High schoolers protest healthy lunches

In response to calorie limits placed on high school lunches mandated by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010, students at the Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, Kansas, created a YouTube protest parody video set to the tune of contemporary power ballad "We Are Young." This video followed some students' and teachers' decision to boycott these healthier school lunches earlier this month.

"We had chicken nuggets one day. Last year, we got six and this year we only got three," Wallace High football player and young political dissident Callahan Grunt told USA Today. "We had pork cutlets the other day, and that was really small compared to last year."

HHFKA established policy goals and programs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service programs - including this National School Lunch Program beleaguered by the Kansas students. Putting a limit on lunchtime calories for teens is designed to combat rising instances of childhood obesity, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states has more than tripled since 1980.

Furthermore, the CDC's latest statistics show that nearly 20 percent of youngsters between the ages of 12 and 19 were clinically obese as of 2008. Recent findings published in the British Medical Journal indicate that kids with unhealthy weight could have a 40 percent greater long-term risk of stroke and heart disease. High cholesterol, which has also been linked to childhood obesity, can be treated if individuals buy Lipitor from Canadian and online pharmacies. Obesity also ups the odds of developing diabetes, for which those afflicted can buy Actos from Canadian and international online pharmacies.

According to USA Today, the National School Lunch Program caps the calorie count of lunches served to high school seniors at 850 calories, with 750 calories being the limit for younger adolescents. In the YouTube video and to the news source, the Wisconsin high schoolers complain that this isn't enough to get them through a day full of chores on the farm, classes and afterschool activities such as football practice.

However, Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an organization that supported the HHFKA, told USA Today that the new meals give students enough protein, and that 850 calories is plenty for most people's lunches.

"Not all students are linebackers, and we shouldn't feed them like they are," she told the new source.