Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Before the start of this school year, my school introduced a 'healthy eating policy' that encouraged students to consume more fruit and vegetables and less fat, sugar and salt. Before this happened, there were soft drinks and lots of unhealthy food, such as fries and burgers, on sale. After this happened, soft drinks were banned and only healthy snacks, drinks and lunches sold at the canteen were allowed. At first, I hated it and desperately wanted the old way but later I got used to it and didn't really mind eating healthy. So my question is how would you react if your school/workplace imposed a 'healthy eating policy'?

Sometimes I wish my uni would do this. Although admittedly they are getting better, there's still the cafe that's open 1:30-4:30pm on Saturdays (and on Mon, Tues, and Thurs nights) where the only food options are cheesecake, chips, and wedges :/

They're actually trying to introduce that in a lot of the primary schools over here - not replace or ban items, but introduce healthier options.

I do try and be conscious about what I eat, particularly as I have a family history of ridiculously high cholesterol, and it's already worryingly high for my age, although it can be hard when you live on campus at your university and some days there's not a lot of option. And there's also been days where the only "healthy" choice from the buffet is chicken - and that's always a big hit and miss as to whether the chicken is raw or whether it's been cooked properly for once.

I'll eat anything available so I wouldn't mind either way. Not that my work has a canteen...

I think it's a good idea, because I need to do it myself...

Not that I'm overweight or anything, I just have this general lack of energy which I'm pretty sure is from my wacky eating habits. I'm getting better though, it's just hard to get decent produce in winter.

We have it at my school but I don't eat during the school day so I'm not too bothered about it, although I have to admit I was a bit annoyed when they took away the packs of bourbon biscuits from the vending machines...
If I did eat at break though I would bring in some of my own stuff from home, which would normally just be an apple and some crisps (or should I say chips ). I don't need much to keep going throughout the day as long as I get a nice big meal for dinner
But yeah, if schools want to help people eat healthily go for it! Good knows the kids in the UK need it.

I would LOVE to see a school force me to eat something.
Go on.
Try it.

This is my life, don't even try and force me to do something that affects only myself.

Here that'd probably be an issue on account of schools having no idea what to do when a kid with a food allergy walks into school, especially if they banned lunches brought from home
However, I would really appreciate healthy options in the cafe here.

Its been a long while since i left school, but i remember my secondary school tended to have some food control, (we didn't sell ice cream at all for example, though we still had soft drinks like coke) and we always used to have a yearly "vegetable day" of sorts, to encourage students to eat and know their veggies :p. So for that 1 day only, the school canteen sold only vegetarian foodstuffs and there would be a long table set up in the middle of the canteen dislplaying veggies with name tags.

Unfortunately, since it was only for a day, most of the stalls only bought a limited amount for the day, since they didn't want to be stuck with excess the next days. So the primary school section, who got an earlier lunch break, usually had enough. The secondary school section sometimes had to come out to a canteen of mostly sold out stalls. I remember queeing in line 1 year for 1 miserable fried egg during lunch because that was the only stall with food left and we were only allowed to get 1 each since there were still quite a few waiting in line....and then me and my friends went and pigged out on Mcdonalds after our club meeting that day because 1 fried egg just wasn't enough. Definately not the healthiest day for me

My uni's response? Stir fried veggies. Every meal.

I feel so sorry for my friends who get that.

I've got 2 friends with endometriosis. One of these has Chron's disesase, another is also ridiculously picky with her food (she's "allergic" to something she had a bad experience with once, when she was 5). Both of these can't eat gluten, and a whole array of other things.

My roommate is both gluten free, and a vegetarian.

My best friend is diabetic, and so she pretty much can't eat anything with sugar or carbs in it.

It's kind of amusing to go to the buffet with them though - they all harass the chefs, and I just walk through going "Well, I'm normal, don't know about the rest of you!".

The school as a whole kinda sucks at accommodating dietary requirements, though.

What would I do if my school stopped selling soft drinks? I'd bring in my own and sell them. I'd make a killing.

Why is it that schools think they should be making food choices for people? It's fine to have healthy options available, but they should always give people the choice. Kids aren't learning to make good choices unless the choice is always there, and what are these kids going to do when they go out into the real world and there's a McDonald's on every corner?



I read an article once about a student who had a peanut allergy. His school banned any and all products that had peanut butter, plus products like chocolate that could have TRACES of peanuts in them.

Here's another article about a school that banned candy. A student bought Skittles from someone at school, and was suspended for three days and stripped of his class Vice President title. At least he didn't get fat.

Depending on the severity of the allergy, that might not be as much of an overreaction as you'd think. Ever hear of Nita Sekhri? She was at a friend's house, in the kitchen, and inhaled the mist from some garbanzo beans that were cooking on the other end of the room. She was allergic to garbanzo beans, and just the vapor from them killed her.

Zorg is allergic to Cashews and some other nuts, and last year at college he had an allergic reaction to pasta and sauce. The only way this could have happened is that if the plates/cutlery weren't cleaned properly (highly likely) and he got a trace of it with his meal. It caused him to go into anaphalactic shock and have to be taken to hospital.

The college kitchen is now completely nut free. Not an over-reaction i dont think!

Although, having said that they had brownies with walnuts in them for dessert last night... someone doesnt understand the nut free concept very well.

How sad is it that it has come down to banning unhealthy foods? I think the bigger picture here is that there is an apparent obesity problem so widespread that people cannot control themselves. The ruling to eradicate schools of junk food vending machines and greasy, fatty foods from cafeterias came in sometimes this year in my city. Do I care? Not really. Schools can sell whatever the heck they want to, so people don't need to get their undies in a knot. Here, at least, you can bring whatever kind of food you want to eat, you just can't buy it from school (starting next hear, I believe). I don't know how/if this effects post secondary schools in my city - I guess I'll find out next year.

The peanut ban makes sense. People have some of the worst allergies and reactions to peanuts/nuts in general, so why take the chance? It's scary, how just peanut particles in the air can kill someone.

I don't think it's a good idea to ban unhealthy foods, but I definitely think that more healthy options need to be available, and that they should cut down on the sheer amount of junk food available. And more health education should be provided/required - for the parents as well as kids. Banning will only lead to a "black market" within schools, which will only make it more "exciting" to get and eat food that has been banned.
We had a serious problem at college with having healthy options. Meal cards were required if you lived on campus, and it was required that you live on campus until you were a junior or senior or something, so we pretty much had to eat there. There were healthy options available during lunch and dinner time of the weekdays, but when you hit off hours (later nights, weekend) there were little to none. We were lucky if the make-your-own pasta line was open on weekends, elsewise, you were pretty much stuck with burgers, pizza or overly greasy cafeteria-style slop. It got to the point where I would rather cook myself some macaroni and cheese and open a can of turkey than go eat the greasy stuff.
Somehow, TOSO, I doubt that your school would ever stop selling soft drinks. If I remember correctly (it's been a while), there were several vending machines, not to mention a ton of options for sodas and candy and chips and other junk food available. I think there was even a separate "short-line" cafeteria for people who just wanted cheese fries and the like. I don't recall them having too many healthy options when I was there, but yeah, I really doubt they'd remove it all. And the rolls *always* tasted funny...

Correct! When the policy was reinforced, there were some students who bought mass amounts of coke into school and started selling them to others. Unfortunetly, the teachers found out because they saw students walking into class eating candy and drinking coke and they forbade the 'black market' and gave after school detentions to the sellers. Also, the policy does not allow unhealthy foods, such as pizzas, to be eaten in celebratory occasions (end of school year, christmas.) We must order all food from the canteen. It is really annoying because I think that it is acceptable to eat pizzas from Pizza Hut during celebrations. At least I know some teachers who are willing to break this rule.


I have peanut allergy and smelling vapours don't kill me. I just puke when I eat peanuts and peanuts smell horrible to me. I saw in the news once that a girl in Canada who had peanut allergy died because her boyfriend ate a peanut butter sandwich before they kissed.