First Step: Admitting you have a problem

Hello, my name is Cassie and I’m addicted to pop.  Okay so maybe that’s a little over the top but I do have a problem.  It started in high school.  I would demand an extra dollar everyday in my lunch money allowance because if I didn’t have my daily dose of caffeine I could not function in school.  And my mother- being the Pepsi addict that she was could not deny me my addiction.  Back then I was using the hard stuff, you know, Mountain Dew.  Due to my extreme decrease in physical activities since I’ve graduated high school I’ve downgraded to Diet Coke (and Diet Cherry Coke) because I can still get the caffine without the calories and sugar.  

Getting to the point. I know that you can not hold schools 100% accountable for bad eating habits and obese children and that is not what I intend to do.  My intention is to argue that this is part of the problem.  I also will not deny that most of these bad habits start at home, mine sure did, but it doesn’t help when these bad habits are re-enforced in their places of education.  Don’t you think that we should teach not only about healthy minds but about heathy bodies?  I remember walking into school and seeing that beautiful glowing Pepsi maching humming it’s invitation that I would accept on a daily basis becuase i could easily burn at the end of the day in practice.  Not only did it taste great, it gave my anti-morning body some extra energy.  By the time it wore off in the afternoon it was time for lunch and I would pop another cap. 

I wanted to address this as part of the reason children are obese because of a recent article I came across in my Google Reader. First of all the article was from the Grand Rapids Press that and alone made me want to read it (Hey, you can’t help where your loyalties lie).  It was all about renewing a Coca-Cola contract in Kent County schools.

I was surprised to read that in 1999 most of the Kent County schools signed a 10 year (!) contract with Coke and in return they would receive $30 a student every year.  When they signed this contract no one seemed to mind but now with the childhood obesity and diabetes things have changed.

“Guess what? Coke has gotten into milk products,” said Paul Baumgartner, nutrition services director for Grand Rapids Public Schools, where the vending machines accessible to high school students now carry other Coke products: Minute Maid fruit juices, Nestea, Dasani water and Slammers flavored milk.

Some of the schools still have the pop as options but do not sell them until the end of the school day.  As a high school student I know I would have been very upset.  Years later as soon to be teacher and someday parent I think that this is part of the solution.