Eat Right, Earn an iPod

TheMster writes "The BBC is reporting on the UK government's latest policy to tackle obesity - through offering iPods and XBoxes to pupils. The lucky lads and lasses of 29 Glasgow secondary schools will be part of the pioneering scheme, which utilises the newly introduced swipe-card canteens to create a system of the 'better you eat, the bigger the treat'."

Comments

Re:Outside food

[John Seminal]

Hmm, what happens when kids buy healthy food from the cafeteria, but also eat unhealthy snacks from home?

At least they won't turn as fat as quickly.

Say the school cuts out a 200 calorie pepsi out of the diet, and saves another 300 calories by baking the chicken instead of frying it, and offering a salad instead of fries. That is 500 calories, a pound of fat a week.

Toss in some vigerous PE classes, and that will burn another pound of fat a week.

Under those conditions, the kid could eat a big mac and suck down a milkshake, and he will still have a chance of not balloning to 300 pounds.

Plus, if the school encourages extra curricular activites, anything, the kid will have more of a chance to burn calories. Join track or basketball or even band. March around for an hour, or stand up for an hour. It is better than sitting in front of a TV with a bag of Freto's and a six pack of Old Style.

Re:Oh fuck you!

[timmyf2371]

If you pay your Council Tax to Glasgow City Council then yes actually it is.

Being a Glaswegien myself and having read all about this in our local press I think it's a truly brilliant idea. For those of you who are unaware of the reasons behind this, Glasgow and most of the west of Scotland is commonly called the "sick man of Europe" due to the high amount of fatty and junk foods we consume. By junk food I'm not talking about McDonalds, BK and their ilk but in fact such delicacies as deep fried Mars Bars and friend pakora suppers.

This scheme is designed to encourage Glasgow's school children to start eating healthier and to raise the average life expectancy of Glaswegiens which is currently the worst in the UK at 72.9 years, compared to the highest of 82.4 years.

In short, you might not like your taxes going towards incentives for Glasgow's kids to eat healthier but then again I'm sure many other citizens don't like their taxes going towards services that you use and they have no use for. Guess it's a two-way street, hmm?