“Given the incidence of obesity among young people, I don’t understand why our school sells junk food to students,” says Brianna.

“The vending machines raise money to help maintain the athletic facilities, transport teams to games, and other stuff like that,” says Anthony. “So while I acknowledge that junk food can be unhealthy, I think there can be an indirect benefit to students’ health when the sale of junk food helps fund school athletics.”

“Seriously?” says Brianna. “That makes about as much sense as selling fire-starting licenses to arsonists in order to fund the fire department!”

Anthony laughs. “Well,” he says, “it’s not like anyone is forcing students to buy and eat junk food. The nutritional information is printed right there on the packaging, so people know what they’re getting.”

“Fair enough,” says Brianna, “except that most people probably don’t read that stuff, and wouldn’t understand it if they did.”

“People should take more initiative to learn about what they’re eating and take care of their own health,” says Anthony. “I would rather incorporate more nutrition education into our science class than have more rules about how the school is allowed to raise money for sports and other good programs.”

“Maybe you two could help the class learn to interpret the nutrition labels on food,” says Mr. Seemy.

Brianna and Anthony brought in this portion of a nutrition label from a family-size bag of Lay’s Classic Potato Chips, and posed some questions:

Discussion Question:

Twenty servings of these potato chips would supply 100% of the daily recommended fiber. Would this be a good way to get all your fiber? Why or why not?