Should schools serve french-fries and fried potato products to students at lunch? (Essay Sample)

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Should schools serve french-fries and fried potato products to students at lunch?
Fried potato and French fry products should not be served to students during lunch hours because they contain high cholesterol that causes health complications such as obesity. Being obese is a medical condition where body fats accumulate excessively to the extent of causing adverse health complications such as strokes and heart attacks.
School canteen menus are currently filled with less nutritious items. The favorite among the students are mashed potatoes that are salted and heavily buttered, and French fries that are prepared by dipping them in oil adding to the cholesterol levels of the already less nutritious vegetable (Dalton 63). Though public schools do not force the students to go for the high cholesterol food, they have shown lenience towards canteen owners who continue to prepare high cholesterol level potato products, and this amounts to irresponsibility. Statistics indicate that there is an alarming increase of the problem of childhood obesity in the United States of America. More than 30% of adolescents are reportedly obese partly because of poor diet and lack of exercise. The annual cost to society of dealing with the problem of obesity is in excess of $100 billion (Jordan 31).
Concisely, to deal with the problem of obesity, school heads should be at the forefront to ensure there is limited serving of French fries and fried potatoes at their school canteens (Brownell and Katherine 311). In addition, they should encourage the canteen owners to prepare potatoes by baking and roasting them. This way, the end product has less cholesterol level and more potassium, vitamin C, fiber among other nutrients. Lastly, there is a need to include more vegetables in the canteen menu in place of high cholesterol foods such as fried potatoes and French fries.