NZ Government bans unhealthy food

Sorry I can't get a better source which describes the decision in more depth but I can't be bothered looking for a more descriptive one.
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/070611/2/m4o.html

Our government has now decided that children aren't allowed to choose what they can have to eat at school canteens. It must now be designated "healthy" food. I'm expecting they'll next impose lunch box sanctions as well to counter the increasing amount of contraband chocolate snacks which is devastating the this nation.

Can't they understand that this doesn't change anything, it just means people will have to get the lunch they want from the shop down the road!

Politicians frustrate me.
:wall:

Personally, I have no gripes with this.
There needs to be a more pro active aproach to childrens health in this country. A good step.
Although, to be fair, I agree with you this is actually quite redundant on it's own.
There need to be more government run health programs, otherwise this is a bit of a lame duck.

Sounds like a plan, I wouldn't want to send my kid to a school where she/he can have fries every day.

FASCISM!

OUr Canteen is privately owned, so really they can do whatever they like.

A black market opportunity for enterprising young grade schoolers...*cuts to the school playground*..."Pssst, hey kid, wanna buy some chips, chocolate, curly fries? Come on, you know you want it. You got the money, The Candyman's got the stuff."

Imo, the key to good nutrition is balance, moderation and common sense. Good eating habits need to be taught and encouraged at an early age. So schools that remove soda pop machines, snack & candy machines, and other such fare from the menu provided by the school cafeteria are okay in my book. However, I draw the line on frisking bag lunches and banning such items outright.
From today's local paper:
New York State Govenor's School Lunch Proposal

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Originally Posted by Hosakawa Tito

A black market opportunity for enterprising young grade schoolers...*cuts to the school playground*..."Pssst, hey kid, wanna buy some chips, chocolate, curly fries? Come on, you know you want it. You got the money, The Candyman's got the stuff."

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That is exactly what would happen.

Fat kids in school already receive failing grades and letters home and other marks of stigma. Perhaps we should just have the state take custody if the little plumper remains more than 10% over their ideal BMI. Sounds like that's where the Nanny state is taking us next...

And for God's sake, when can we ban peanuts once and for all? It's not fair to that one kid that has peanut allergies that he has to see his friends eating PB&J sandwiches. ~:mecry: Think of the kids...

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Originally Posted by Don Corleone

Fat kids in school already receive failing grades and letters home and other marks of stigma. Perhaps we should just have the state take custody if the little plumper remains more than 10% over their ideal BMI. Sounds like that's where the Nanny state is taking us next...

And for God's sake, when can we ban peanuts once and for all? It's not fair to that one kid that has peanut allergies that he has to see his friends eating PB&J sandwiches. ~:mecry: Think of the kids...

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:laugh4:

Your in pretty good form this morning Don....

As you might have noticed, the whole Safety-Nazi (or as some would have it, Nanny State) politics is a supreme annoyance factor for me.

Too many of your fellow Mass:daisy:s have drifted up my way in search of cheap land. They immediately get involved in local and state politics with the familiar "But that's not how we did it in Massachussets". So we're raising taxes, starting a state education system, bemoaning the lack of sidewalks, and of course, the whole Safety-Nazi foolishness.

Why can't the rational ones like yourself convince your looney friends to say and you come up here? :idea2: You know that Deval announced despite his attacks during the election on Kerry Healey during the election (the overhoused business) he's not only keeping property taxes, he's raising them. Where's Christy now?

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Originally Posted by Don Corleone

As you might have noticed, the whole Safety-Nazi (or as some would have it, Nanny State) politics is a supreme annoyance factor for me.

Too many of your fellow Mass:daisy:s have drifted up my way in search of cheap land. They immediately get involved in local and state politics with the familiar "But that's not how we did it in Massachussets". So we're raising taxes, starting a state education system, bemoaning the lack of sidewalks, and of course, the whole Safety-Nazi foolishness.

Why can't the rational ones like yourself convince your looney friends to say and you come up here? :idea2: You know that Deval announced despite his attacks during the election on Kerry Healey during the election (the overhoused business) he's not only keeping property taxes, he's raising them. Where's Christy now?

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Christy was great, he just wasnt gov material, he should be getting a check from patrick though, he basically delivered him free attack ads on healy.

You have some Mass nuts up there now do you Don? Well your the ones who decided to allow a gay bishop, so you reap what you sow.

You should see the new high school in Hopkinton, its beautiful Don, they even have valet parking....Coach Hughes has a golf cart with 1000.00 rims, dont you miss the good life here in Mass, where your tax dollars really give you a good bang for your buck?

But back on topic, Im not utterly opposed to this, I dont like absolutes but the government was elected to serve in the intrest of the voters, whats the outcry from the public?

I suspect it will be loud for a month, but then end.

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Originally Posted by doc_bean

Sounds like a plan, I wouldn't want to send my kid to a school where she/he can have fries every day.

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Agreed. Kids need quality food, snackbars don't belong in schools.

Healthier school food for kids shock!

Education system not wanting the blame for creating obese kids horror!

When will the madness end?!!!!1!!!one!!!!!

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Originally Posted by Odin

Christy was great, he just wasnt gov material, he should be getting a check from patrick though, he basically delivered him free attack ads on healy.

You have some Mass nuts up there now do you Don? Well your the ones who decided to allow a gay bishop, so you reap what you sow.

You should see the new high school in Hopkinton, its beautiful Don, they even have valet parking....Coach Hughes has a golf cart with 1000.00 rims, dont you miss the good life here in Mass, where your tax dollars really give you a good bang for your buck?

But back on topic, Im not utterly opposed to this, I dont like absolutes but the government was elected to serve in the intrest of the voters, whats the outcry from the public?

I suspect it will be loud for a month, but then end.

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My daisy stood for holes, not nuts. :beam:

You know I moved to Mystic, CT when I was 7, right? But yes, I have seen Hopkinton recently (just went there on Memorial Day). Hardly recognized the place. As for how far my tax dollars go, I don't need to dream of the day when I too can turn over 60% of my paycheck.... look at what the NH assemblage has done this year. :dizzy2:

About those fat kids though... I don't think it's their diet. We grew up eating fluffanutters and we were every bit as healthy as previous generations. The big difference, IMHO has been the rise of X-Boxes/Nintendos/ etcetera.

Get the little porkers outside and running around. :whip: If parents won't, have the state do it for them. :whip: And if the parents are porkers too, get them running... :whip: More exercise, less idle time.:whip: :whip: :whip:

[QUOTE=Don Corleone]

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My daisy stood for holes, not nuts. :beam:

You know I moved to Mystic, CT when I was 7, right?

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I wasnt aware of that, I thought you were in Hopkinton through the duration, to bad I played football for Holliston, I was going to rub our 88 superbowl in later.

That removes a bullet from the revolver...

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About those fat kids though... I don't think it's their diet. We grew up eating fluffanutters and we were every bit as healthy as previous generations. The big difference, IMHO has been the rise of X-Boxes/Nintendos/ etcetera.

Get the little porkers outside and running around. :whip: If parents won't, have the state do it for them. :whip: And if the parents are porkers too, get them running... :whip: More exercise, less idle time.:whip: :whip: :whip:

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You know your probably right, I mean I didnt have a PC in my house as a kid, and I had an old TV with the knob for UHF, VHF, so no remote.

I think diet is a part of it, but I think your right here Don. However the state cant regulate what parents do with thier kids on thier time.

They can regulate what they do in state institutions should parents choose to send them there.

But yeah, excersise is the proper course.

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Originally Posted by Don Corleone

About those fat kids though... I don't think it's their diet. We grew up eating fluffanutters and we were every bit as healthy as previous generations. The big difference, IMHO has been the rise of X-Boxes/Nintendos/ etcetera.

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You do realise that the sugar used has probably changed in the snack foods you ate and those of now. The percentage of simple carbs has gone up as well as the type... if it is reduced from corn such as corn syrup or fructose you will have a candied sweet with all the carbs but it won't trigger the blodd to say 'full' it doesn't register and you keep on eating... until your stomach is physically full... that is a lot more candy.

Nah, man. Trust me, Don has it right. My first year of college, I lost like 20 pounds because there was no Mountain Dew on sale on the campus, so I couldn't sit around all day and drink the stuff. Plus, it's DC, so I had to walk EVERYWHERE.

Of course, I've made the recent switch to beer, but at least I still walk everywhere; it takes me an hour going up and down a hill to get a decent dinner, not to mention sweating like a pig in the DC heat. Makes a big fat difference.

If the bans applies to just what a school can sell I have no problem with that. Their trampling over no ones freedom as schools are state run. If they start a blanket ban with no junk in the school period now that I have issues with. First of all it is no way enforcable and personly I don't see many princepals even trying just out of the sheer hassal to ban something that is already so wide spread. Secondly does the government really have no other issues that they can be focusing on this? I mean there has to be bigger issues in new zealand then junk food. Lastly, this is not the place of government. The purpose of government is to protect rights not to perside over the diet of the average kid.

Daily PE and nutrtion education would be much better. more realistic ways of controling obisity.

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Originally Posted by Destroyer of Hope

Daily PE and nutrtion education would be much better. more realistic ways of controling obisity.

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This pretty much nails the problem. When my generation was in grade school,1960's - early 1970's, cane sugar was used as a sweetner in most junk food snacks and soda-pop. That has all changed over to high fructose corn syrup now, and I don't think it's as healthy for you, it certainly tastes different. I'm sure we didn't eat any less junk food than the average kid eats today, we may have eaten less processed junk food because more mothers actually cooked and baked cookies, cakes, pies, etc... mine sure did. I think the main difference is our play time was more physically active. I remember that for much of the day, the only time we were in the house was for meals and bed time; with a little evening time tv and Saturday morning cartoons thrown in. The many options of sedentary leisure activities available today is a big contributor to childhood obesity. It's just more attractive play for those growing up today to immerse themselves into these video games with amazing graphics and immersive storylines , than use brooms sticks as toy guns and play army in a wood or shoot hoops and toss the football around like we used to do. I'm sure my generation would have made the same choices if we had the same options that are available today.

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Originally Posted by Hepcat

Sorry I can't get a better source which describes the decision in more depth but I can't be bothered looking for a more descriptive one.
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/070611/2/m4o.html

Our government has now decided that children aren't allowed to choose what they can have to eat at school canteens. It must now be designated "healthy" food. I'm expecting they'll next impose lunch box sanctions as well to counter the increasing amount of contraband chocolate snacks which is devastating the this nation.

Can't they understand that this doesn't change anything, it just means people will have to get the lunch they want from the shop down the road!

Politicians frustrate me.
:wall:

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I think it is good to serve nutritious food only in school canteens. Little children have no ability to resist the temptation of choosing hamburgers with oppression fries every day - I know I wouldn't have resisted it.

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Originally Posted by Hosakawa Tito

This pretty much nails the problem. When my generation was in grade school,1960's - early 1970's, cane sugar was used as a sweetner in most junk food snacks and soda-pop. That has all changed over to high fructose corn syrup now, and I don't think it's as healthy for you, it certainly tastes different.

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Sorry to go slightly off-topic, but I've been wondering if the ethanol effect will change this soon. With corn prices shooting up, when will it become cheaper for companies to switch back to cane sugar for sweeteners?

The easiest way to be healthy:

1. Think about what you are going to do in the next 4-5 hours.
2. Eat enough food to allow you to do that.

It's very simple. For example, if I'm going to sit in front of the computer on a day off, I eat little. If a ship has just arrived at the docks(I'm a dock worker) and it needs to be emptied quickly, then I'll grab a chocolate bar and a cola, to give me the short term energy boost I need to empty it.

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Originally Posted by Hepcat

Sorry I can't get a better source which describes the decision in more depth but I can't be bothered looking for a more descriptive one.
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/070611/2/m4o.html

Our government has now decided that children aren't allowed to choose what they can have to eat at school canteens. It must now be designated "healthy" food. I'm expecting they'll next impose lunch box sanctions as well to counter the increasing amount of contraband chocolate snacks which is devastating the this nation.

Can't they understand that this doesn't change anything, it just means people will have to get the lunch they want from the shop down the road!

Politicians frustrate me.
:wall:

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I can see where they are coming from. My cafeteria would sale crap when I was in high school. I would actually try to eat healthy, but my choices would consist of a bottle of water with no food or a crusty old salad (it really was crusty).

I would have killed for healthy food. A better idea would be adding just as much healthy food as there is garbage. Kids should be able to chose what they want to eat, at least in the higher grades.

Agree with Ice: I don't usually like when the gov't stick their nose and enforce things, especially telling me what to eat.
However, as long as they, as Ice suggested, merely force the cafeterias to carry non-junk food as well, it's ok. Forcing them to drop the junk food is NOT ok, imo, because people should be allowed to have a choice, and also because if someone actually wants to eat junk food, who are you to stop them ?

I'm sure we all have a sweet tooth of some sort, where we occasionally indulge in ice-cream/chips/chocolate/cookies/whatever junk food. That's fine. There will always be a demand for that, so attempting to cut the supply is foolish (did the Prohibition work ?).
But imposing somewhat stricter rules such that they also have to carry healthy food is ok.

Things may get a bit hairy if now the cafeterias start losing money as a consequence of modifying their stocks, but frankly, I believe that people will just eat whatever they can get at the local thingie, so overall the sales won't diminish.

However perhaps I should mention, that at my highschool after 4th form/year 10 we were no longer given PE as mandatory excersise. A big no-no in my books, why waste one of those preciuos subject slots on PE, when you can take bio and chem? Subject that will actually get you somehwere. This is the issue that first needs redressing. However given the govt's complete lack of initiative on their bungled new NCEA project, I don't see thsi happening in the next twenty years or so:thumbsdown: .

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Originally Posted by HoreTore

The easiest way to be healthy:

1. Think about what you are going to do in the next 4-5 hours.
2. Eat enough food to allow you to do that.

It's very simple. For example, if I'm going to sit in front of the computer on a day off, I eat little. If a ship has just arrived at the docks(I'm a dock worker) and it needs to be emptied quickly, then I'll grab a chocolate bar and a cola, to give me the short term energy boost I need to empty it.

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I disagree. Choclate and cola wont help you unload faster. Complex carbs will grab some pasta,

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Originally Posted by Strike For The South

I disagree. Choclate and cola wont help you unload faster. Complex carbs will grab some pasta,

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Well, I don't really have that much choice when on the job... The cola gives me a very nice energy boost, and if I'm a bit tired and slow, it makes me sharpen up quite a bit, and make me better at planning, which will make the job go a whole lot quicker. It's tried and tested, so I now it works or me, but for other people, other things might do the trick, of course. It really comes down to knowing your body(not in a sexual way, this time), and how it responds to different things. I know how I react, so I know what to eat and when to eat it.

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Originally Posted by HoreTore

Well, I don't really have that much choice when on the job... The cola gives me a very nice energy boost, and if I'm a bit tired and slow, it makes me sharpen up quite a bit, and make me better at planning, which will make the job go a whole lot quicker. It's tried and tested, so I now it works or me, but for other people, other things might do the trick, of course. It really comes down to knowing your body(not in a sexual way, this time), and how it responds to different things. I know how I react, so I know what to eat and when to eat it.

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Im just saying that a cola and achoclate bar while it may give you energy is not a heathly or well balnced diet and neither is not eating hile your sedentary. Excersise is what you really need.

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Originally Posted by Destroyer of Hope

If the bans applies to just what a school can sell I have no problem with that. Their trampling over no ones freedom as schools are state run. If they start a blanket ban with no junk in the school period now that I have issues with.

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I agree with the first part of your statement. However, I believe that during the actual classes, students should not be allowed to eat - that's what breaks are for (I bent this rule a few times in school, though every child being allowed to eat during class certainly causes distraction to learning). The most food and drink a student should be allowed in class is a bottle of water, especially on hot days.

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Originally Posted by Strike For The South

Im just saying that a cola and achoclate bar while it may give you energy is not a heathly or well balnced diet and neither is not eating hile your sedentary. Excersise is what you really need.

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I'm a dock worker. I get all the excercise I need :laugh4:

And having a balanced diet doesn't mean you can't drink a cola once in a while, you know. A side point, I've been put on one diet in my entire life, and that one consisted of eating a lot of hamburgers and other junk food... My footy coach meant I had to be larger to play as a central defender...(and he was right, I was and am quite slim)

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Originally Posted by HoreTore

I'm a dock worker. I get all the excercise I need :laugh4:

And having a balanced diet doesn't mean you can't drink a cola once in a while, you know. A side point, I've been put on one diet in my entire life, and that one consisted of eating a lot of hamburgers and other junk food... My footy coach meant I had to be larger to play as a central defender...(and he was right, I was and am quite slim)

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Oh I know but not everyone is a dock worker and not everyone gets excersise. I would also point many people dont eat allot of food they just eat crappy.