A healthy diet is important for maintaining a healthy body, but America, specifically its youth, seem to have a problem maintaining this. Almost 62% of the food the majority of people under 18 eat is ultra-processed, which is a food that contains excessive amounts of fat, sugar, and sodium, along with some types of flavor enhancers and additives. Eating these kinds of foods can lead to many health problems, including but not limited to diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. In order to combat this, California has passed a law that will phase out most ultra-processed foods from schools, further protecting adolescent health.
The law is the first in American history to target problematic ultra-processed foods that are able to harm students’ health, involving a plan to phase out especially problematic foods from California schools within the next ten years. While this will be implemented in the following years, it shows a clear stance from California: that they’re not backing down from fighting for student health.
Obesity in American children is an epidemic: about 1 in 5 children have obesity, and the number has been steadily increasing over time. This is not including other health problems that are caused by unhealthy diets brought on by ultra-processed foods, like diabetes and numerous cardiovascular diseases. With the removal of ultra-processed foods from schools, children will have less access to ultra-processed foods and will hopefully have less of a chance of getting these health complications.
Along with the health problems, also comes addiction. About 20% of people in America are addicted to food, which is normally described as an inability to keep from eating excessive amounts of unhealthy food. This addiction stems from the dopamine people get by eating foods with high amounts of substances like sugar and fat, which perfectly describes what ultra-processed foods are. The fact that ultra-processed foods are easily accessible at schools (and usually free) for children of all ages does not help this problem either, as children have an easy way to get addicted to these products by eating them everyday at school.
Despite how the ban of ultra-processed foods could benefit students’ health, some are still skeptical of the law’s practicality. This is because the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet defined what ultra-processed foods exactly are yet, which could be an issue for specifying what foods exactly need to be phased out from California schools.
While this is a valid concern, California has taken steps to combat this by specifically defining what an “ultra-processed” food actually is: a kind of food or drink that has high amounts of substances, like sugar or sodium, and/or certain effects, like nonnutritive sweeteners or most flavor enhancers. This definition allows for California to not have to aimlessly speculate on if a food is considered “ultra-processed” or not, and instead use their definition to successfully pick what foods are ultra-processed and what foods aren’t.
With all this in mind, it’s apparent that the removal of ultra-processed foods from California schools will lead to America’s children becoming healthier. However, with how long ultra-processed foods are going to take to be fully phased out from schools and how no other state in America has yet passed a law similar to California’s, America still has a long way to go if it wants to truly keep its youth healthy. Despite this, the ban of ultra-processed foods will hopefully be a step in the right direction for keeping America’s citizens healthy, not just in California, but across the country.
