Children and adolescents need a lot of energy to carry out daily activities, including having a good performance in studies. Therefore, it is very important to eat well and ingest nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, minerals and vitamins. However, the exaggerated consumption of certain nutrients can be harmful to our body. For example, eating too many carbohydrates and sugars can lead to the development of obesity and diabetes.
This is a risk that is growing more and more, because according to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1 billion people in the world are overweight. Diseases that were once thought of as adults such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease are problems that many children and teenagers are experiencing today.
Unfortunately, Brazil is not out of this alarming rate, as a survey carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2004 indicated that there are more than 38 million Brazilians overweight.
A study published by the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Sbem, showed that 15% of children in the country are obese, being that some cities have 30% or more of overweight children and adolescents (RG Nutri, 2006).
These problems are directly linked to the eating habits of most young people. These habits start at home, but their second point of reference is schools, more specifically, school cafeterias. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Health promoted The Health at School Mobilization Week (from March 5th to 9th, 2012), a campaign that aimed promote ways of life and adequate and healthy food for young people in 22 thousand public schools in the country.
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Now it's time for private schools, because on September 5, 2012, the Ministry of Health launched in Porto Alegre (RS) the Manual of Healthy School Canteens: promoting healthy eating, which has how main objective to encourage private schools to face childhood obesity by establishing canteens that offer more nutritious and less caloric foods to young people.
Currently, school canteens offer foods rich in sugar, sodium and fat, such as snacks, soft drinks, snacks, stuffed cookies, ice cream, soft drinks and other foods industrialized. Healthier alternatives, such as fresh fruits and juices, are hardly an option.
Thus, this manual is a guide that contains information that will be useful for canteen owners in private schools who want to transform their business into a place that promotes healthy eating. It explains what healthy eating is, concepts about nutrition, food hygiene rules and how to keep the canteen that way.
See also some brief tips on how to implement this type of canteen and why it's not a bad deal in a financial sense by reading the text “Healthy School Canteens”.
By Jennifer Fogaça
Graduated in Chemistry
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FOGAÇA, Jennifer Rocha Vargas. "Healthy Eating in School Canteens"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/saude-na-escola/alimentacao-saudavel-cantinas-escolares.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
