Do children in America have good role models for healthy eating habits?  Parents are the most important role models for children’s development, but in some situations, parents are too busy to dine often with their children, and may fail to promote healthy eating habits when they do.

Teachers, on the other hand, are powerful role models with the ability to reach whole classes of children at once, and the chance to do so every day.  If there were healthy vending machines in school, teachers would have both the motivation and the opportunity to model healthy diet practices for students.

In Japan, elementary and middle school teachers (and guest teachers) are required to eat with their students during lunchtime.  Each person receives a portion of food, and every student is expected to finish everything on his or her plate.  The teacher serves as a role model for this behavior, and deviation is generally not permitted.  When I was an assistant English teacher in Japan, I was not allowed to eat with the students because I had a hard time swallowing the fried fish heads that were a regular part of the meals!

By middle school, Japanese students stop playing with their food and simply finish everything on their tray before clean up time (an innovative practice where all of the students clean the school—Japanese schools have no need for janitors!).  Healthier diets and appropriate role models may both contribute to Japan’s significantly lower obesity rate than the U.S.’s.

In the United States, teachers rarely dine with their students in the classroom.  Lunch is a free time for students when they are separated from teachers and other potential mealtime role models.   Instead of buying meals from the school cafeteria, teachers usually opt to bring food from home.

But if there were healthy food options available at school, teachers and faculty would undoubtedly change that routine.  If vending machines in school offered a variety of healthy snacks, eating lunch on campus would become easier and healthier for teachers and students alike.  And providing nutritious foods for teachers to purchase and eat in front of the students would have the added bonus of finally providing those students with excellent mealtime role models in school!