Steps

Healthy Snacks Sleep Deprivation and Exercises Technology 10-11 Eating Healthy and on a Budget 6 7-9

s p e t s

2901 MELROSE AVE.

IOWA CITY, IA 52246

u o y r a e to althi e h

WSSPAPER.COM

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1

MAY 31, 2012

{DESIGN BY LYDIA HINMAN}

Table of Contents

8-9

West High examines the effects of being addicted to technology

3

Web Content

A summary of the content on the wsspaper.com

4 Home-Grown The advantages of eating home grown foods

5

Stress How West High Students deal with their stress

3 6 Eating on a Budget How eating healthy on food stamps is difficult

7-9 Technology and Sleep How technology affects our sleep and our overall health

10-11 Healthy Living

Good snacks and exersizes to stay healy at home

12 Paper Editorial

14

11-12

Paper Staff Lauren Knudson Editor-in-Chief

Lydia Hinman Design Editor

The Paper’s opinion on PE waivers

13 Rights and Drinks Columns on controlling drink size and women’s rights

On the Cover

Photo: Madie Miller Design: Lydia Hinman 02 TABLE OF CONTENTS MAY 31 2013 { Walking is the most popular form of exercise in the United States}

Madie Miller Photo Editor

Akash Borde Copy Editor

{DESIGN BYLAUREN KNUDSON}

Exercise the Web @ wsspaper.com

Kids Against Hunger

BY LYDIA HINMAN

Many West High students participated in the volunteer event Kids Against Hunger.

Free Riders

BY AKASH BORDE

Learn about getting active with one of West High’s newest clubs the Free Riders cycling club

Ultimate Frisbee Club West High’s Ultimate

BY MADIE MILLER

Frisbee team Metallic Wings is already winning state invitations in their first year of play.

Barker Field

BY LAUREN KNUDSON

Learn the story behind the opening of Barker Field for West High Soccer.

Only 13% of children walk to school } May 31st 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS 03

Home Grown

{DESIGN BY LYDIA HINMAN}

Top

PICKS

West High E.A.T.S. members pick their favorite meals made with fresh vegtables COMPILED BY//LAUREN KNUDSON

The Advantages of Eating Fresh Foods

Nidhi Patel ‘15

BY LYDIA HINMAN

T

lydiahinman29@gmail.com

he birds chirp, the sun shines, the flowers bloom. What is that, you may ask. Why, it’s spring. And what comes with spring, other than baseball and ever expanding symptoms of senioritis?

Well, the West High E.A.T.S garden of course.

Every spring, the E.A.T.S plants a garden full of vegetables and even some fruit trees. “We have standard lettuce, but counter it with three varieties of kale, two of spinach and arugula, a very spicy green. We also have beets, peppers, tomatoes,

said. “The fresher the food is, the more nutrients and antioxidants remain; it has been proven fruits and veggies that have been on the shelf even a couple days may have 50% fewer vitamins than those just picked off the vine or tree.”

Patel said the food the E.A.T.s club grows is sold at a farmer’s market, eaten by club members or donated to the school cafeteria. Anstreicher added that they donate some to the Crisis Center in Iowa City.

Both members said that gardening is very important. “Gardening gives people awareness,”

herbs, strawberries, leeks, onions, peas, beans, flowers,” member Kate Anstreicher ‘14 said. “I could go on for a long time.”

One of the main goals of the E.A.T.S. is to promote healthy living through gardening. “It’s all organic and there's no pesticides,” Nidhi Patel ‘’15 said.

Anstreicher added, “ Fresh foods are much less processed and healthier than most of the foods we eat.”

Even store bought veggies and fruits aren’t as good for you as garden fresh vegetables. “They lack potentially harmful preservatives, as well as any saturated fats and refined sugars,” Anstreicher

Anstreicher said. “They see how food is grown and where it comes from.”

Patel agrees and said, “It’s really satisfying to grow and eat your own food. You also know where it’s been and it’s way healthier for you.”

E.A.T.S tries to spread sustainability throughout West High. Both members say growing a garden is a must for creating a sustainable environment and try and spread the word. “If people knew the benefits of growing their own foods, they would also start.”

04 PROFILES May 31st 2013 {A tennis shoe will last for 500 miles of walking

“Soup with kale, tomatoes, herbs, and beans”

Amy Xiong ‘15 ““A fruit salad”

Olivia Sheff ‘15 “Butternut squash ravioli”

Anna Turnquist ‘16 “Salsa, we make homemade salsa every summer”

{DESIGN BY LAUREN KNUDSON}

Many students feel the need to be perfect to get into college. Is all the stress necessary?

BY LAUREN KNUDSON leknudson18@gmail.com

As one moves up in the academic world they feel more and more pressure to be perfect. Many students feel they need to be perfect in order to get into a college.

Getting into college is a hard thing. According to guidance counselor Peg Schollmeir, each year application rates are increasing at colleges making admission rates lower. More students are deciding to go to college, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2012, 21.6 million students were expected to attend college in America, 6.2 million more students than 2000.This makes for a more competitive atmosphere.

Savannah Butler ’13 was recently accepted to Harvard, one of the most competitive schools in the nation.

“You don’t have to be perfect all the way around [Colleges are] not looking for the cookie cutter student all around.

[They are] not looking for clones, it’s okay if you give up music to focus on a sport or something like that,” she said, “as long as there is something you are passionate about.”

Since it is so competitive to get into a college, many students turn to pursuing extracurricular activities to set them apart from the crowd.Though many people genuinely care about these activities, Kasra Zarei ’13 believes that many students just do these to put on the application.

Zarei is involved in many different school activities such as student senate, 1440, swimming, and orchestra. Although Zarei is involved “Above all to meet and help others” he agrees that many students just do activities to put on the application “Sadly there are individuals that enjoy [doing the activities] but then the passion gets lost. It is inevitable.”

Butler, who is involved in swimming and volunteering at the Ronald McDonald house agrees that “There are some people who are doing things that they love but [there are] a lot of people who go through a checklist.”

How do you Avoid Stress?

{

The Definition of Perfect

Alyssa Jennings ’14

Some students enroll in challenging classes, and pressure themselves to obtain high grades in their seek of perfection. Though some students are very successful with this others struggle. These students often have to make the decision of whether to get an A in a normal class or a B in an AP or honors class. Ms. Schollmeir recommends that students, “have a balance of A’s and B’s. If you get B’s in AP classes don’t take all AP classes and consider the colleges you are applying to.”

“

Don’t look at life from the perspective of a college applica-Kasra Zarei ’13 tion.”

Although the college application process will inevitably be stressful and competitive, there are many ways to make it a little bit easier.

Zarei recommends, “Above all, this is a little cliched, do things that you are interested in. Don’t look at life from the perspective of a college application... Look at yourself and be proud of what you have accomplished,” Ms. Schollmeir recommends narrowing down the list before applying and not to apply with friends.

Butler reminds everyone that “It will end up working out and just have fun in the process and don’t stress yourself out so you burned out [for college]”

“I sleep watch TV relax or go shoopping to get my mind off it”

Chetti Milavetz ’13

“Talking to my good friends or going for a run” Sarah Kang ’14 “Play soccer because you channel all that energy into kicking the ball. It takes your mind off it”

Alex Baller ’14

“By doing things that I enjoy and focus on things other then school.”

COMPILED BY // Lauren Knudson

PHOTO BY//MADIE MILLER

05 FEATURES MAY 31st, 2013 { Less then 10% of trips are taken by biking or walking

{DESIGN BY MADIE MILLER PHOTO BY//MADIE MILLER

ly On

go

BY AKASH BORDE

borde.aka.sh@gmail.com

t $20 in my

Breaking the a brand-new piece of 0.7 lead, using the last skip on Pandora Radio, or having to restart the desktop after getting a software update are all first-world problems many students are familiar with today. Living in arguably the most developed country in the world certainly has its fair share of first-world problems. On a more serious end of the spectrum of these problems, however, is the obesity epidemic facing the United States today.

The US Department of Agriculture reports that more than a third of US adults are obese and cases of heart disease and type 2 diabetes are set to multiply tenfold between 2010 and 2020.

Although there is no single reason science can pinpoint as the cause behind this multifarious epidemic, one clear cause is the unhealthiness of the food people put into their bodies. Citizens of developed countries like the US have a variety of wholesome food products to choose from, yet unhealthy foods are consumed at a far higher rate than nutritionists say is acceptable.

Although there exist many people who make the choice to eat unhealthy food, there are at least as many people who have to eat unhealthy food because of circumstances they cannot control. Simply put, a vast number of households cannot afford to eat healthy.

Healthier food generally more expensive but lower in calories On average, cheaper foods tend to be less nutritious than their healthier counterparts. A 2007 study from the University of Washington found that eating 1,000 calories of nutritious food like fruits and vegetables cost on average $18.16, whereas those same 1,000 calories, if consumed from junk food, cost only $1.76. Those statistics may seem outrageous at first glance, but upon further pondering, make perfect sense. Fruits and vegetables, while high in vitamins and minerals, are low in calories. Conversely, junk food like prepackaged snacks and processed goods have lots of calories, but not very many nutrients necessary for a healthy diet. In short, fast food provides more calories per dollar, but at the cost of nutrition.

t e k poc

Given the opportunity, most consumers say they would purchase nutritious food over cheaper alternatives. Ryan Smith ‘16 said “I believe people have become more aware of what they eat, however, prices are an issue. If people have a tight budget, they aren’t going to buy the really expensive yet healthy foods”. Prices are exactly the issue here. The main reason people buy less nutritious food is not because they prefer to eat unhealthy, but because they cannot afford to.

Limited choice and availability of healthy options Families who visit food pantries to supplement their weekly grocery shopping also find their choice to be rather limited. Fresh fruits and vegetables, which are relatively expensive to begin with, are much more difficult to preserve than processed foods like potato chips. This poses yet another challenge to families with a limited budget who desire to purchase them. John Boller, the director of the Coralville Ecumenical Food Pantry, said “because we purchase foods that are intended to have a long shelf-life, we are not able to carry many natural or whole foods that have not been processed or contain unhealthy preservatives and additives”. The limited budget poses another difficult challenge, says Boller, as most families who visit the pantry are faced with the question “Do you spend $5 to get five organic apples, or do you buy ten boxes of macaroni and cheese for the same price?”

Foodstamps program not sufficient for healthy diet West High student Kristen Lineback ‘13 decided to try out for herself what it would be like to live on a limited budget. She took the food stamp challenge on her own accord and found it increasingly difficult to resist McDonald’s dollar menu, which offered much more caloric bang for her buck compared to fresh veggies from the New Pioneer Co-op. Although it may have been barely possible to sustain herself on the food stamps, that option was not very lucra-

6 FEATURE May 31st 2013 { To burn off one M&M you need to walk the length of a football field

tive. She said her strategy to eat healthy was to “get one bag of frozen vegetables and fill [her] meal with beans and oatmeal for calories.” The downside of this practice was in its monotony: “containers of oatmeal are huge, so spending part of my budget on one of those would mean that’s what I’m eating all week” said Lineback.

Ultimately, Lineback noted that although food stamps were theoretically sufficient for one to purchase a healthy diet, “with a budget of about $3 a day, [one] ends up either eating a bunch of junk food or the same thing every day for a week.”

tweet Dreams

BY MADIE MILLER AND AKASH BORDE borde.aka.sh@gmail.com madiemllr@gmail.com

A look things such as Facebook, Twitter, other technological items and things such as activities and obligations take away West High student’s sleep.

“It's hard for everyone to realize that it's

more important to do well

in school and be healthy rath-

er than waste time on Facebook and Twitter”

By The s r e b m Nu

-Alexa Kramer ‘13

a

dolescence is a chaotic point in life, and as stress and hormone levels are at all time highs, they demand correspondingly high amounts of sleep. Yet most teenagers today are falling well short of their recommended 8 to 9 hours a night.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, only 15% of teenagers are getting their recommended number of hours of sleep. That correlates to 3 out of 20 students here at West.

Although the decision of how many zzz’s to catch ultimately falls in the hands of the student, the high school environment plays an important role in influencing students’ daily routines. “Classes are definitely harder and it takes more time to do all of the homework,” said Ben Nelson ‘15. Increased homework levels and out of school studying take more and more time each year, and the pace of high school is a big leap from junior high as teachers and courses start resembling college courses more and more.

However, the 8 to 3 routine of classes isn’t

at complete fault for consuming students’ time and energy. The combination of the activities before and afterward definitely share part of the blame. Extracurricular activities are an integral part of a wellrounded high school experience, and students have no shortage of options to choose from at West. Clubs such as Speech and Debate, Student Senate, and Business Professionals of America not only require attendance at weekly meetings, but also expect out of school commitments as well.

“Extra curriculars definitely decrease the amount of downtime you have,” Hannah Twitchell ‘15 said, “for me, even when I'm not at an extracurricular, I'm thinking about it or at least thinking about my schedule and how I'm going to possibly fit things in.”

Athletics are another type of extracurricular activity that take up a lot of time in a student’s day. Most sports have mandatory practice for 5 to 6 days a week that go up to two and a half hours after school and sometimes with practices before school as well. Paradoxically, sports take up a disproportionate amount of free time and in turn demand a lot of rest time

08 FEATURES May 31st 2013 {Most people walk at a pace of 3.1 miles per hour

from the athlete.

“I think being in a sport definitely means you need more sleep,” state swimming finalist and 4 time varsity letter winner for swimming Lilian Zhu ‘14 said, “your body is really tired from working out, and in order to get better, which most athletes are aiming to do, your body has to get enough rest in order to recover and rebuild muscle.”

Being a teenager inherently comes with its fair share of distractions, whether they be in school or out. Technology is ubiquitous in the everyday lives of teens, who have grown up surrounded by it and at an optimal position to take full advantage of its capabilities. Sometimes, computers supplement schoolwork: online collaboration via Google Docs, Facebook groups for classes, or turning in essays online via Turnitin.com. However, there are at least as many distractions with the internet as there are helpful shortcuts.

Social media takes up a disproportionate amount of time of teenagers’ lives. According to a new study by U.K.-based employment law firm Peninsula, Facebook takes up 233 million employee hours per month. Hours of productivity among of-

*All statistics from The New York Times

one electronics than in 2006

ic ctron e l e on

in 2006

fice workers, applies directly to the work habit trends in teens. Perhaps even greater so among students, as teenagers have rapidly changing social dynamics which often are exacerbated by these websites.

“It's so hard to actually sit down and do homework when I'm getting texts and notifications from social media sites,” Alexa Kramer ‘13 said.

Adults often stereotype, and sometimes justly so, that kids are always staring at their phones; fingers flying as they punch out another text message. Even though technology is being integrated more and more into the education system, it seems it is more of a hindrance than a help to students. There is always a website to check, a video to watch, a picture to take, something to occupy time that should really be used for sleeping.

“I tell myself ‘finish 3 more math problems and then check your messages’,” Anna Schuchert ‘15 said, “I'm basically bribing myself to do my homework by giving myself rewards. I think I may actually be crazy.”

“It's hard for everyone to realize that it's more important to do well in school and be healthy rather than waste time on

2 hours 2 hours

but 2 hours socializing with less other people than

8 hours a day devices

2 1/2 hours

on Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter

1 hour

per month

Facebook and Twitter,” Kramer said.

Poke wars, group chats, and posting pictures of food are all trends that simply wouldn’t have existed without social media. These tasks all take time to do and view and this time comes at the price of sleep.

In contrast, some students are taking their addiction to social media into their own hands. Among them, is Lushia Anson ‘15 who created separate facebook accounts in order to take advantage of the positive uses of the time-sucking website. Here’s how it works. Social uses are all consumed by the first account.

In addition, the second account is used for the sole purpose of being involved in school related facebook groups that offer valuable information for classes, without a distracting news feed and friends to chat.

“Basically I got the idea when a couple of months ago I deactivated my FB because I felt that I was investing too much into it,” Anson said, “but then I didn't want to lose the

per month

4.7 more hours

Americans spend an average of

10 hours

The average American spends

The average American spends from ages 8-18 spends

7 hours

s

{DESIGN BY LYDIA HINMAN}

3 hours

on Hulu, Netflix, and Youtbue

valuable school posts and irritating memes that came out of the class groups.”

Finding solutions to individual distractions can limit the ineffective uses of social media.

“Another thing I do sometimes is I leave my iPod in my locker when I need to study for a test because that way there's no way I'll be tempted to waste time,” she said.

It’s impossible to completely avoid technology and far too easy to fall prey to all of its distractions. In order to have a balance between good grades, sufficient sleep and a thriving social life, students need to learn how to filter out the effective uses out of technology without being captivated by the negative.

“I get distracted by social media to escape from the work I’m supposed to do” -Aidan Manaligod ‘13 About 18% of the world sleepwalks} May31st 2013 FEATURES 09

Apples and Peanut Butter: Slice up the traditional snack of a juicy apple, by dipping it in your favorite kind of peanut butter or almond butter.

Cheese & Crackers: Cut squares of your favorite cheese and put them on top or between whole grain crackers.

Healthy

Learn about quick, easy and healt snacks, and fun ways to get active

Nuts 4 Nuts: Grab a handful of cocoa roasted almonds or pistachios on your way out the door for a healthy alternative to a bag of chips.

Fruit Salad (yummy yummy): Slice up summer’s ripest and freshest fruits in a bowl for an effortless fruit salad that will leave you feeling refreshed on those hot days.

10 FEATURES May 31st 2013 { 2,000 steps is equal to a mile

DESIGNED AND COMPILED BY//MADIE MILLER

Rent Kayaks at Lake Macbride and spend time (getting extra rays for that summer tan) out on the water. Dont’t forget the sunscreen!

Habits

thy alternatives to high calorie e on the way to a healthier you.

Take your dog on a walk through the neighborhood or a nearby park. Don’t have a dog? Find a friend who has one and invite them. If you’re a dog person call the Iowa City Animal Shelter at (319) 356-5295 to set up an appointment to volunteer to exercise some one their homeless dogs, by going for walks or playing fetch with man’s best friend.

Take advantage of the four minutes each day you are just standing, and do squats while brushing your teeth.

Position your feet shoulder width apart and lower until your knees form a right angle. Repeat for two minutes until you’re done brushing your teeth. Stellar oral hygiene and rock solid thighs all in one.

The smell of freshly cut grass just can’t be beat. Get moving and spend time outdoors by mowing lawns. Ask your neighbors and pass out flyers to make bank while being out in the sun.

{DESIGN BY AKASH BORDE}

physical education reformation

An expansion of the athletic waiver would do all our athletes a favor

PHOTO BY//AKASH BORDE

Students in Steve Bergman’s 5th hour PE play an intense game of kickball

BY AKASH BORDE

borde.aka.sh@gmail.com

At our four short years at West, our athletic teams have won more state championships than I can keep track of. There really is no shortage of talent or dedication here in the Trojan Nation. Our athletes are truly some of the finest in the state. Our athletic policy, however, falls short of excellence.

To make students’ high school experiences even better than they are now, the administration should expand the current physical education waiver option to student athletes in all four years of high school.

Underclassmen and junior athletes should be entitled to the same policy that seniors are currently offered.

Why is this even an issue? To many people, expanding the waiver system may seem to be an insignificant issue. After all, students involved in athletics are no different under school rules from students who aren’t involved in athletics. It might even seem student athletes are better suited compared to non-athletes to taking extra PE courses because of their active lifestyle. Why should they get exemptions from a class everyone else has to take?

There are several reasons this is the case.

First, it’s important to remember that a PE waiver would apply only to students who are enrolled in a sport the same year. This prerequisite ensures that students wouldn’t be missing out on exercise by skipping PE. In fact, they would be getting just as much, if not more exercise through their sport than they would get in a normal class of PE. Having established that only athletes would be entitled to waivers, the next reason a full waiver is necessary is so athletes can have the best possible experience at West High. Few can deny that our athletic program is one of the best in the state. Al-

lowing student athletes from all grades to opt out of PE will only improve everyone’s athletic experience.

Our student athletes are teenagers with growing bodies that need rest. They need time to recover from strenuous workouts. Not more exercise for the sake of doing exercise. In general, most teenagers need more rest than they currently get, and athletes need it even more so more regular teens because they strain their bodies in practice.

This is where the expanded waiver comes in.

With it, all student athletes will be able to focus on their specific sport without having to worry about workouts conflicting with cardio days or having meets right after day of intense kickboxing. Often times, student athletes usually avoid PE during the trimester their sport conflicts with it the most, but for athletes that are involved in three or four sports, there is no way to avoid such a conflict. Having to take PE the same trimester as a sport’s season is really a no-win situation.

From an academic standpoint, PE limits students from taking all the courses they want. The requirement of having to take a trimester of PE every year means a student has to take trimester courses to fill in the other two trimesters around PE. This slightly reduces the variety of course opportunities, especially year-long electives, that students are able to choose from. There is one option for students who wish to take seven year-long courses, but it is not at all a course an athlete would ever willingly take.

Early bird PE is the only option students for students who want to take seven year-long classes. This is not an adequate consession for athletes because coming to school an hour before the rest of their classmates to do thirty minutes of intense cardio is simply unfair and not at all beneficial to those who also have practice after school. Not only do athletes have to do twice as much work as the other

students in early bird who aren’t in sports, but they also get significantly less sleep because of the exercise they have to do before and after school.

There is a group of kids who already have the opportunity to waive out of PE. Seniors are entitled to waiving out of PE provided they are enrolled in an “An organized and supervised athletic program which requires at least as much participation per week as one-eighth unit of physical education.”

(281-IAC 12.5(5)). If seniors athletes are given this opportunity, then athletes in all grades should be given that opportunity as well. It’s only fair.

Expanding the current waiver system to all student athletes is really quite simple of a change to make. After all, someone saw the need to allow senior athletes to waive out of PE in the past. That same group needs to eliminate the distinction between seniors and the rest of the grades so that all student athletes can have the best possible experience and keep bringing home state titles year after year.

Should the current PE waiver be extended to all student athletes?

4-0 Steps’ editorial board unanimously voted to extend the PE waiver to athletes in all grades

12 OPINION May 31st 2013 { The United States walks less than any other industralized nation in the world

{DESIGN BY AKASH BORDE}

My body, my choice

BY LAUREN KNUDSON leknudson@gmail.com

Women’s reproductive rights are being threatened across the country. Four states are currently working to pass laws known asTRAP laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers). These laws are in states that already have very few abortion clinics. The bills aim to put in requirements that these clinics cannot meet, which forces all the abortion clinics in their state to shut down. Alabama and Mississippi have already implemented these laws, and other states are on the way.

Though these states’ laws are atrocious, North Dakota wins the prize for worst abortion laws. The North Dakota state government passed a six week ban on all abortions leaving women there very little time to find out the status of their pregnancy and make make life-changing decisions. They also

passed a TRAP law that makes it very difficult for the state’s single abortion clinic to remain open.

Women should be able to choose what they want to do with their body. The arguments to ban abortion do not make sense.

The claim that abortions go against Christians’ religious views should not be taken into account of laws in the United States because we have separation of Church and state.

The argument that we need to save lives is more complicated. Many people enjoy the “what if?” aspect. What if the baby in question was going to grow up to be a scientist that would save the world?

Well, if you get to play the what-if game, then so do I. What if the mother is going to die if she doesn’t get an abortion? Since all abortions are banned, she is unable to save her life. Isn’t that the government picking who lives and who dies?

Next scenario: a girl in high school gets raped which results in a pregnancy. Because the law bans all abortions, she has two choices: 1) Give the baby up for adoption, where he/she would most likely end up in a bad foster care situation, or 2) Keep the baby and drop out of school, where the mother and

her child would have a hard life because the mother lacks the education one needs to find a stable job.

What if she would have been a scientist tmade a world-changing discovery? The point here is throwing out “What if?” scenarios is a fruitless exercise.

Another aspect of this debate is the birth control aspect. Many people believe taking the birth control pill or using “Plan B” is just as bad as an abortion. The same people advocate only teaching abstinence in high schools and not the safe use of contraceptives. This simply does not work in the real world. According to a study by the University of Washington (Seattle) , teenagers who are taught how to properly use contraceptive are 60% less likely to get pregnant than those who don’t know how. Contraceptives don’t kill, they prevent conception. This does not go against any current laws, so there is no reason they should be banned.

The laws being passed around the country are ridiciulous: from “Tell your boss why your on the pill” in Arizona to the medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound bills that in Virginia. All of these bills infringe on women’s rights. At the end of the day a woman deserves the right to choose what to do with her body. My body, my choice.

Regulation nation

BY AKASH BORDE

borde.aka.sh@gmail.com

It’s bad enough when your parents tell you you can’t eat junk food. Now imagine if the government had that power. This past March 11th, a state judge in New York ruled against a controversial measure that would have banned the sale sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces in certain venues. This proposed ban was a bubbling issue not only because it had so many loopholes permitting consumers to circumvent the ban, but also because it brought about concerns about government control over citizens’ lives. The ban brought back the perennial question: How much government is too much? The issue of sugary drinks bigger than 16 ounces resurfaced the question of how much we permit the government to regulate our food and drink today.

To some extent, the government already regulates drink products today.The sale of alcohol is one example of a tightly regulated product, sold only to those over the age of 21. This restriction is imposed to protect minors in society whose bodies cannot safely tolerate the drink. The sugary drink ban had a similar justification behind it. It sought to protect consumers from the obe-

sity epidemic by limiting the amount of empty calories from sweetened beverages a consumer could drink in one serving. "It would be irresponsible not to try to do everything we can to save lives," said Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, in defense of the ban.

However, there are several distinctions between regulating carbonated beverages and alcoholic ones.

Whereas alcohol can seriously impair judgement to the point that it can directly harm the individual consuming it, sugary drinks aren’t that directly related to bodily harm. Yes, drinking soda in excess will mean one consumes too many empty calories to be healthy, but that is an extreme example. According to nutritionist and author Michelle Dudashhe, "People who drink an occasional soda won’t have a problem.”'

Even examples of people who drink pop in excess and gain weight as a result aren’t sufficient grounds to argue that all large pops should be banned. Consumers that drink pop in excess do so willingly. No one forces them to, they make the choice themselves. If they enjoy doing so, they should be permitted to. Unlike the case for alcohol, which can cause harm to more than the person drinking it if not done responsibly, sugary drinks do not impair judgement. Banning all large beverages on the grounds that some people become obese as a consequence of drinking them is simply an ineffective blanket reaction to a much more complicated problem that isn’t quite so simple to solve.

Granting the government the power to ban unhealthy foods expands their power into a dangerously broad

spectrum of possibilities. Does banning unhealthy food mean no more McDonalds?What about ice cream?Who even decides if a food is healthy or not? The idea behind the ban is commendable, as protecting the lives of citizens is always a paramount priority, but the ban itself is not the proper way to go about this. It is a blatantly unnecessary expansion of governmental power that fails to adequately address the issue of unhealthy foods.

To get their children to eat properly, good parents don’t ban all junk food in the house. They teach them to eat it in moderation. They offer healthier, more lucrative options like fruits and veggies. Kids that grow up to be healthy eating adults aren’t that way because they have never been exposed to junk food in their life, but rather because they have been taught to save the sweet treats for special occasions.

The government can apply some of these same lessons to their efforts to get a healthier population.

Rejecting a ban on unhealthy food does not mean giving up combating the obesity epidemic. There are certainly other ways to address this issue. Instead of instituting a ban, the governments should try and pursue programs to educate consumers more. They should level the playing field so that healthy food is at least as cheap, if not cheaper, than junk food so all consumers get a fair choice to fuel themselves healthily.

There are better ways to encourage healthiness other than strictly telling the public what they cannot have.

It would take 346 days of non-stop walking to walk the around the earth } May 31st 2013 OPINION 13

PHOTOS BY//AKASH BORDE {DESIGN BY MADIE MILLER} COMPILED BY//MADIE MILLER

Found on 1101 2nd St. in Coralville New Pioneer is open from 7am to 10pm everyday.

Locally owned and operated, Devotay lies acreoss from Motley Cow on 117 N Linn St in downtown Iowa City.

Healthy foods found just around the corner

Located on 160 N Linn St, in Iowa City the Motley Cow offers brunch every Sunday from 9:30-2pm in addition to their brunch they are open on weekdays from 11:30am-2:30pm, and 5:00-10:00pm, and Saturdays from 5:00 -10:00pm.

New Pioneer’s goal is to offer the best in organic, natural, and local food and products to support our community’s health and well-being.