Teenagers need education too!

As I was sitting in a doctor’s office and was turning over the pages of a magazine impatiently, I came across an article which was about the link between children’s obesity and later adulthood medical problems such as cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. I remembered one of the seminars we had a couple of weeks ago which was about the role of education in opening children’s eyes and showing them new perspectives of healthy eating and a better life style. An example was encouraging children to bring and drink water more often in school instead of juice or pop. One of the students in our class, who is a mother as well, told the class that before, eating and drinking in her child’s class was forbidden. However now there’s a new policy which let children to drink water in class freely. Another example was banning the vending machines in elementary schools. Even though it’s been over 10 years since I’ve been in elementary school, I remember that back then the school had started encouraging students to eat better and healthier. However the issue was not as big as it is today! But interestingly I clearly remember that all those healthy messages and advices stopped when I entered high school. It was as if students in high school did not need to hear and learn more about nutritious meals and healthier life style.

Later that week, I asked my cousin who is in the tenth grade if in her high school the issue of healthy eating has ever been raised and talked about. She told me only once and that was on an assembly which they had at the beginning of the year. This made me wonder about promoting health messages in our community, among one of the most vulnerable groups, teenagers. Here, in our program we learn about the importance of promoting and teaching health messages among people specially children through communities. However it seems like somehow we have lost our way and have missed a big gap: high schools. How could we forget about high school student when they are among the people who consume the largest amount of junk food? Shouldn’t we keep promoting and teaching them about healthier food choices and life styles instead of neglecting them?

I tried to remember how my eating habit back in high school was. Of course I can’t be quite accurate but I do remember that I used to eat in a way that could be improved greatly. And it wasn’t only my diet. My friends were also following a diet which now I know lacked many important nutrients. So I started telling my cousin a little bit about ways that she could improve her diet and enjoys a healthier life style. Her reaction was pretty interesting where she said she had absolutely no idea how much sodium is in her meals what are the side effects of consuming too much salt. She believes that all teenagers in high school need to be educated and informed about health messages, and maybe enforcing some rules such as drinking only water in class room or banning all the vending machines would be a great start.