Summary
The prevalence of obesity has tripled majorly in youths among the age of 6 to 19 years during the last 3 decades. There are several diseases which are related to obesity. These include multiple chronic disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood glucose level, and high cholesterol level. Schools play a major responsibility to help to curb obesity and promote physical activity and healthy eating through practices, policies, and supportive environments (Mensah, 46). The guidelines in this report help to promote healthy eating and physical activity, thus includes coordination of school practices and policies; school nutrition services; physical activity program and physical education; supportive environments; healthy education; family and community involvement; professional development for school members; and school employee wellness. Every guideline might not be appropriate for every school to implement; hence individual schools should select which guidelines have the highest priority based on the needs of the school and available resources.Introduction
According to oxford university dictionary, health is described as the freedom from diseases or deficiency absence. On the other hand, while pharmaceutical industries are focusing on the management of diseases, the food industry and strength will always lie on the health management. Food is essential to the human beings. There are several researches which have been carried out on childhood obesity epidemic. The new guidelines synthesize the scientific evidence and best practices and combine healthy eating and physical activity into one set of evidence based for school serving students. These guidelines establish a foundation for developing, evaluating, and implementing healthy eating in school and physical activities and practices for students. These guidelines are accompanied by a series of strategies for schools to implement.
The main aim or role of food to the human body is maintenance of health and prevention of diseases; also food directs the development of products and especially with respect to the functional foods or the nutraceuticals. In addition, Food functions in the body thus resulting to a healthy nutrient provided to benefit the body (Kushi, 87). The whole approach of the school food programs depends on the finding of children ability to adopt on healthy characters if the curriculum taught is supported by the same information within ethos and the environment of school and local community.Background and overview
Regular physical activity and healthy eating play a major role in preventing chronic disease. Including cancer, heart disease, and stroke are the leading causes of death among adults. Poor diet and physical activity among young people can lead to chronic health conditions, including (type 2) diabetes and high blood pressure.
Healthy eating and the regular activities on physical training plays a substantial role in prevention of chronic diseases that included the heart disease, stroke, and cancer, three leading causes of death amongst the adults. Physical inactivity and poor diet among young people will then lead to increase certain chronic risk on health conditions that included high blood pressure, obesity, and (type 2) diabetes. When adolescent and children are engaged in healthy eating and the regular physical duties, they will end up lowering their risk for the chronic related diseases and obesity. The physical and dietary activities characters of adolescent and children are always influenced by different society sectors. This includes communities, families, schools, and child care settings, faith based institutions, health care providers, media, government agencies, and beverage and food industries, and the industry of entertainment. Each of the sectors has independent and important roles to play in improvement of the physical and dietary activities behaviors of young individuals. Schools always play particularly a crucial role by the establishment of a safe and supportive environment with the policies practices support on healthy character. Schools provide most opportunities for students to learn more about and thereafter practice healthy eating and the physical activities or behaviors.Research methodology The report combines and updates the previous guidelines that are published for the community and school programs so as to promote the lifelong physical activities among the young people. The guideline for the health programs in schools was meant to promote of lifelong healthy eating. The corresponding strategies and the guidelines with actions were also developed through the synthesis of some scientific reports and expert opinion on the effective and the feasible practices globally (Green, 165). There is involvement of development guidelines on an extensive literature search, the use of codebook by CDC staff members and development is used in rating sufficiency of scientific evidence and the expert opinion, with an external review by an approximate of almost 50 persons and organizations in school health fields, nutrition, public health, education, and the physical activity. Also, practice based opinions use refines the research based guidelines ensuring recommendations that are accessible and are given the limited funding and the resources, credible and allowing them to implement various communities and settings with reasonable terms of expectations set for the professional health practice outcomes.Aim of the programHealthy Schools
Most of the children consume most of their meals in school, at times, the food that is served at school might be the only meal they regularly eat ion school. 32 million children are said to be participating in the Lunch Program in schools while 12 million children participating on the Breakfast program, according to this, good nutrition is considered to be important than ever. The move for introduction of the program to schools has assisted in the provision of healthier foods in the nation’s schools, and it encourages schools to also provide breakfast.School Food Policies
When children eat a healthy diet, they always stay alert in classes and grow physically. Furthermore, their immune system develops enabling hem to fight illness thus growing into to be very strong and healthy adults. Most of the school children in many countries end up having half of their food in schools through these programs each day. This makes schools to be an important place where children learn healthy eating habits. The programs supply adequate food for schools to enable them run provides food and drinks to children as part of the healthy diet.
The National school breakfast program and lunch program provide a complete meal to the millions of children globally in a daily basis. According to the united states Agriculture department (USDA), it requires the meals to served by the program and be nutritious and healthy, therefore, the new guidelines which was effective from 2012 made access to school meals healthier.
A student’s health is an essential and food nutrition is considered to be important to improving children’s health. Therefore, the program offers healthy food and wholesome as possible. According to research, the high level of salt, sugar, and fat in the school lunches has contributing to nationwide childhood obesity epidemic. Currently, more than a third of individuals with less than 19 years are seen to be overweight or obese according to the disease control centers globally.
While the young people are at risk unlike ever before for diabetes, obesity, and accompanying health issues, opportunities of making healthy choices have disintegrated. Most of communities and schools programs on food are used in supporting the children’s health such as daily physical education which is not available currently. In the current society, young individuals will build healthy bodies thus establishing healthy styles of living by children being physically active and also eating healthy in daily lives. At the same time, there is an increase in the rates on obesity cases on students enrolled in daily basis.
According to the guidelines, majority of dietary changes came about due to the substitution of the healthier ingredients for the less healthy ingredients instead of the outright ban on the child friendly food items. The best examples of the processed meals were offered to the children to enhance both physical and psychological growth. In spite of the evidence, benefits recognition good nutrition having been the large lost result of globalization and development of the international food markets. The status nutritional diets of children across the world suffered as a result of the trade and actions having increased reliance on imports of food. With a focus on poor nutritional quality food, the food marketing, and ongoing technology advances reducing physical labor need, chronic disease rise to epidemic and proportions is an inevitable consequence. The impact indicated on the environment as it was being both a fundamental contribution and preventative factors improving health and welfare of the population is clear.
The school approach to the healthy eating will provide adolescents and children with both opportunities in learning nutrition and food skills on how best it can be implemented in both outside and within a school setting. Schools should implement the recommendations and at the same time teach children on the lifestyles. Children will learn to choose a healthy diet throughout meals and snacks that provided development range of consumers on based skills that included food growing and cooking.
The health concept in the promotion of school relies on the basis as a social model health, emphasizing needs of individuals at the centre of an entire organization. Using a holistic approach, the supportive setting can be created through the influence on perceptions and actions involved with a school, from the parents to caterers and food providers. This is important when addressing child health and nutrition, as the stakeholders who is involved in the provision of school food influencing overall nutritional quality thus diet of young consumers. Working at school in both international and nation level, this recognizes that schools will be ideally placed for promotion to child health, the wider community through the curriculum, and school environment, nutrition and community and the health services.
The health promotion concepts in schools are initiated development on various approaches to the formation of the school health policy. The evidence on various approaches exists that exists throughout European region, demonstration on the variety on techniques can be employed and it depends on objectives particular to given country. Approaches always range from the top down, led by national governments, local community basing projects being formulated by the organizations resulting from academic projects.
The interventions that target at the healthy nutrition needed in occurring on an early childhood, and adolescence so that it prevents, or even reverse ,the adverse health on overweight effects with eating habits according to the health magazine in New York. As prevalence the child obesity continued in increasing the rapid and globally, it is suggest that the aggressive approaches to treatment and prevention are always required to the limit and substantial with long and lasting healthy social consequences of obesity. A school plays very important part in prevention of obesity. When reaching children with adolescents at the age when health characters are always shaped and onset of preventing diseases might be the most effective intervention of method. The targets on initiatives and obesity in the schools is incorporated into the existing health and promotion programs or combination with the other encouraging interventions on healthy eating; the strategies and messages will be complemented with reinforcement on each other. In order be focusing on the healthy eating and rather on slimming or dieting, the interventions on school based could have been emphasizing on healthy nutrition in the obese as well as normal weight children.
Even though the problems are identified above will overcome the efforts of the educational system alone, schools will provide important opportunity for the prevention as they will offer most of the effective way in communicating key on health messages in large population groups, included youth, and staff in school, families and the community members. The healthy nutrition during the childhood and adolescence puts a foundation for the healthy adulthood. Therefore, multiple benefits will of the healthy nutrition and food in children and adolescence reinforces need the issues to being high priority on the agendas in school.Conclusion
The implementation and sustenance of the school based healthy eating and the physical policy activities and practice always make substantial contributions towards a healthy future for adolescent and children in the world. The epidemic of children obesity and chronic diseases are always associated with the poor eating habits and dietary and also physical inactivity’s that are not likely reversed without stronger contribution from schools (Williams, 78). The intensifying and improving efforts which promote the healthy eating and the entire physical activities to be consistent and fundamental school missions, educating the young individuals to always become healthy and productive so as to make them contribute to the society. The school based practices and policies must be a part of the coordinated health programs in schools programs reaching students from kindergarten through the secondary school while applying the set guidelines according to the setting. The district, school and state education with healthy leaders with families can also commit to the implementation and sustenance of physical activities and healthy eating programs within schools.
Work Cited
Green LW. From research to "best practices" in other settings and populations. Am J Health Behav 2001;25:165--78.
US Department of Health and Human Services. Physical activity and health: a report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: CDC; 1996.
US Department of Health and Human Services, US Department of Agriculture. Dietary guidelines for Americans, 2005. 6th ed. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office; 2005.
Williams CL, Hayman LL, Daniels SR, et al. Cardiovascular health in childhood: a statement for health professionals from the Committee on Atherosclerosis, Hypertension, and Obesity in the Young (AHOY) of the Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young, American Heart Association. Circulation 2002;106:146--60.
Kushi LH, Byers T, Doyle C, et al. American Cancer Society guidelines on nutrition and physical activity for cancer prevention: reducing the risk of cancer with healthy food choices and physical activity. CA Cancer J Clin 2006;56:254--81.
Xu J, Kochanek KD, Murphy SL, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: final data for 2007. Natl Vital Stat Rep 2010;58.
Mensah GA, Mokdad AH, Ford ES, Greenlund K, Croft J. State of disparities in cardiovascular health in the United States. Circulation 2005;111:1233--41.
US Department of Health and Human Services, US Department of Agriculture. Dietary guidelines for Americans, 2005. 6th ed. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office; 2005.
Kushi LH, Byers T, Doyle C, et al. American Cancer Society guidelines on nutrition and physical activity for cancer prevention: reducing the risk of cancer with healthy food choices and physical activity. CA Cancer J Clin 2006;56:254--81.
