Last week, “The Huffington Post” wrote an article about some school districts quitting the healthier lunch program. Kids are unhappy with the changes in the diet, so they are resorting to packing their own lunches or they aren’t eating throughout the day. Schools are upset because even though a large percentage of the money spent for these healthy lunches is refunded back to the schools, they still feel they are losing money. The kids are also complaining about the lack of calories they are receiving in a given meal (750-850 calories). Was this healthier lunch program a bad idea?

When something is new and unfamiliar, it’s a common act to initially rebel. The kids are rebelling by packing their lunches or not eating. If you want to reinforce a positive change in someone’s habits, it’s important that you don’t give in to this rebellious behavior. Given enough time, more kids will most likely try the healthier food and realize it’s not as bad as they originally thought. If the schools instantly give in to the children’s demands, all this does is reinforce rebellious behavior and make it appear that serving them healthier foods was actually a bad idea. This program wasn’t created to be mean or starve children, it was meant to improve the numbers of children who are obese.

Kids may think that 750-850 calories is a small amount of calories for a given meal, but they would be wrong. One small candy bar can be a few hundred calories, but do you know how many blueberries you would be able to eat to match up to the calorie count of that candy bar? The majority of people wouldn’t be able to eat that many. Healthy foods allow you to eat more while consuming fewer calories. Also, healthy food choices high in protein and whole grains will keep you full for a longer period of time. The reason the children are feeling hungry after these meals is the fact that they are throwing away half of the meal, such as the fruits, vegetables, and yogurt.

Kids can only rebel for so long before they realize that starving themselves isn’t worth it. Once they give the food a try, eventually they may actually come to like it. The problem with healthy food is the unfortunate fact that it’s rarely introduced into a child’s diet at a young age. This obviously makes the healthy food unfamiliar and less appealing. Parents could do their part by packing healthy foods in their kid’s lunch. If healthy foods are offered at the school and you aren’t happy with this change, the easy alternative would be to have your lunch packed. If the lunch you have packed is filled with healthy food as well, you have no other choice but to eat the healthy food, whether it’s from the school or packed from home. It may seem a bit unfair, but the healthier food program is trying to cut down the astronomically high child obesity rate. Obesity can be prevented, and it’s one of the biggest reasons behind early deaths in the U.S. Believe me, the kids may hate you now, but they will be thanking you in their later years.

-Tom