wake up to your weight problem

Australian children's lives are at risk. Obesity has become the disease of the twenty-first century, with the number of obese children '…almost doubling between 1985 and 2000' (Australian Heart foundation, 2001). The school canteen, once a place visited on Fridays for a rare treat, is now a fast-food haven for greasy chips, cholesterol-filled hamburgers and sugary sweets. Clearly, school canteens should not be able to sell 'junk' foods. In a society that constantly promotes improved health through controlled diet and consistent exercise, we are dangerously close to abusing our youth, due to advertising and commercialisation of what we eat, and the general convenience of the new Plague, hiding behind the user-friendly title of 'fast food'.

When children across Australia leave home for school in the morning, millions are doing so without a home-made lunch. Nutritious snacks are being swapped for packaged products, and when they arrive at the canteen to purchase some lunch, the situ...