Although we are already accustomed and we have mistakenly “normalized” their presence as a society, the junk food that abounds in schools and hospitals should not be there. Surely you have seen that both in waiting rooms in hospitals and in cafeterias of health centers or in children’s schools there are always vending machines filled with trinkets, snacks of poor nutritional quality, soft drinks and the like, as this should not be the usual and we advocate a change in this regard.
Junk food in places that should set a good example
It is assumed that in educational centers we also want normative education, encourage the adoption of good habits of life, which is why we often insist on the need to include healthy eating classes and is also the cause of the existence of compulsory classes of physical activity.
However, we are within the reach of children and adults who are also an example to follow in schools, cafeterias and above all, vending machines filled with food of poor nutritional quality, and the worst, with no options healthy
Something similar happens in hospitals and large health centers where the promotion of good habits should be as important as vaccination campaigns if the goal is to prevent diseases, but paradoxically, those who accompany patients or wait to be seen by doctors Different specials, including Nutrition, Diabetology or similar, have easy access to a variety of products whose quality leaves much to be desired.
Precisely in these educational and health spaces in which the example should be preached, junk food should not be within reach or even present, attracting the consumer with his presence and waiting to be consumed, but instead, in the Where these products are located should be fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables.
The Basque government has recently taken the initiative to regulate this, forcing educational and health centers to have their vending machines offer at least 50% of their healthy products such as fruits and vegetables, with the aim of encouraging the consumption of these foods and disregard the intake of junk food.
Although the ideal would be that the offer of food was all healthy in hospitals and schools, the initiative of the Basque government is acceptable if we think that there will not only be junk food at hand or available to consume when it is really needed.
The importance of promoting real food
The processed and ultra processed have filled the markets and are always at our fingertips at a generally convenient price. That added to its addictive power since it is highly palatable products, it is reasonable that we all culminate consuming them.
But if we think that this type of preparations are full of added sugars , refined flours , trans fats and palm oil that constitute the villains of the 21st century, it is logical to think that in places like educational and health centers their presence should not exist.
If it is a vulnerable or needy public such as family members of a sick person who need to eat where they are or children who absorb everything, it is best to offer them alternatives that protect their health , that keeps them away from illnesses, that does not stress them but that promotes easily adopting better dietary habits.
Therefore, in replacement of cookies, cereals, commercial snckers of all kinds, hamburgers, hot dogs and buns, it is best to offer to eat whenever you are hungry, fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds, nuts (not fried or salted), salads or similar preparations.
In addition, it has been proven that keeping food at your fingertips favors its consumption , which is why there should always be healthy food available and no junk food like the one present today in the vending machines of schools and hospitals.
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