When you send your children to school, you may worry about bullying or their academic performance, but you generally don't consider their lunchtime meal a potential problem. Now imagine, for a moment, that your son or daughter is given the choice between a juicy cheeseburger with greasy fries and a healthier chicken salad. It is not a problem what choice they will make. Now stop imagining why it's not necessary. Cases like this are a daily reality in many school canteens. In 2005, John Esterbrook, a writer for CBS News, reported on a government survey showing that junk foods compete with healthy counterparts in nine out of ten schools (para. 1). Today, despite four years having passed, little improvement has been made to ensure that students in schools eat healthily. Why is this a problem? You may think that there is a simple, clear line between junk food and healthy food, but as schools work to keep costs down, many corners are cut and it becomes difficult to decipher what is truly healthy. Confusing elements such as trans fats, carbohydrates, preservatives, daily percentages and other factors only provide complications in the definition of healthy food. Furthermore, even if you explicitly label foods as healthy or unhealthy, hungry students will not consider their health as their first priority when making a quick decision about what to eat. School cafeterias, through the support of legislation, school administration and parents, should provide students with healthy, natural food options as opposed to the very unhealthy processed foods that many schools currently provide. It's easy to say that junk food is bad, but understanding the effects of junk food on students allows you to...... middle of paper ......9. .Kelleher, Jennifer S. “USDA May Regulate All Food Sold in Schools.” Newsday.com. Newsday, 7 July 2009. Web. 5 November 2009. .Paton, Graeme. “Too much fast food 'hurts kids' test scores'” Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited, 22 May 2009. Web. 5 November 2009. "Selling Obesity at School." Editorial. New York Times April 26, 2009. The New York Times Company. Network. November 5, 2009. "Study: Kids Will Eat Healthy Food at School." United States today. USA TODAY, November 25, 2007. Web. November 5. 2009. .