Ok. I thought this was a fly-by anon posting something ridiculous, so I answered too flippantly. Now that I realize there is a point your pursuing, let me answer the first question for real.

Personally, I am in whatever shape I am in because of my eating choices and exercise habits. That being said, I am 30 and have entered the phase of my life where personal choices are basically everything when it comes to health and have a level of maturity that allows me to weigh the outcomes of my decisions.

I do not believe children are able to make the same measured decisions about health choices that adults can make (not even all adults can really make those decisions, they just do and don’t think at all). Tell an eight-year-old they can have a Snickers or an apple, I think most would choose the candy. This is the same logic that goes into denying children the opportunity to smoke.

Schools have a specific purpose, that is to educate our children. What purpose do the vending machines have? Do you really hold the belief that it is to offer more choices to the children, or to increase revenue for the school/business behind the vending machine?

I think this is what health and PE classes (at least used to) teach. With obesity still a problem, I don’t think that alone is going to cut it. With childhood obesity rising, I don’t think it is a great idea to offer more opportunities to children to spend money on junk food and soda at school. It isn’t like that is something that has been around forever. I didn’t have it in elementary, it started showing up near the end of junior high.

As for limiting the amount of food people eat… whoa. That is a little too much to tell the government to do. Promoting health education and exercise, good.

That being said, whenever I talk about government and schools, I pretty much agree with Brandon in that it should be local governments and school districts that are leading the ground swell on this. My only reservation is what about when it is in the schools’ financial interest to keep vending machines and not in the students health interest? Will parents really rise up against the elected leaders? I know that ideally they would, but I doubt it would happen in real life. If it did, it would probably only be in schools that served areas with high parent involvement which is not many at the current time.