Childhood obesity is a problem which has become a major worry for many parents around the world. 

To fight against this childhood obesity, the United States Department of Agriculture is planning to provide healthy school food at the nation's public schools.

Healthy foods at public schools can be more fruits and vegetables included in the schools' cafeteria. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), childhood obesity has increased thrice over in the past 30 years. The percentage of childhood obesity went from 6.5% to 19.6%, between 1980 and 2008, among kids of 6 to 11 years old.  When it comes to adolescents, ages 12 to 19, this rate has jumped from 5.0% to 18.1%.

Apart from providing healthy school food like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, this plan also helps to cut down the amount of sodium and saturated fats in cafeteria food and to outright ban trans-fat foods from schools.

The new proposal of providing healthy food at public schools will also limit the availability of many junk food favorites like pizza and French fries.

According to Tom Vilsack, Secretary, Department of Agriculture “the initiative will affect the estimated 32 million school lunches, and 12 million school breakfasts served every year”.

More over the crack down on unhealthy foods and improved availability of healthy foods at public schools is intended to stop the continual increase of childhood obesity. This plan is to encourage better eating habits in children.

Some conventional politicians think that checking the nutrition standards in school foods is not a business of the federal government but this argument is unaccepted by health advocates and ignored by the public at large.

Proposal of providing healthy school food also includes monitoring of snacks sold in vending machines. Moreover, once the rules become functional, schools must meet the standards in order to be eligible for federal assistance and funding.

The CDC cautions that obesity in childhood increases risk of developing diseases such as heart disease, type-2 diabetes, stroke, and certain types of cancer in children.

Lets hope that this rule is implemented effectively and so that children get healthy school food and are encouraged to follow healthy eating habits. 

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