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BanningCanned Foods in Schools
Americanstreasure themselves on relating to a nation that is a super power inthe world. Precisely, a good number of Americans celebrate not onlythe traditions of the USA but also the customs of the nations fromwhich their origins emanate. Food that was served at the tables ofmany Americans in 10 decades ago has diminished if not changed.Today, canned food contributes much to the daily food the Americanstake. An article in the New York Times by Kate Murphy on 26thSeptember 2015 highlighted the reasons why students hate lunchesprovided in schools (Murphy). One of the major concerns was theprevalence of canned food. This is a clear indication that cannedfoods have taken much space in our schools regardless of the negativeeffects that are caused by these foods. This article seeks to outlinevarious reasons why canned foods should be banned in schools in theUnited States of America. Throughout ancient times, the human hadalways been seeking for the best way to store and preserve food for along time. The need for storing and preserving food has always beenvery important back then and even nowadays, human preserves food fortransportation or keeping food fresh for a longer period, etc.Throughout history, humans have found many methods to preserve andstore food, as an illustration, these methods was pickling tosalting, smoking, and drying, but the technique to preserve the foodto its fresh state was very elusive. Not until the 1800s, NicolasAppert, a young chef from the region of Champaign, invented themethod of preserving fresh food in the bottle of champagne. After thefirst invention of Nicolas Appert, canned food have advanced likewhat we see today the can could be made of steels, tin or evenaluminum in some location. Even more, the role of canned food hasalways played a crucial role throughout the history. For instance,canned food fed enormous armies of the Crimean War or theFranco-Prussian War. In a like manner, food that was preserved byusing canned method serve millions of millions of people globally,especially in the poverty area, the consumption of canned food ismassive (Savage). Parents, as well as schools, have theauthority to choose what our children should eat. What should bechosen has to be something that does not harm their lives. Theauthority must, therefore, be used to ban canned food in schools.Children learn a lot from school. It is very difficult to changesomething that a student learned from his or her teacher. They alwaysbelieve that teachers are correct and hence controlling what to eatshould start in schools ("Readers Panel – A Lesson In HealthyEating" 26-27). Schools play an essential role in the fightagainst canned food as people in most cases tend to get into eatinghabits when they are still at the tender age. It is theresponsibility of the school to make these habits to be healthy andnot riskier to the life of the student. It is, therefore, advisablefor the schools to introduce the young generation into healthy foodand this will begin by banning canned food out of the school. Today, the teenagers in high school are more tuned in to cannedfood than some years ago. They fail to understand the danger they areexposing themselves to. Although it is the commonly known method ofstoring food, the method has got a number of downfalls. There arevarious factors that restrain the shelf-life of preserved foods usingcans. This may be more harmful in schools since the students may notunderstand when the food has expired or not. Besides, it has to beknown that the cans used are prone to rust. A time when the rustbecomes deep enough, there emerges open holes in the can which canspoil the food inside. Furthermore, cans being metallic, theycorrode. Corrosion happens when the food inside the can reactschemically with the metal. Consumers end up eating particles that areharmful to their health. A part from being risky to the health, thefood preserved loses its taste as well as texture. This implies thevalue of nutrition in the food lowers. Food quality is very essentialfor school going children. Even though canned food helpsreduce food waste and helps the poverty and hunger as stated byPilar, the food is easily contaminated even if it is being preservedin the tin can. In addition, the process of transporting food fromdifferent places can also be easily contaminated, which may causeillness to a human. The use of tin-plate for meals and beveragepackaging will result in some tin dissolving in the food content.Subsequently, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of WorldHealth Organization, consumption of food or beverages containing tinhas caused a gastrointestinal effect (Nerin et al.). Proponents ofcanned foods argue that they are beneficial to the economy. Foodregulation is aimed at shielding the health of a consumer, enhancingindustrial viability, harmonizing welfare and producing a fair dealon foods within and between nations. They argue that consumers arefacing many food ingredients, products that range in very widevariety, and the consumers only feel safe when there is strictregulation on the government. In other words, people don`t care aboutthe issue of preserve food using the method of canning they rathercare about if government prohibit or allow the consumer to consumethe products. Canned food has many impacts on different aspects, fromthe health concern to the problems of food waste it also reaches outto the aspect of food regulation ("Readers Panel – A Lesson InHealthy Eating" 26-27). Some few years ago, there hasbeen a debate that canned foods can serve as protection in ourschools. Yes, it is true that schools in America have become insecurewith the rising incidents of shootings. In January 2015, it wasreported in CNS news by Kalin that schools had been requested to armthemselves with canned food in one Alabama middle school. The head ofthe institution wrote a notice to the parents asking them to allowtheir children to come with an eight-ounce can of "corn, beans,peas, etc." that they may use in case an intruder attacks themwhile at school (Kalin). This is not a bad idea basing on the factthat the canned food will be used for arming purposes only. However,a concern that arises is that the directive will further encouragethe use of canned food in the schools. There are many ways in whichstudents at school can protect themselves. For instance, thegovernment may opt to increase the presence of the police in theschools or even arm the tutors to defend the students rather thanallowing students to be accessible to canned foods whose risks areeven more than the shootings in the school (Borrell). Itis the responsibility of the schools to teach the students regardinghealthy choice making and issues to do with balanced diet. Thestudents are in dire need of education that tells them what is goodfor their health although they also need an opportunity to make theirchoices. Giving them freedom is a good idea, but that does not meanthat they should be exposed to everything. They should be taught thatcanned food is not healthy rather it is harmful to their health. Inso doing, it should be deemed illegal to have canned food in school.Since children spend a lot of their time in school, they will learnthat canned food is not good for their health (Dazeley,Houston-Price, and Hill 769-777). Thus, they will not entertain iteven at home.
Researchshows that canned food can affect the development of brains. Manyparents take their children to school so that they can learn anddevelop their skills. This development of skills is highly dependenton the brain. If the brain fails to develop, the child finds it hardto live a normal life. It is in the public domain that cans thatstore food contains bisphenol-A, commonly known as BPA, andPhthalates (Go Green Blog…). The two substances are very harmful asthey are able to duplicate the hormones of the human body. They arenormally found in the coating of the food storage cans. Even thoughscholars have proved that BPA acts well in preserving foods fromcontamination with microbial, the substance can impose risks tohealth, more so to pregnant women and in children. This substance isbelieved to negatively influence brain development as well as causingthe individual to have aggressive behaviors (Go Green Blog…). Itmay look awkward reasoning, but the cause of school shootings may beattributed to the wide use of canned food. This is because of theaggressive behavior that emanates due to the presence of BPA in thepreserved foods. Students at school ought to be exposed tofood that is healthier in their bodies. Foods that will not cause anyharm in future. It is widely known that the danger from canned foodsthat contain the specific bacilli of food poisoning or theirundestroyed toxins is a real and an essential one (Aruoma 119).Canned food can lead to childhood obesity and other associatedproblems that are caused by unhealthy eating such as poorconcentration, vitamin deficiencies, and tooth decay. These problemsare very detrimental to the results of a child in school and thegeneral operation of the student in the school (Borrell).Take for instance poor concentration if the schools will continueletting canned foods in schools, more and more students will developa poor concentration. It is worse for our children to have poorconcentration at such a tender age. This implies that the futuregeneration will be a dormant generation. Furthermore, when a studenthas excellent concentration, there are high chances that he or shewill gain a lot of skills in school. Socially, tooth decay may makethe student feel isolated and hence contribute to poor socializationbetween our children ("Readers Panel – A Lesson In HealthyEating" 26-27). Therefore, schools need to play a part incombating these problems through the provision of healthy lunches intheir canteens. This can only be achieved fully if canned foods willbe banned in schools. Schools have a great chance of impacting theoverall diet of a student even if it is the only one of the meals inthe day of the child. If the students are eating fresh chicken,vegetables and fruit for lunch instead of canned meat, there will bea positive impact on their health, as well as an improvement in theirschoolwork (Aruoma 119). Canned foods have proved to be of lowquality compared to fresh foods. For healthy purposes, schoolchildren should eat foods of high quality. The ingredients that makeup canned foods make the food be of low quality. The real truth isthat the pinto beans, vegetable juice or tuna in a can could placeone`s health at risk. Statistics show that approximately 18% of thediet served in America originates from canned food. From the earlierargument, it is clear that it is not worth it to contaminate one`sdaily grains with aluminum and BPA (Dazeley, Houston-Price and Hill769-777). It is, therefore, advisable to completely do away withcanned foods.
Theidea that canned foods can be used to distract intruders in schoolsis a good idea, but it encourages the continuous use of canned food.Furthermore, the idea serves in instilling more fear in studentsindicating that schools are no longer safe. The procedureshighlighted in the way the canned food can be used to protect oneselffrom an intruder are ok, but they leave one question hanging. Whathappens if the intruder fails to come? Many students will turn to thecanned foods to eat them thus causing a lot of harm to themselves. Itis very hard to allow these kinds of food to the schools and restrictthem to exclusively one purpose of protecting students from shootings("Readers Panel – A Lesson In Healthy Eating" 26-27). Thebest and efficient way to help the students and see them forming abright and healthy generation is to ban canned foods in schoolscompletely.
Conclusion Cannedfoods cause more harm than good especially to our schools and henceshould be banned completely. Schools play an essential role in thefight against canned food as people in most cases tend to get intoeating habits when they are still at the tender age. Canned food canaffect the development of brains. If the brain fails to develop, thechild finds it hard to live a normal life. It is clear that this kindof preserved food can cause aggressive behavior in children whichposes insecurity in the schools. Some schools take canned food as astrategy to deal with intruders. This is due to the recent rise inthe school shootings. This, however, does not make any change in therisks posed by canned foods. Instead, the idea makes studentsaccessible to canned food and they may want to experiment and see howthe food tests. Therefore, the only solution to deal with the effectscaused by canned foods such as childhood obesity, underdevelopment ofbrains, and aggressive behavior among others is to eliminate cannedfoods in the schools.
WorksCited
"ReadersPanel – A Lesson In Healthy Eating". NursingStandard27.44 (2013): 26-27. Web.
Aruoma,Okezie. “The impact of food regulation on the food supply chain”.Toxicology 221 119-127 (2006). Print.
Borrell,Brendan. "US Opts Not To Ban BPA In Canned Foods". Nature(2012): n. pag. Web.
GoGreen Blog…,. "The Danger Of Canned Foods".Greenlivingbees.com.N.p., 2016. Web. 3 May 2016.
Kalin,Curtis. "Schools Ask Students To Be Armed With Canned Food InCase Of School Shooting". CNSNews.N.p., 2015. Web. 3 May 2016.
Murphy,Kate. "Why Students Hate School Lunches". Nytimes.com.N.p., 2015. Web. 3 May 2016.
Nerin,Cristina., Margarita Aznar, and Daniel Carrizo. ”Food contaminationduring food process”. Trendsin Food Science & Technology48 (2016) : 63-68. Print.
Savage,William George. CannedFoods In Relation To Health.5th ed. Cambridge [England]: The University Press, 2004. Print.