School Holiday parties. What every kid and teenager dreams about during school as the holidays draw near. Sitting in the desk waiting for the sugary, fat filling goodness to be passed out, only to realize that the treats this year are raw celery and broccoli. All over the country, this is the new reality for every school in the nation. Healthy food instead of sweets.

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, School Snacks Act, and our School Wellness Policy were set in stone to target hunger set by poverty and to make the kids of America healthy (a.k.a less obese). It is a clear fact that America is one of the most obese countries in the world, the average person weighs 24 pounds more now than the average person in the 1960’s, according to The State of Obesity website. Over 31% of children and teenagers in 2012 were obese or overweight. Our government is trying hard, almost too hard, to fix this problem. These new laws and policies are taking away our freedom, as students, to eat whatever we want at school. They are OUR bodies, so we should decide what we put in them. If the government wants to really encourage change, they should allow students opportunities to learn about food and access to the foods they enjoy. These legislative efforts are looking to provide a short-term solution to a long-term problem. The government can’t decide what we eat. This is America. If we want cake, then let us eat cake!

The seemingly random food regulations at school won’t help in the long run. Salsa Garden SunChips are approved, but Cheddar SunChips are not. We can just go home after school and binge eat all the tasty processed food anyway. Can’t the government tell that normal teenagers don’t want to eat raw vegetables for lunch everyday? The teachers even break the rules and bring us sweets. We all know when a teacher says they brought the class a vegetable platter with carrot bread, they actually mean they brought the class cupcakes and candy but we need to keep quiet about it. (Shout out to all the teachers that actually do that.)

There are two ways of dealing with the obesity problem. One way is doing things by law. This method does not work because it is impossible to force people to eat healthy and exercise regularly. Even if these laws somehow manage that, students are free to eat whatever they’d like once they get home from school. The U.S. needs to come up with a more effective ways to deal with this problem. Rather than taking away sweets from the classroom and regulating school lunches to only the healthiest of foods, they should focus more on encouraging cultural change and educating people about how to eat better and maintain a healthy weight.