School Lunches

Emmelyn F.

 

 

Child obesity was skyrocketing, and everyone was worried about the health of the newest generation. The “mystery meat” in the lunchroom was less regulated than the meat in fast food places. Of the vegetables eaten by kids, one third was potatoes. In 2010, this all changed.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 managed to change school lunches for the better. Although the infamous legacy of school lunches never was shaken, lunches were now healthier, and ketchup was no longer a vegetable. Banning trans fats and requiring fresh produce in school lunches was the newest development since the mid-1900s. The cheese puffs and ice cream cups were taken away, and in their place remained pretzel sticks and apple slices.  From 2003 to 2012, child obesity rates were down 40%.

Kids with healthier school lunches have about a four point higher average on tests than kids without as much nutrition, a study stated. Kids can benefit from these new lunches, but the prices on lunches were now higher, and the food was less appetizing.

We took a sample of 67 seventh graders from Farnsworth Middle School. About two out of five kids bought school lunches; out of those 27 kids, 24 said they disliked some or all of the meals.   Seven kids complained about the lack of variety in school lunches and how they should be allowed to pick their own vegetables. In the lunch system, you are given a vegetable based on whatever meal you had that day; you can’t choose.  Five kids complained about the ingredients that weren’t very fresh, two of them joking about the food actually being rubber.

Fruits given to kids could easily pass as desserts; they were being hidden in gelatin or syrup, and they tasted like high fructose wood. The vegetables are raw, nothing being done to make them in the slightest more palatable. Although rules have been passed to ensure more fruits and vegetables make it onto the plates of kids, it isn’t likely they will even want to eat them.

Researchers of the School of Vermont found that many kids were throwing away their healthier lunches. Food waste went up more than 50%, and most of that was the fruits and vegetables the schools were forcing on their plates. If these fruits and vegetables were presented in a more appealing way, more food would make its way into kids’ stomachs instead of trash cans.

“We can do a tremendous amount of good for kids across the country if we change school lunches,” says Ann Cooper, an author, teacher and chef. Hopefully, by making these fruits and vegetables more enticing, serving them cooked or with dips, more kids will buy more lunches and help quash the rising obesity rates. School lunch regulations were last changed 11 years ago; it’s about time we update them again.

 

 

 

The Undercover Growth of Obesity in America

By: Young Xu

 

 

            One third of all American adults are obese. This was concluded in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) of 2012 and has since been rapidly increasing each year. Yes, it may seem like it isn’t a big deal, but we haven’t seen the big picture of this issue yet.

Obesity is a disease in which you have excessive body fat. It usually occurs when you take in more calories than you burn through exercising.  In modern society, this is almost a regular lifestyle for many Americans. Although this may not be the most talked about problem in our modern society, it is still a rapidly growing concern that seems to be taking over our citizens behind our backs.

Multiple health experts advise us to eat with a full colorful plate of nutrients and exercise for 30 minutes each day, but this task is easier said than done. We have underestimated the long term issues sitting on a couch for the whole day can bring. According to a 2011 combined study, one hour of TV per day can cause a 10% increased chance of Diabetes, a 7.5% increased chance of Heart Disease, and a 6.5% increased chance of death itself. Taking in the fact that the average American adult will watch multiple hours of TV per day, these numbers are undoubtedly astonishing.

Another reason why Americans today are becoming obese is because they are consuming more calories than they are burning. Today, the average American adult is consuming approximately 3,600 calories per day, which is a 24% increase from a 1961 study, when the average was only 2,880 calories. With this adding on to the amount of time they sit on a couch watching TV, we can clearly see a huge gap between calorie intake and calories burned.

Due to these significant increases in numbers, we have seen drastic changes in waist circumferences and society overall. According to a study in 2017, all US states have an obesity rate over 20%. In other words, more than 20% of their residents are obese while just two years ago there was no state with an obesity rate above 15%. To put this into perspective, in less than 40 years, the condition of obesity has grown by about 50%. This goes to show how viciously fast this epidemic can grow. With these obese adults comes obese kids. One in six kids in America is affected by obesity, which is about 12.7 million children aged 2 to 19. This number can majorly grow if our adult numbers grow, which is why helping stop this epidemic now is so important, as trying to stop it later on could become much more challenging.

In addition to becoming aware of this growing issue, we must also help to prevent it. Simple daily routines such as eating low-fat and low-carb meals can benefit a lot over time. Studies have also shown that regular aerobic activity is very helpful. Without realising it, a good night’s sleep may also be helpful as well. Sleeping with a comfortable pillow and mattress for a reasonable amount of time can also slowly pick away at your bad habits. Nevertheless, we still have to understand what obesity truly is before we make any moves in order to make preventing it easier.

In conclusion, we have seen the major causes and effects of obesity, and its massive effects on society. Our everyday routines will shape our waist circumferences, and we may not even know it. That is the undercover act that obesity has done for the past years and will continue to do until we become aware and do something about it.

 

           

 

 

How Birth Year Affects Professional Sports Players

By: William G.

 

 

            Have you ever fantasized about being a professional athlete? Well, it helps to be born in the right months: January, February, and March, the first quarter of the year. A research study from bbc.com has shown 75% of teens playing in a u17 European championship final were born in the first quarter of the year. These numbers are abnormally high, but most athletes are born in the first quarter.

“One thing we can do to try and limit this bias or relative age effect (RAE) towards kids born in the other nine months is base teams on weight and size, not age,” New Zealand Rugby says. Another thing we can do to try and restrain the bias of RAE is base all teams on physical development. This is why many teams are allowed players to compete up to a year; this is a suitable start, but teams should allow smaller and less physically mature athletes to play down a year. This boosts their confidence tremendously.

Typically, the main reason kids born in the first quarter of the year are “better” is they mature faster, being faster and stronger than other kids at their age. This means on the 9-10-year-old team the oldest kids could be ten percent older than the youngest, and they are more likely to be picked for the A team, leading to better coaching and education from a younger age.

It’s not all bad for the last quarter kids because they tend to be more advanced for their relative age than everybody else but don’t see it and often get discouraged. This is because they have to work harder and recognize their mistakes faster in order to keep up with the bigger, faster, and stronger kids. A great example of this is Messi. At 5’7, he’s been small all of his life, but due to his mental sharpness and ability to realize his weaknesses and ability to improve he’s now one of the best soccer players ever. His personal accomplishments are 725 goals, 309 assists, 36 team trophies or titles, 77 personal trophies, including the Ballon d’Or, six times, given to the best player in the world that year. He did this all within 910 games. Also, he has an astounding net worth of over 400 million US dollars.  

There are many more biased sports, such as ice hockey and skiing where RAE comes into effect more than figure skating and gymnastics; sports like these are better for fourth-quarter kids because they tend to be more flexible, whereas first-quarter kids tend to mature faster. But there are many benefits of making it pro by being born in the last three months of the year. For example, an amazing 55% of legendary athletes such as Pele, Maradona, Tom Brady, Lebron James, and Micheal Jordan are born in the last quarter of the year.

Now when you see your favorite athlete on TV, or maybe even in person, you might know the struggle or advantages he or she had in their early years, and how they overcame them. So, are you going to sit around doing nothing today, or take full advantage by working harder so your name can be in the list of legends?

 

 

Water Pollution

By: Gavin F.

 

 

 A study shows that in 2025, only four years from now, half the world’s population will not have clean sustainable drinking water. Water pollution is a growing source of human extinction, and it needs to be stopped.

Right now over 1 billion people live without clean drinking water, and almost all rivers in Asia are polluted. You are very lucky to have good clean drinking water because a lot of people live without clean water, and it has a detrimental impact on their society. Mark Rober is a former NASA engineer, partly responsible for the Curiosity Rover going to Mars; he said about water pollution, “I am so bummed that over 2 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water.” I know you’re saying, why can’t they fix it themselves? The people that don’t have clean and sustainable water don’t have the resources to do it themselves, and a lot of them don’t have the money to make a water treatment facility.

A study shows that 80% of wastewater in America goes into the ecosystem. That has a very big effect on people that need that clean water but can’t have it because wastewater is being put into rivers and lakes. A study found that water pollution kills over 450,000 people each year and over 2 billion people get sick from untreated drinking water. A lot of the time people don’t even realize their water is toxic or has bad particles in it because they either don’t have a good filter for their tap water or their pipes can be made out of lead, which is toxic to humans. Kids in Africa go through excruciating pain and suffering to get more than 40 pounds of dirty water from sources over four miles away from their homes.

There are also different types of water pollution. There is Chemical pollution, Groundwater pollution, Microbiological pollution, Nutrient pollution, Oxygen-depletion pollution and Surface water pollution. A study compared how many people didn’t have access to clean drinking water in 2015 and found that over 1 billion people live without drinking water.  The most recent study conducted in 2018 found that over 2 billion people now live without clean water, and that was over 1 billion new people without drinking water.

First, you can donate to https://generosity.org/, or you can help people in need of clean water. You can also do stuff that doesn’t cost money like throw trash in garbage cans and throw recycling in recycling bins to reduce the amount of plastic being thrown in the ocean. Two, you can throw fertilizer back into the grass because a lot of the time fertilizer is being thrown into the grass very poorly, and some of that fertilizer can end up in the water; you might ask, what is so bad about fertilizer being thrown in the water? Well, if you did not know already fertilizer is very toxic for our water, and if fertilizer gets into our water and the water is not treated correctly chances are you will die. Three, try to keep oils out of sewage drains because oil is one of the main causes of water pollution. Individuals are not the main cause of oil in our water; it is mostly big oil companies illegally throwing oil into our oceans and rivers.

Water pollution is still a very big problem that needs to be fixed and needs to be fixed fast or the whole world is at risk. You don't have to help every single day. You can take a little time out of your day and read some articles about water pollution and then see what you can do.  You can save the lives of others.

 

 

 

Pollution

By: Flora W.

 

Do you want to die?  Probably not.  Do you want Earth to die? No.  Well Earth has many problems, but pollution is one of the biggest.  Everyone knows about pollution, but not everyone knows about what it can actually do.  The polluted seas cause dead zones and garbage patches while the polluted air causes climate change.  You may think that you will already be long gone before the world ends, but you’re wrong.  Pollution is one of the main causes of global warming, and of climate change, the biggest causes of world extinction.  What that means is, Pollution = climate change = global warming = the world ending = everyone dies.

            Air pollution is one of the biggest causes of climate change and global warming.  The burning of fossil fuels and wood, the black fumes the factories make, is destroying the air we breathe.  The gases the vehicles and factories make doesn’t only contain carbon dioxide but also dangerous and toxic chemicals that can cause many problems.  One of the problems is health related, but there are many more.  When the chemicals rise higher into the air, they will end up getting absorbed into the clouds.  When too many chemicals end up in the air, acid rain will appear.  Also, when the air gets too dense with chemicals, you get to see the air pollution, which is called the smog effect.  A PHD student did research on the air pollution timeline; in the beginning there was a terrible smog every couple of decades, but since 2015 there will be terrible smog at least once a year.  Did you know that in 1892 1,000 people in London died because of smog?  In 1966 during November, New York City had a terrible smog, causing the deaths of 168 people and health issues for about 10% of the city's population, and that smog had only lasted for three days.  In 2013 there was a smog in China so bad that it caused 2.5 billion people to lose five years of their life expectancy.

            Water pollution is another problem.  Every living thing needs clean water to be able to survive.  So when the factories and garbage start polluting up the sea, chaos begins.  Dead zones appear more and more often with their rate increasing.  Dead zones are when people dump too much farming nutrients into the ocean.  The nutrients can cause an insane amount of algae growth, but when the algae die and decompose, the oxygen in the waters surrounding it are devoured.  This causes all the marine life in the area to suffocate and die, causing dead zones.  In 2017 there was a deadzone discovered to be nearly the size of New Jersey.  Scientists have confirmed 415 dead zones worldwide.

Garbage patches also start forming in the ocean.  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is already bigger than twice the size of Texas and is estimated to have about 1.8 trillion pieces of trash; that’s only one garbage patch.  Scientists have already said that in 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than there will be fish.  That’s not even the worst of it.  70% of the trash ends up sinking to the bottom of the ocean, so that means all the trash you can see is only 30% of the trash in the ocean. 

Also there are also many more oil spills in the ocean than you think.  The ones that you hear about are usually only accidents in the water, like oil tanks accidentally falling into the ocean, big hurricanes, terrorists, or other bigger and more dramatic spills, but that’s only approximately 12% of the oil spills in the ocean.  There are many more smaller oil spills, still dangerous and deadly but not as dramatic.  Some people get carless and make mistakes, and other times the equipment isn’t good enough and end up breaking or malfunctioning. Oil causes the ocean more problems than you think.  In the ocean, there is also something called noise pollution.  

In the ocean, low frequency sounds can travel farther and clearer though the water than they could on land.  Because of this the whales and marine life can communicate through longer distances of space, but because the low frequency sounds can travel so far, and the fact that marinelife uses them to talk, it means that they can hear the seismic testing the humans do too.  People use seismic testing to find oil on the ocean floor by transmitting low frequency sounds, the same ones that marine life uses.  Imagine hearing the sounds of bombs blowing up near your home; you’d be terrified, and your ear drums would also be damaged.  To marine life, the bombs are the seismic waves.  Everything in the ocean would be understandably terrified; because of this the animals start repopulating less, pushing their species closer to extinction.  After all, how would you feel if you could constantly hear bombs going off near you? 

            All this pollution isn’t just harmful for humans, but for plants and animals too.  Because of the dead zones, oil spills, garbage patches, and other things polluting the ocean, marine life is dying.  Seafood is consumed by many people and animals and is what many people depend on to make a living.  For it to die away would cause a humongous loss for not only humans but animals too.  The air pollution makes the health of plants and animals deteriorate, causing them to die quicker than they normally would.  All animals and humans need plants to live.  The trees do give off oxygen after all.  For them to die away, the air would become much more dense with carbon dioxide, making it harder to breathe.

            Knowing about all this pollution, you’re probably wondering about your health, right?  If you think that pollution affects your health, you’re correct.  Pollution causes an array of effects, diseases, and other health problems.  The least that can happen is irritated eyes, nose, and/or throat, but the pollution can also cause cancer, asthma, and emphysema.  Other effects include headache, nausea and allergies.  Health problems include asthma, emphysema, lung infections, and some other throat and lung problems.  Diseases include (mostly lung) cancer, heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, and many others.

            Luckily, everything isn’t completely ruined.  Yes, pollution is destroying this world and everything on it, but luckily the world hasn’t ended yet, so we still have a chance.  After all, everyone and everything deserves a second chance.  The only person who can destroy this world is humanity, but the only person who can save the world is also humanity.  We caused this world its problems, so we can get rid of them too.  All we need to do is try.

           

 

 

People that are Hungry in New York

By: Emma M.

 

 

When you are hungry you just get up and get a snack, right? Or maybe you have to wait for dinner. Imagine you have to wait hours or days to get a meal. In New York there are about two million people who don’t have enough food. There are so many people who can’t afford meals. That is extremely sad. Many people don’t realize that there are so many people that are hungry in New York. Most people who live in New York normally have an okay life, but there is a huge amount of people who have nearly no food.

            Families that are struggling with money are normally the worst off. Since these parents are trying hard to make good lives for their kids they normally eat less food so their kids can have something to eat. Even worse, grandparents and older people have to decide whether they want to spend their little money on medicine or food. That is a pretty bad situation. Then there are kids. The rate of kids that are hungry has gone way up lately. There are 685,500 kids who need more food. Children's bodies are still growing, so food is necessary. 39,000 children that live in Manhattan go to bed hungry. Of course, the parents are trying to help, but the kids could still be hungry. Families or people with children are struggling because they have so many little mouths to feed, but they have to remember they also have themselves to feed.

            As we know, Covid has not been good for anyone, but it has really made it worse for the people that are already hungry. The stay at home orders and requirements for social distancing have made getting food much more difficult. Some people used to go to Mosques (they are like churches) to get food, or it would be a place that poor people could go to, but since Covid they have not been able to utilize that. One major effect that Covid has had on people that already struggle to get food is that the rate of people without food has gone up. Prior to the Pandemic 1.2 million people were having difficult times with getting food, but now there are about 2 million people who can’t afford food. Getting jobs is also hard now that Covid has happened. The food industry was a great way people could make money and then get food, but since the Pandemic, 234,000 people have lost their jobs at restaurants.  Tens of millions of people have lost their jobs, so now 13.1 million people are not able to get food. Stores shut down for a little while and people just went remote. So that has also made a difference on how people get something to eat.

            Lots of people are getting free meals. In July, about 11% of New Yorkers were getting free meals. 29.4 million kids are getting free meals at school. There are one out of fifteen kids who don’t have after school meals and snacks also. Many people's life line is in food pantries. Since the pandemic, tens of thousands of people go to food pantries. It is amazing how many people can gain food, but what about the people who don’t have food pantries or places they can go near them? We can still help them and make a difference in those people’s lives.

            There are tons of people trying to help, but there are also some mayors and the governor trying to help. Many people wrote a letter to governor Cuomo about this problem. They talked about the numbers increasing and how people are trying to help themselves. The fact that people are reaching out to the governor and mayors just says one thing about how huge of a problem this is. Mayor Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, says, “I fear the number is going to be around 2 million New Yorkers who are food insecure as this crisis deepens, and that's a horrifying number.” There are about 1.2 million people in New York City who need food. 1.2 million people! Just in New York City! That is huge; just imagine being in that position and not being able to eat for a while or eating very little. Over 330,000 children in New York are hungry. It is great that he is trying to help.

People are starting to realize what a big problem this is. I mean, people have known about this for a while, but Covid has probably deepened that realization. A program called SNAP is also trying to help. They help kids get food and also adults. The Federal Nutrition programs are trying to help as well. These people have made a difference, but sadly there are still people that have barely any food. We can help though. It is not like there aren’t already people who are helping, and it is not like we have no hope at all; the more donations and more soup kitchens the better.

 There's almost two million people in New York without food. There are parents who skip meals for their kids and sometimes the kids go to bed hungry. It gets really bad when it comes to older people who need medicine and food. With help these people can get back on their feet, and with the help of the governors, mayors, food pantries and soup kitchens, we can turn this around and make everyone go to bed safe and full of food.

 

 

How healthy is your everyday diet?

By: Emma C.

 

 

Candy. I bet your favorite candy popped into your head just now. The sweet and savory flavor of the candy is almost too good to be true. Yet the question is, do you even realize how bad it is for you? I’m sure you knew it was unhealthy, but how bad was it really? People every day consume an unhealthy amount of foods that are bad, some without even knowing. Do you know how much unhealthy delectables you ate today? My guess is that it was an unhealthy amount.

A study showed in 2017-2018 throughout the world around 42.4% of people are obese. Each day that percentage is probably rising, and that’s not a good thing. From 1999 to 2000 through 2017-2018, the amount of obese people increased from 30.5% to 42.4%, and the amount of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%. Being obese can affect you in many ways, some leading to bad health issues. A study showed that the estimated annual medical cost for obesity in the US was a whopping $147 billion in 2008! The medical cost for obese people was $1,429 higher than average weight people. The health issues that you can get from being obese are diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, more of a likliness of death and more. I’m positive that you wouldn’t want any of those to happen to you. It’s even said that more than two in three adults are either overweight or obese, and about one in six kids are too! If you don’t want to become obese then I definetly recommend having a good diet.

In the end, how much does having an unhealthy diet really affect you? Having an unhealthy diet can lead to many health issues and many more bad things in the future. “In the United States, the top leading causes of death are related to chronic disease, which comes from having an unhealthy lifestyle,” says Alicia Galvin, a healthy diet promoter. Having an unhealthy intake of foods with trans fats, sugar-based products, refined carbs, vegetable oils, and processed low-fat products are poor for your health. Trans fats can be linked to serious diseases such as heart disease, and while processed low-fat products are often disguised as healthy food options, they usually contain too much sugar, which makes them taste much better. In 2016, researchers found that diets with a high glycemic (meaning that the glycemic index measures how fast and how much a food raises your blood glucose levels) load may trigger increased symptoms of depression. Also, a higher intake of red or processed meats can lead to an increased rate of death, which nobody wants to happen.

“Over time, when you make healthy decisions about food, you are at a lower risk for cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and even anxiety and depression. You will have more energy, feel better, and may even be in a better mood on a daily basis,” says Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at NYU Langone Health in New York City. Having a healthier and more nutritional diet will lead to you having a much better lifestyle and more benefits for you in the future. To improve your diet, the important vitamins and minerals that you should eat more of are magnesium, iron, potassium, calcium, and just all vitamins in general. With diets rich in vitamins and minerals, they let you have a lower risk for mental health disorders. The AHA (American Heart Association) also states that dietary fiber helps improve blood cholesterol and lowers the risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, and type 2 Diabetes. According to the National Cancer Institute, foods also high in antioxidants are said to reduce the risk of cancer. These types of foods include berries such as blueberries or raspberries, dark leafy greens, pumpkin, carrots, nuts, and seeds. All of these foods will help to improve your diet on a daily basis.

“What I promote to clients is a whole-foods diet, meaning, eat foods as close to their original form as possible,” says Alicia Galvin. Eating more whole-foods or natural, unprocessed foods containing around only one ingredient will help you to have a healthier diet. People should aim to consume whole-foods 80 to 90  percent of the time. The benefits of a whole food or a minimally processed diet include lower rates of heart disease, cancer, and type 2 Diabetes. According to a study by the Institute of Nutrition Sciences in Germany, the natural compounds of phytochemicals, which helps to get rid of bacterias and can be found in fruits and veggies, can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular and other diseases.

If you’re looking for better and more healthy options to eat, try eating more fruits, vegetables, legumes, meat and fish, nuts and seeds, eggs, dairy, healthy starches, herbs and spices, and drink water instead of sugary drinks. These types of foods will help to improve your diet by a milestone. Just look at all the health benefits too! There are also different diets you can go on like the DASH diet, MIND diet, Mediterrainian diet, going vegetarian, plus more. Eating healthy also improves your brain function and physical performance. Comparing data from the Nurses Health Study shows that women who followed a healthy lifestyle pattern were 80% less likely to develop cardiovascular disease over a 14-year period compared to all other women in the study. A study similar to this, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, showed that similar healthy choices were beneficial in men, even among those who were taking medications to lower blood pressure or cholesterol.

As a person, you don’t want any of these health risks, and “The foods we choose make a difference,” says Michael Greger. I’m sure by now we all have heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” If that were true I would want to be  something that wasn’t cheap, fake, nor unhealthy, and I’m sure you would too. The next time you see that candy that you love, try to resist the temptations and think about how healthy you really are eating.