By Isabelle Chiu
Staff Writer
Due to the rising obesity rates in America in recent years, there has been a push for schools to provide students healthier meals. Mira Costa has begun to serve healthier snacks in order to comply with the new standards passed by the United States Department of Agriculture on July 1.
The regulations are a positive step toward ending childhood obesity, but steps, such as increasing health education, should be taken to ensure students eat healthier outside of school as well.
The stricter Smart Snack Regulations went into effect over the summer, after lawmakers expressed concerns over America’s rising childhood obesity rates. Since the passage of these regulations, snacks that do not adhere to federal regulations have been replaced with healthier alternatives at Costa. New snack options are baked instead of fried, whole -grain rich, reduced fat, reduced sodium, and smaller in portion. For example, the carts now offer Naked juice smoothies as an alternative to high sugar drinks.
Snack items must have a maximum of 200 calories and 230 milligrams of sodium. These restrictions have forced the school to sell smaller portions. According to the Harrison Medical Journal, after eating too much food, a person will feel tired as a result of blood moving toward the intestines, which causes less blood and oxygen to reach the brain. Reducing the portion size of snacks is beneficial to students because consuming too many calories can cause them to feel sluggish and can act as a potential detriment to their academic performance in school.
Additionally, the new snacks have saturated and trans fat limitations to prevent the consumption of “empty calories.” According to the USDA, empty calories come from added sugars and solid fats that provide little nutritional value. It is necessary for schools to limit these “empty calories” because they do not contain any essential nutrients needed to enhance students’ performance.
These regulations will not directly affect students’ choices at home as students can easily stray from them. Students can maneuver the regulations by buying and consuming more than one bag of chips or bringing junk food to eat at school.
According to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District Food Services Director Lena Agee, the snacks will not improve student health overall, but they are a healthier option if students would like to have a snack. The Smart Snack Regulations simply are a starting point to helping students eat healthier.
In addition, Costa should educate students about its offerings by providing and posting nutritional information at each of the cart locations. This would not only help students make better decisions at school but would also inform them of the health risks and benefits of food consumption overall. Providing accessible information may have a larger impact on their decision making than simply imposing a set of rules that are largely unknown to students.
According to Agee, Costa is doing an excellent job following the Smart Snack Regulations. The snacks being served at Costa serve as healthy alternatives to junk food at school but do not impact students’ decisions at home. Costa needs to take a stronger initiative to encourage healthy eating outside of school.
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