if they would like to have a salad/fruit bar once a month in P.E class. The survey that I took shows that 49 out of 56 students would like to have a salad/fruit bar during P.E. This shows that the students want to eat healthier and learn why we should eat healthier. 

The second question that was surveyed was “Do you know the nutritional value that vegetables and fruits offer?”. 32 said yes and 24 said no, this shows that there is a good amount of students that don't know the nutritional value the vegetables and fruits offer. 42.8 percent who took the survey don't know. Having the salad/fruit bar will show them what they should eat and the lecture on the nutritional value would teach the students to eat healthier. Also having the salad/fruit bar will make that percentage go up, that 42.8 percent could go up to 75 percent. Educating the students on why we should eat healthily would make them more aware of what vegetables and fruits could do to their bodies. This could encourage students to eat their fruits and vegetable.

“In 2010, about one in four high school students ate fruit less than once a day, and one in three didn't eat vegetables more than once a day”. This is something that would change if the students are educated. “The survey of 10,765 high school students showed that teens ate both fruits and vegetables an average of 1.2 times a day”. Research says that high schools students are eating less than 1.5 cups of fruits and 2.5 cups of vegetables for the girls and for the boys 2 cups of fruits and 3 cups of vegetables. High school students aren’t eating the number of vegetables and fruits that they should be eating. This is why the school needs to have a salad/fruit bar and a lecture on why the students should eat a vegetable.

The third question in the survey was “Do you know what not eating healthy can lead to?”. The survey shows that 44 said they know what not eating healthy can lead to and 12 don't know what the consequences of not eating healthy can lead to. We could cut the number shorter by lecturing the students the truth of what not eating healthy can lead to. Not eating healthy can lead to several problems for example cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and asthma. Teaching the students what not eating healthy can lead to would motivate them to eat healthily. This is another reason why having fruits and vegetables in front of them and having the lecture to eat healthily will motivate them to eat healthily.

My proposal of having a salad/fruit bar and with the lecture of the nutritional value and what not eating healthy can lead to will make students eat healthier. The students would like to see the salad/fruit bas in P.E once a month. This must happen because there are some students don’t know what not eating healthy can lead to and some students don't know the benefits and nutritional value of eating fruits and vegetable.

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