The Impacts Of Food Types Sold In Fiji’S School Canteens

The Impacts of food types sold in Fiji’s school canteen has been a major factor throughout all schools nowadays. To compare the food sales in the past and nowadays it shows a much difference relating to the changing environment with lots of food and drinks coming up which are harming the young ones. The reason I’ve chosen this topic is to highlight the improper eating habits practiced in a recent school which I attended and also went for my practical, student and teachers simply took the issue lightly and not seriously. Parents complained that their child are sick and later found out that it was the amount of junk and fatty foods being sold in school canteens. The review of my essay below will simply portray different subtopics from different articles that I’ve gathered to compare my issue to other schools around the world apart from Fiji. The topics are as follows, the food types sold in school canteens, the health problems associated with unhealthy eating habits and lastly, how the health department has taken heed or action of the issue.

The Food types sold in school canteens has determined student’s food choices in a school system whether to select a healthyor unhealthy meal. According to Jaime et al. (2009)They have highlighted the poor eating habits in a school which has low nutritious level and it is easy to purchase with a low value and these foods contains high added sugar, fats and too many calories. The Food and drinks mainly selected by students are freezy drinks and oily snacks like chips, fried chicken, coke, and etc. The Food types sold in school canteens also reflects how the canteen authorities manage their sales in a way to earn more profit like increasing the sales of junk food and other unhealthy snacks to persuade students. Moving on, as argued by (Utter et al. 2007) in a primary school in newzealand a student tend to choose his own meal for a day in the school canteen rather than bringing his lunch from home. His parent is raising up issue because the child demands more money from the parent and in other hand lunch is not taken to school. It has also being figured out that the same child explores the canteen area for the whole lunch period. This article quite depicts how a Childs mind has been attracted to the food types displayed in the canteen area. As stated by Nanette et al. (2004) the food choice selected by a student clearly shows the social factor and the physical surrounding. Students tend to select their food according to what his or her friends selects and also students choose from the smell, color and the sound that it creates which relates to the physical environment.

Moreover, the health problems associated with unhealthy eating habits is the major factor in this review where it depicts the consequences of the issue after being undertaken. The students consume a lot of unhealthy snacks or food which they do not care about their well being. According to Carter et al. (2004) a primary school in New Zealand has illustrated in a graph that the schools obesity rate is quite high because students are not practicing healthy eating habits. The article also highlights that teachers tend to focus their students a lot in the contents and notes and less outdoor activities arte practiced. This situation also can be related to schools in Fiji where teachers give lot of their time in conveying the content notes whereas less time are spent for Extra-Curriculum activities. As stated by Fox et al. (2009) it highlights the issue of Body mass index of the American school children, in a summary he elaborated that children in US are fond to consume a lot of unhealthy meals which their body mass are fluctuating from young ones being overweight compared to others. So, the type of health problems associated with these young ones is Overweight which nurses and doctors clinics session are being held in schools to monitor and give recommendation to their entire health. The most important idea or fact that doctor share is the importance of exercise and outdoor activities we must associate our time with in order to stay healthy all the time. As argued by John et al. (2004) on an article that depicts the effects of unhealthy food intake to our health which might cause a serious problem if we take the issue lightly. He highlighted some of the problems that may occur through this issue like cardio vascular disease, hypertension, Diabetes, and different types of cancer and not forgetting stroke. John really meant realistic situation of all this issue because it is really faced nowadays among peoples. He also critized that cardio vascular disease and type two diabetes are mainly faced by adolescents and small children from the ages of 3 to 18where they lack the ability to be active and exercise regularly.

Furthermore, health departments around the world show a leading or guiding factor towards the sales of Food types in School canteens. They implement policies and strategies that every canteens authorities must abide and follow. The department also plays a vital role in establishing a healthy or stable eating habits and food choices in every school. As mentioned by Ardzejewska, tadros and Baxter (2013) in a primary and secondary school in New South Wales Australia has been facing a lot of problems regarding the health issues in canteens. The ministry of health has tried their best to evaluate the issue in banding some regular snacks being purchased by students, this includes freeze drinks, potatoes snack and chips that contains a lot of oily ingredients which the ministry is trying to cut down on. This is because of a survey conducted by the ministry of health in NSW regarding the food types displayed by the canteen which was not to there expectation. The Ministry has put down some policies in this schools to solve the issue and not to happen again in future. This simply depicts how the department is taking control of the NCD problems arising in young children and engages a healthy platform for them to grasp in future. Thus, as discussed by Watt and Sheilam (2009) Health department around the world must take an initiative to visit schools in every six months to figure out how they progress in terms of Health wellbeing. The action must be taken to consideration because many diseases do arise and students are not aware of it. As stated by (Martin, 2007) The Health department has made a policy regarding food tax. The policy states that if any school seen selling unhealthy food in the canteen would be fine and given a certain amount of tax to pay. The research was conducted in London and the health department was quite serious dealing with this issue in every schools. Moving on, according to Mary, Marilyn, Marlene (2009) The US department of health has critized that students must engaged themselves a lot in physical activities and a healthy eating routine to tackle all the NCD problems. The ministry has motivated the children in a new learning platform to improve their health and build up the sequence to overcome unhealthy eating.

To conclude, the essay above has showed realistic issue happening in our school canteen nowadays worldwide, as a future teacher I recommend that we must cooperate together in solving this deadly issue and not leave it for the ministry to come and judge on the issue.