As our children grow older and begin the path to adulthood supply them with knowledge about the world so that they can be productive citizens of society. We teach them how to reason, how to articulate, and how to take responsibility for their actions. Math, science, reading, grammar and history are the order of the day in many schools. Some schools excel to teach their students these articles but many schools fall short when it comes to teaching the value of good nutrition.

Nutrition fundamental aspect of living, in fact, the way the average lifespan number sequences times one must make nutritional choices is mind boggling. There is something so basic to the very essence of life but it is so often overlooked. While the responsibility for teaching current and future generations rests on the parents first and foremost, schools have made a lamentable job of spreading the importance of nutrition, especially in the school cafeteria. We all know that children learn by example, and in order to provide healthy food for students that children often have to deal with are foods that are highly processed, overly fat and nutritionally bankrupt. Junk food reigns supreme at the expense of young children who will grow up and often play the lifetime of bad nutrition habits learned at a young age.

Good or bad nutritional habits often start at the tender age. The effects of those times have far reaching effects on the individual and society as a whole. As America spends next two trillion dollars in health care costs each year, but we are not even ranked in the top 10 countries in terms of overall health. Countless dollars are spent discussing that very well could have been prevented with proper nutrition – lessons that can be taught at a fraction of the cost to society in the interests of the child and the country jointly. It is not surprising that the top two killers of Americans, heart disease and cancer, respectively, can largely be prevented by proper nutrition.

However, healthy food for students can often lead to more parochial if underappreciated benefits. Healthy food for students has been shown to increase academic performance as well as sharing abnormal behavior and violent crimes, including suicide, among the population of students.

If schools are to feed the mind, they should also do a better job of feeding the body. If good education is a right, healthy diet in school should be, too.