Should Schools Sell Fast Food?

 

Impact of Fast Food

In today’s fast paced world, where people are looking for quicker, tastier and cheaper meals that they can buy and eat on the go, fast foods have found a definite place on the menus. Burgers, french fries and pizzas are relished by adults and children alike. Companies selling them reap profits with some of them setting up a chain of brand stores at strategic points to lure customers. In fact, fast foods have found their way into school lunch menus as well. However, fast foods can have adverse health effects due to the cheaper ingredients using which they are prepared. So we can imagine the impact they would have on the health of children who would consume them without restraint if they are sold in schools.

Health Effects of Fast Food

People choose fast food over regular food because they are cheaper, quicker to get and tastier to eat. However, what they may not realize is that fast foods are prepared with cheaper components such as high fat meat, processed grains, hydrogenated oils, etc. Such foods are high on sodium, trans fat, cholesterol, and saturated fat which cause adverse health effects if consumed for a prolonged period of time. According to medical experts, fast foods are one of the major contributing factors of obesity, high blood sugar, high blood pressure and even cancer. In fact, as of 2016, unhealthy food choices have been a cause of more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S (Despres, 2018).

Why Are Schools Selling Fast Food

Schools have various reasons to resort to selling fast foods. Firstly, in a brand conscious world, even schools have to bring in big brand name to keep their cafeterias running. Having a McDonald’s burger in their menu boosts the sales compared to homemade food items. Secondly, it reduces the overheads such as labor costs associated with preparing homemade meals (Lehmann, 2013). Lastly, with the overhead costs reduced, they are sold at cheaper prices that are affordable to students from low-income families. In a fast world where both parents are employed, parents too find it difficult to prepare lunch at home for the children so as to prevent them from having food at the school cafeterias.

Nutritional Alternatives

From their side, food joints and brand names have also started coming up with healthier varieties of fast food. The salads offered by McDonald’s and the healthy yet tasty sandwiches at Subway are good examples of fast yet healthy food. Fast foods now come with low calorie options such as low-fat milk, low-fat cheese, etc. There are a lot vegetables and fruits available as options for the toppings in sandwiches and pizzas. Foods that have a low carbohydrate and high protein content are also available. Such foods can be healthier and tastier alternatives available to children in schools. Schools, while continuing to offer fast foods on their menus, should move to healthier options. This would benefit the children and the schools alike.

To help people with making informed nutritional choices, the FDA (Federal Food and Drug Administration) has necessitated certain labeling conventions for fast food restaurants. It is mandatory for chain restaurants to provide calorie-related information on the food menus (Young Men’s Health, 2019). Students should be informed to look up calorie information to make appropriate food choices that is not detrimental to them.

Future Outlook

Fast foods are here to stay. They will continue to be popular due to their taste, cost and faster and easier availability, despite the various ill effects on health. For various cost and logistical reasons, schools continue to offer fast foods in their menus. Children by themselves may not have the self-restraint to avoid unhealthy food options. Thus, it is necessary for schools to replace regular fast foods with healthier alternatives which will continue to bring in the revenue while ensuring the ill effects are avoided.

References

Lehmann, Deborah (2013). Why school cafeterias are dishing out fast food. Education.com. Retrieved from https://www.education.com/magazine/article/fast-food-school-cafeterias/

Despres, Cliff (2018). Study: Unhealthy eating is top risk for early death in U.S. Salud America!. Retrieved from https://salud-america.org/unhealthy-eating-is-top-cause-of-us-death/

Young Men’s Health (2019). Fast food facts. Young Men’s Health. Retrieved from

https://youngmenshealthsite.org/guides/fast-food/

Building a generation of advanced dimwits

 I belong to a generation that is painfully caught between the old and the new; something of a cusp. I hold values that my forefathers held, yet I am also facing the pressure of adapting to the modern generation of today, which is not easy. It is not because I am rigid, but because I don't see where it will ultimately lead me towards.

The generation of the present and future are advancing towards a lifestyle that knows how to use everything but does not understand the value of anything. Information is data rather than knowledge. And science, to them, is a subject rather than a curiosity.

My early days as a boy were spent differently though.

1. Selecting a TV channel was simple. There was only one. I watched every program without bias or choice.

2. I read comics and novels with equal fervour, no matter how much I aged.

3. I ate food together with the family. We all talked. We shared not just the food but also the thoughts and affection across the table.

4. In exams, I never set myself a target to lose not more than two marks out of 100. I rather aimed to not score two marks out of 100. The aim was to keep the head above the water. One thing I realized long back was - all that you will ever learn in life can never be contained within the pages of the textbook. So I cultivated the habit to observe life and nature around me.

5. My sister was only 4 years old when I was 13. Yet I played every possible game I could think of with her, getting right down to her age and mentality. Thus, the child inside me was always alive.

6. Rajni and Kamal were just actors. Instead, my dad was my hero. My mom was the most beautiful woman in the world. And to me, a hero was always a good guy, who never hurt anyone and was always kind to people.

7. Edison and Einstien were my role models because of how they fought over odds and acheived greatness in their fields, not because they looked cool and had flamboyant lifestyles.

8. Computer time was strictly rationed. The simple, floppy-based 2D games that I played actually got me thinking more creatively than only entertaining me. The games were constructive and did not involve massacring onscreen game characters with blood and gore.

9. I believed in heaven and hell, and that every sin I did would lead me to hell. I really shivered at that thought.

10. I carried a childish curiosity in everything that touched my life. I didn't assume anything nor tried to be something that I was not.

11. I never tried to rush through life, rather let every age go through its part.

12. I believed in true love and chivalry (I still do). The innocence stayed on for a long time. I did not believe I needed money and beauty to fall in love and be loved by a girl.

13. I let life lead my way all along. But that was a lot of fun, because the child in me always looked forward to the 'what next' without ever getting disappointed. Many times, there wasn't much money in hand, but when I got it, I felt like the richest man on earth.

14. There were no instalments and EMIs. There were no debit cards, credit cards, and ATMs. You had to save up money for everything, which meant one had to plan things way ahead. I had to go to the bank to draw money which was a tedious process. So I was really careful about how much I drew and how long I kept it in hand.

 

But the generation of today is so different. They have so many choices in everything. Desires are expanding and the values are shrinking. Today a gun wielding hero on screen who speaks fancy dialogues and shoots ten people in the blink of an eye are heroes. The release date of the favourite hero' movie is remembered more well than the birth date of family members. Postcards are non-existent. In fact, English vocabulary is becoming smaller and colloquial but less respectful. Husbands and wives wish each other happy anniversaries over Facebook. People have become comfortable interacting as virtual entities in social sites. There is hardly any time for the world around us, no time to smell the flowers, or provide stray animals with water. The children today already know who Sunny Leone is but do not know who G.D.Naidu or S.Radhakrishnan or M.S.Swaminathan was. Celebrating Valentine's Day has become fashionable today but no one remembers Mother's Day or Father's Day. Parents are quieter; children are louder. Parents consider it an embarrassment to talk about their financial difficulties to children. Children demand anything and everything they want, without learning how to earn something. Families have gone on from being nuclear to atomic. Every individual is a family on his own. Enrolling an old parent in the old-age home is easier and cheaper than getting a young kid admitted in LKG in school.

In short, we are building a generation of technologically advanced, busy dimwits who are arrogant enough to believe that they are going to make this world a better place with their current attitude towards life.

Science behind Hindu beliefs and temples

 Idol worship followed by Hindus is often a subject of mockery and controversy. The recent blockbuster Bollywood movie ‘PK’ did touch upon the subject in a couple of scenes. In one scene, the protagonist states that the milk poured over the Hindu god shrines should be distributed instead to the poor. In another scene, he explains how a stone smeared with vermillion can instantly turn into a God. I am sure these scenes would have evoked a lot of laughter. But we have to think about the reasons behind such customs and the actual origin of it.

 

Hinduism is a faith that originated in the Hindukush region in India thousands of years ago. Eversince, this faith has undergone a lot of revisions for its betterment; to be able to discipline mankind to form a peaceful society. While being one of the oldest faiths on this planet, it is also a faith that is based on scientific doctrines as well. So we cannot disregard certain practices just because it has taken on a different form now, or we do not understand it.

 

So what is with this idol worship in temples? Why does a temple smeared with vermillion become a shrine instantly? Is it out of superstition or because of fear of God’s wrath? It is neither, but has a basis that is strongly etched in scientific principles as well.

The Hindu temples built in ancient India were built over specific places on earth where the earth’s magnetic field was at the maximum. These were places where great Siddhas also attained Samadhi because they specifically chose this place of a power magnetic field. People went to the temple every morning when the sun’s rays were not intense but tender such that the light from the sun carried all the key energy elements (which was why suryanamaskar was to be done at the time of sunrise). Men wore a dhoti or kachhai and were bare-bodied at the top. Women wore a sari so that some portions of the body were decently exposed to allow the rays to fall over the skin. The floor of the temples was laid with granite stone blocks that had uneven surface. People walked barefoot inside the temple so that the uneven floor acted as acupressure points. The main deity sat right over the point of the magnetic field. People went around the deity so that the radiations fell on them from all sides.

 

The idol itself was made of a particular kind of stone or even navabhashanam (the nine poisons which when mixed together became a potent medicine). This material further accentuated the magnetic effect. People stood before the deity with their palms together (in a namaskar pose) because this completed the loop. The feet were planted on the grounded and the rest of the body was a loop completed by bringing the hands together, thus acting like a flux capacitor to gather the maximum energy. In front of Lord Ganesha, people did the ‘thopukaranam’. It was a form of a sit-ups exercise by which the physical health of people was also given importance. When saying prayers before Lord Ganesha, people balled their fists and slowly tapped the sides of their temple. This was because those were again acupressure points and by doing this tapping, the nerve centres were activated.

The kumkum (red vermillion) and vibhuti (ashes made from cow dung) were disinfectants. Since the men walked bare-bodied early in the morning, the vibhuti also acted as an agent that absorbed moisture so that people did not catch a cold. Women applied the kumkum on the forehead which not only was a disinfectant but also prevented the woman from being the victim of evil eyes. Milk and water were poured over the stone deity in ‘abhishekam’ were collected and distributed to devotees as prasadam or offering, which they consumed. This acted as medicine because the liquid flowed over the special stone or navabhashanam and thus got enriched by its properties. The devotees were given ‘thulsi’ as a prasadam because thulsi has medicinal properties and builds the immune system in the body. Finally people prostrated in front of the deity because it allowed the most of the body to come in contact with the ground which further gave the body the energy from the magnetic field. Visiting the temple had a great positive physical impact. Also since everyone in the temple only thought about good things, the general psychological atmosphere inside the temple was also very positive. This is the reason why devotees felt so refreshed after they came out of the temple.

 

About the mockery in the movie PK that even a stone smeared with vermillion becomes a God, why not? Hinduism has never preached idol worship in the superstitious sense. Hinduism has taught mankind to respect all the five elements of nature – air, water, fire, land and sky. Hinduism teaches that God exists in every atom of this universe. Then why cannot He be present in any stone that I want to call as God? God is the omnipresent, omnipotent force that is present everywhere at the same time, because He is everything. Just because you do not understand Him or you do not understand the principles of Hinduism, it doesn’t mean that the faith itself has failed. God does not test man, but it is man who keeps testing God for His existence. Everyone accepts that there is one God, but say that the one God is their God. That is where all problems with religion begin. So let God be. If you want to criticize a faith, first learn something you can about that faith. Do not be self-appointed theologians or scientists when it comes to religion.

 

I am a proud living being, born in a family that practices Hinduism, proud that I came to learn about other religions also, enough to coexist, accept and respect other Gods for what they are, proud that my faith does not ask me to enforce my beliefs onto others and allow people the free will to choose. Let us be what we are, and only seek the truth for our own salvation. The planet and God will take care of themselves if we just shut up and do our work sincerely without harming the planet or others.

Selling for the Needy, Greedy and the Lazy

 Anyone who wants to venture into setting up his/her own business so that they are their own boss, or they want to create employment opportunities or all other reasons that may be, will have to consider three main lines of business that will sell, and therefore has a better chance of succeeding.

 

1. Business that feeds the need of people

2. Business that feeds the greed of people

3. Business that feeds the laziness of people

 

The need of people denotes all those aspects of life that mankind will require for a daily sustenance of life. Food is an important requirement on a daily basis and thus an hotel established in a strategic location has a higher probability of succeeding. Other examples of need include educational institutions, grocery stores, or even services such as carpentry or electrical repairs. These are needs that people can never compromise on as it is a critical element for sustenance of life, and therefore the businesses catering to these needs will also be sustainable.

 

The greed of people are extensions of the 'need' that has transcended into luxury. Getting food at a hotel is a need. But eating at a McDonald's is a greed that satisfies that gourmet craving of human beings. The mouth-watering advertisements showing delicious looking burgers and fries trigger the gluttonous greed of people, while in reality containing agents that are harmful to health. Yet people go after these food items because they are unable to put a lid on the greed that has taken over the mind. Greed does not restrict itself to food alone. Anything that converts a need into a luxury becomes greed. Setting up businesses or services that caters to this greed of people bring in more returns if it turns out to be successful. If planned strategically, these businesses have a higher chance of success depending on which strata of the society you cater to.

 

When luxury transcends into lethargy or desperation, it becomes a laziness. People wanting soap powder to wash their clothes is the need of life. People engaging a servant maid to wash the clothes is a greed of life. People who want an automatic washing machine so that they need not pay for a servant maid but still don't want to move a muscle to do the work themselves denote the segment that belongs to laziness of life. Usually commodities or services that cater to the laziness of life are more expensive than the luxuries that are more expensive that the need. A child can be educated in a government school which would be fulfillment of a need. However,  choosing a convent education transcends to greed and going to an international school is seen as a laziness. Laziness is not physical laziness alone, but anything that man tries to do by throwing around his money, for making his life as grand as possible. These are the most egoistic people and the business set up with these customers in mind should do enough to trigger their ego into buying your product or service. The more useless/lazy/comfortable a product/service makes a person, the more likely that it is very expensive. Such a market may be small, but the profit margins can still be large enough to make a sizable package over a period of time once established.

 

Thus, the need of people will have a wider audience, have smaller profit margins and will sustain better. The greed of people will have a substantial yet smaller audience, will be of moderate profit margins and has a decent potential of sustenance. The laziness of people will cater to an elite few though it can bring about a substantial profit, and comes associated with a larger risk in operations.

 

Any business that does not feed the need, or greed or laziness of people has a lower chance of survival if your marketing strategy is not top notch.