During lunch, all around me, kids are walking around with cafeteria trays loaded with pizza, tater tots, sherbet, etc. and I can’t help thinking to myself, is this healthy? From what I’ve seen, Free State students prefer to buy their lunches instead of bringing them to school.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some really healthy food items available in the cafeteria, but they tend to stay in the cafeteria rather then on kids lunch trays.

What happened to “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”?

In early 2011, the USDA (U.S Department of Agriculture) tried to improve school nutrition and proposed to limiting “starchy vegetables” to one cup a day to encourage children to eat other vegetables. They also asked to limit the use of tomato paste in pizza and other foods with tomato paste in them.

However, Congress has changed some of their suggestions, now, pizza sauce and tomato paste has been categorized as a vegetable to save money for schools that can’t afford perishable food as well as other schools. So now instead of an apple, “a pizza a day keeps the doctor away”.

No matter how many ways you look at it, some food options in schools are really unhealthy. And now, idea of a pizza as a vegetable is actually real and accepted. Just the thought of it makes me raise my eyebrows and think, “Really?”

12.5 millions kids in America between 2 and 19 years old are obese. Some of their options in their school cafeterias are not the best choices to stay in shape with, just the more tasty choices for them to eat.

So the next time you’re in the line for for the cafeteria, think about instead of having potato chips and sherbet for lunch, maybe grab a bag of popcorn and some juice. These sound just as bad but the truth is that if you cut back on the salt and butter, popcorn is one of the healthiest snacks out there and juices with 100 percent fruit and a low sugar count can be just as good. It’s not a big step, but it’s a start.