In what the city is calling an effort to combat obesity, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is taking a serious step in fighting obesity epidemic by banning bake sales in the city's public schools.
As a part of New York's school wellness program, unhealthy snacks in vending machines in schools are starting to disappear too. Parent-Teacher Associations are given the exceptions to sell baked goods after lunch time and after 6PM on weekdays. You can read the full New York Times article
here.
This is seems like a bad idea, especially when bake sales are what usually fund clubs and other activities in the school. The only other reason why they might have banned the sales is that some children are highly allergic to peanuts, which is not mentioned in the Times article.
Do you think that banning bake sales can really help with the obesity epidemic?
In what the city is calling an effort to combat obesity, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is taking a serious step in fighting obesity epidemic by banning bake sales in the city's public schools.
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Comments (41)
NO! This will not help at all. They should just get rid of the vending machines. Baked goods are actualy pretty good for you. I do not see any reason why they would get rid of such a good thing.
it will help a little bit i think
No it won't help at all with the obesity epidemic. However, I've got to say, epic win on that picture. Poor PC...he's getting so desperate now that Macs are gaining in popularity.
PC = Pee Sea. Mac = <3
No way! If there is a will there's a way. Kids only -the majority- only like foods that taste good, and according to my friends the only "good" foods contain lots and lots of fat and cals. Do what you want to, but mark my words, kids will not stop eating cookies after school, nor will they case eating heaps of candy on a whim. Kids eat for taste, not nutrition. I see the point of this act, it is well taken; however I think it wont have the efficacy. This, at the most substantial level seems pretty mental to me; its just my worthless opinion.
@hotpinkstarberry@xanga - baked good are tailored to be healthy. I am with you on this
@lgsbeerreviews - I was waiting for someone to point it out
nah, chill. LOL, I go to a NYC public school but they haven't been banned here...but then again, we're not REALLY a public school. PRIVILIC SCHOOL!
hmmm... it might help but there are other variables to account for. I think a child's eating habits at home is the biggest factor.
Not at all.
This is all too common with western thinking and western approaches to solutions, especially with medicine and health. Going after bake sales will have little effect compared to implementing solutions aimed at the root of the problem -- the unhealthy mind/ lifestyle. I suppose yes, going after bake sales is EASIER; but since when were effective solutions the easy way too? The effective solution IS the effective solution, no matter how difficult -- it only matters whether we want to attempt to implement it or not.
Plus, taking away bake sales D: D: D:
Not cool. Those were some of the best things about school. Cookies and Brownies and Cupcakes and Cookies and Cupcakes and... Brownies and things with sprinkles and frosting and all that Omnomnom.
@shunny@xanga - they are
That's so sad! The bake sale is how kids in schools get to do things they'd never otherwise be able to fund. I think it's a step in the wrong direction. Besides, you can eat things from bake sales in moderation.
Try banning McDicks, Starbucks and the like, Mr. Bloomberg. Maybe THEN you'll get somewhere.
Hmm. On the one hand, limiting early exposure to high-fat, high-sugar foods is very important; on the other hand, bake sales have been around forever! I guess it depends on how often these bake sales are happening --are they infrequent, once-a-month events, or are they every day?
I think changing school lunch menus and vending machine contents would make sense and be helpful in conjunction with education about healthy eating/lifestyle.
I guess part of the problem is that they're kids --like @westernsoul@revelife says, kids will probably go for the brownies/cookies over the healthy food. But, one could view this as MORE incentive to try and ensure that they get a healthy meal in school, since they're going to be eating crap outside of school.
Oh I thought they were going to say they caught some people selling special baked goods.
@lgsbeerreviews - No, PC is my brain doctor.
I think it is a poor move. Atleast at a bake sale the goods are baked at home, so they have wholesome ingredients rather then that processed junk that gets put into imitation baked goods in vending machines. Besides.. how often to bake sales happen? Daily? I don't think so, and how often are the kids exposed to vending machines and fast food? Far to often. I guess those guys aren't getting targeted because the school makes money off of them.
my sister (who's in hs) claims that it's because of the "special" brownies people make and distribute in school.. i think health issues is not the reason why this was passed.
Sheesh. Whose business is it if someone wants to eat a brownie after lunch? Seriously, shouldn't politicians be finding ways to fight - oh I dunno- drug crime or the financial crisis? Most they take money away from fund raisers because of obesity concerns? That's just ridiculous.
Not at all. There's still plenty of fast food places around.
No, I don't. And I don't think that people should be trying to force others to eat more healthy. That's something that you have to want, or it just isn't going to work. Banning bake sales probably won't do a thing, anyway, because I was a pretty heavy kid and I never went to or bought anything at a bake sale, in or out of school. All it does is punish the parts of the school that benefit financially from them. The idea that this is going to combat obesity in students is laughable, to me.
Also, how does it help to give kids a full meal (lunch) and then turn around and before its even dinner time, shove baked goods (usually sweets) in their faces? Not to mention then when it IS dinner time (around 6pm or so for many people, although I do recognize not everyone eats dinner at that time) they offer them baked goods again, when it is either before or after they've eaten.
This is just a hollow attempt to make it look like Mayor Bloomberg is doing something, when he is really doing nothing at all. Because, essentially, that is what it is.
As for the peanuts, the people who bake the goods know what they used for ingredients. They could be forced to clearly label their goods as containing peanuts or peanut products (such as peanut butter or peanut oil). If that is too much risk, they can be banned from using peanuts in the ingredients of their baked goods completely. Yes, that would mean that some items (which obviously are made with mostly peanut butter, such as peanut butter no-bake cookies) would not be offered to even the kids who do like them and are not allergic, but it would alleviate the problem.
So, really, there are ways to get around peanut allergies without banning bake sales and without restricting them to specific times of the day.
But, again, if it is just an obesity combating issue, its still a joke, because its not really changing anything other than the times people are allowed to have the bake sales. Eating sweets and baked goods is definitely something that can add to a weight problem, but eating them so soon after having lunch or just in time to have dinner (or right after you've had it), then you are essentially adding two extra meals for the students each day. So that would be two lunches and two dinners.
Not to mention that school lunches themselves aren't that healthy, either. Just getting rid of bake sales, and unhealthy snack items before lunch doesn't really do much if you offer them food weighed down with grease, zillions of extra calories and fat content just because its easier to make it for that many kids than it is to make something more healthy. THEN offer them tons of sweets afterward.
I know that when I was a kid and in school, our vending machines were not turned on until lunch, and our school didn't offer a lot of extras for ala carte (although there were some unhealthy items there, but lunch itself was unhealthy, so...) that you had to pay for, but it seemed almost a point of stubbornness to wait until after lunch and then load up from the vending machines, anyway, once they were turned on again. So, even that doesn't help as long as the vending machines are there at all.
This is just a veiled attempt to look like something is being done or attempting to be done about the obesity problem, when nothing is being done about it at all.
no.
yeah, because the occasional bake sale is totally what makes people fat, not the food choices they make every other day of the week/month/whatever.<<sarcasm
Bake sales don't make people fat . . .
Don't think it'll help. The fat kids have an unhealthy eating habit at home, at school, everywhere. Bake sales aren't that prevalent anyways are they? We don't really have any where I live.
I doubt it will help
& AWWW MAN =(