When I was in high school, I often used the 2 dollars my mother gave me for lunch to buy Cool Ranch Doritos and Goobers. I have a feeling, while the specific junk food may vary, that my meal is one that many teens get from their cafeteria. If federal lawmakers have their say though, kids might not have the option to eat processed sugar and fat for lunch, as Senator Tom Harkin (D) of Iowa is presenting new legislation that would limit vending machines and soda machines in schools.It seems like a no-brainer, of course kids shouldn’t be eating chips and candy for lunch, who would want that? Well, the large food corporations that want their addictive treats available to kids all the time. At the moment, the new standards would limit not what students can eat, but how much they can eat, as The New York Times point out :

The nutrition standards would allow only plain bottled water and eight-ounce servings of fruit juice or plain or flavored low-fat milk with up to 170 calories to be sold in elementary and middle schools. High school students could also buy diet soda or, in places like school gyms, sports drinks. Other drinks with as many as 66 calories per eight ounces could be sold in high schools, but that threshold would drop to 25 calories per eight-ounce serving in five years.Food for sale would have to be limited in saturated and trans fat and have less than 35 percent sugar. Sodium would be limited, and snacks must have no more than 180 calories per serving for middle and elementary schools and 200 calories for high schools.

While some see this as a victory, as the regulations would nix many sugary sodas and sweet treats from cafeterias, others are angry that their isn’t more of an effort really restrict unhealthy foods. They worry that kids will become addicted early on and there unhealthy eating will follow them throughout their life.Give a visit to the The Center for Science in the Public Interest to see some of the efforts out there to ensure our kids don’t survive school on chocolate covered peanuts. But even with these efforts, one thing is for sure, changing folks’ habits in this Fast Food Nation isn’t easy: