Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I have swim practice before school. After practice, I get to school and eat breakfast in the cafeteria, usually cereal or a bagel and a package of Pop-Tarts.

But when I got in the food line, I discovered the school had stopped selling Pop-Tarts. At lunch later that day, I also discovered the muffins they were selling were the end of the line- they weren’t selling anymore once those were gone.
At some point over the summer, the school made the decision to remove Pop-Tarts and Otis Spunkmeyer muffins from the menu.

While these two items are not the healthiest thing a student could eat, that may have been all students ate for either breakfast or lunch. And some breakfast is definitely better than no breakfast, even if it’s not the greatest thing for you.

There are definitely other things the school cafeteria sells that are not the best thing a high school student should be eating to keep their mind and body in the right shape for everything they do, but did they really have to take away Pop-Tarts?

The Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts AHS’ cafeteria served last year had a total calorie count of 400 (if the students ate both pastries), with 110 of those calories from fat. But Kellogg’s does offer Pop-Tarts with 20% of a students’ daily need for fiber, along with Pop-Tarts in flavors that have a lower calorie count, and therefore are better for students.

Instead of removing the Pop-Tarts they sold last year entirely from the school (Frosted Strawberry, Frosted Cinnamon, Chocolate Chip and S’Mores), I think the school should have reviewed the other Pop-Tarts choices and replaced the flavors they sell in school with the healthier options Kellogg’s offers, such as the Wild Grape Pop-Tarts that still have 400 calories, but only 90 calories are from fat, not 110, or any of the reduced fat options which have less calories and fat content then normal Pop-Tarts).

As for the muffins, it’s true they’re not the healthiest thing a student can eat. But instead of the Chocolate Chip and Double Chocolate Chip, why not replace them with other muffin vendors? There are other vendors the school could sell muffins through. Other vendors do sell healthier muffins that have less calories and fat content.

But was it really necessary to remove both these items completely from AHS’ menu? With all the recent talk on the news about raising child obesity rates, it is understandable as to why the school would remove Pop-Tarts and muffins from their menu. But there are alternatives they could have replaced them with for example healthier alternatives from the same or different vendors that still satisfy the student body’s sweet cravings.

But taking these products out completely is an act I find to be almost despicable. Sure, they’re not the best products imaginable for high school students to eat, but really? Pop-Tart deprivation is not the way I want to start this school year.