Fighting Obesity

So I mentioned last week that the California Board has decided to ban soft drinks from their school. This decision was because they found that many students in their schools are, or becoming obese. So in order to fight this, they decided to ban soft drinks being sold in the school.

True, soft drinks do cause obesity I believe, because of the sugar. So by eliminating them will lowee the intake. However, kids these days will just find alternatives. I mean there are probably many other dirnks which is just as bad as soft drinks. For all we know, if they get really deparante, they'll just hide it in another container or something.

But the worst part of this is the impact it has on the school. What will happen is kind of going against their fight. The profits made from soft drinks sales amounted to a lot of money. If I could find the article,m I'd give you a figure, but I cannot. Well, this money is used to support extra curricular activities, such as sports, and clubs and stuff. Now I think to myself, if they lose this money, that just means cuts to programs. And cutting things like sports or clubs, will just cause the kids to sit at home watching tv, drinking their soft drinks athome, and not exercising. Now that alone will have more impact on increasing obesity than the soft drink will.

Eliminating the soft drink is just not logical. It is a bad decision. I am sure the ruling was made with good intentions, but the impact it has is substantial. I know from experience that cuts to extra curricular activities is really bad. When I was in high school, major strikes occured at our board which resulted in teachers refusing to participate in extra curricular activities. This meant no more extra curricular. This meant no sports, no clubs, no nothing. Many expert would say, and In do not have the proof to say this, but I do believe it is true, that the extra curriculars can help students in school. This is because it gives them some relief from their school work.

So is this really a decision that will help? I don't think so. This is not the solution to obesity. A better solution is forcing kids to participate in extra curricular activities. Make them join something. In high school, it always seems like it's the same people joining the clubs and sports. I guess they are just the gifted ones in that perspective. But there are like tons of students who do nothing in their school. Why not try and make students participate?