I Just Made Four Dollars

Everyone has been to a school canteen, whether it was yesterday, last week or last year. There’s one in every school and one thing that I’ve noticed is that the food they sell there is setting students up for a midlife heart attack. There is one kid at my school, who walks around the cafeteria asking for money everyday, then spends the money on fatty foods and the other day he made four dollars! He was proud and for a change he didn't want to spend it, however this hasn’t been the norm for him and clearly, from what he has consumed over the weeks and months, he doesn't understand that fat, salt and sugar in these canteen foods are harming his body.

At my school they serve hot chips, wedges, cream buns, pizzas, chocolates, soft drinks and there is even an ice cream tub. I used to eat all these foods quite regularly and it had to do with the temptation of it all being there right at my fingertips. I filled my body with oily deep fried foods and still tried to train my guts out to be the best that I could and I can tell you, it didn’t work. Having a bucket of chips and a can of coke for lunch and then run training in the afternoon counteracted. I had no energy and I found it hard to get through some of the basic sessions. I’ve now learned that your body is like a car and if you put the wrong fuel in, you aren’t going to get very far from the petrol station.

There isn’t one healthy option at my school, even the salad sandwiches are only available on white bread, and they wonder why our generation is so overweight and obese. Fast food chains dictate to us, everywhere the media bombards our thinking and the other reality is that it costs a lot to eat healthily. I know from having two different eating lifestyles that eating nourishing foods make you feel better. Unfortunately, teenagers don't understand this and all they want is the sugary foods because that is what they've been fed all their lives and their body is craving it. To me it’s very similar to smoking, its addictive and it can’t be changed overnight, it takes time to repair the body.

The foul addictive fatty foods.

The student from my school who shall remain nameless is thin but I don't want to imagine what the insides of his body are like. Acidic drinks like coke are eating away at his insides and the greasy high fat foods are clogging his arteries. You can save more than your four dollars a day by taking a wholesome lunch to school. We need to realise what this is doing to us and if the weight gain continues at current levels, by 2025, close to 80% of all Australian adults and a third of all children will be overweight or obese. These figures are astonishing and it is something that I find hard to comprehend.

This is what a healthy meal looks like.