To the editor:

Regarding the proposed ban on junk food in schools: Our concern about the quality of food being not only allowed, but served and promoted in the public schools was THE reason our family initially considered home schooling our children.

Good health is critical to a good life, and eating habits started in childhood tend to be followed lifelong. It looked to us like it would take super-human abilities to raise a child to love healthy foods and not feel deprived if they were daily attending public schools and under continuous assault from the junk that is so pervasive there.

However, the focus upon obesity as justification for improving the food concerns me because the message the kids may be getting is that this is about looks. You can be thin and still get cancer, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, osteoporosis and kidney disease. The beginnings of these diseases usually start in childhood and in most cases are a direct result of what is and is not eaten.

The science in this matter is clear and compelling. As a whole, our cultural views about food and health are so inconsistent with our biological needs, that even these modest changes the school board is considering seem extreme to the unenlightened. The real cruelty is not in depriving children of junk food at school, but rather to teach them to eat in a way that practically guarantees their suffering and need for expensive medical treatments down the road.

JoAnn Farb,

Lawrence