By LIZIE MENSAH

They starve. They eat chips. They drink soda and embrace the sweet life of junk food. It is all they want. But, for some students, it’s their only option since they’re exposed to, in their opinion, the unappealing school lunch that they couldn’t help but turn down. This often creates the un-nutritious cycle that can follow a teen to adulthood.

For some students, school lunch isn’t that bad. But for others, the disgust for school lunch is real. That’s the case for Jada Colon, 15, a current freshman at the Academy of Mount St. Ursula (AMSU) High School. Jumbo size Hershey drops, birthday cake M&M’s, multiple packs of Hi-Chew and mango-flavored Arizona Iced Tea usually makes up her lunch on days when unappetizing school lunch is served at her school. But for her, it’s her only choice since she’s unwilling to eat school lunch that is not worth eating. “All I want to do is tie them up and make them eat the food that they give us,” Jada said of the food servers. “I don’t like it.”

“School lunch is disgusting,” said Nyasha Francis, another AMSU student. “It has no spices. It’s an atrocious thing,” she said.

Another student also vented their frustration with school lunch, saying that they felt they “would rather eat prison food than school food because I feel like it’s totally better.” “It [school food] has no flavor whatsoever,” said the student, who asked for anonymity. “I wish they would eat it and see if they like it.”

Other students said that school lunch looked fake, was unappealing and lacked flavor. “Who makes chicken that’s pink inside?” asked Jada.

Similarly, Bronx freshman Jeniah Villanueva also said that school lunch was not edible and lacked taste. Like Jada, Jeniah also brought her own food to school because she, too, hated school lunch.

But these students can also be doing themselves a favor. A 2014 study by the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor found that students who ate school lunches are more likely to be obese or overweight, at 38.2 percent versus 24.7 percent of students who don’t eat school lunch.

The rejection of school lunch has caused these students to suffer from “side effects” such as headaches. Jeniah admitted that she gets headaches on the days that she is unable to bring food for herself. Not only do they suffer from headaches, but not eating food alone can make them irritable. “I usually get angry when I don’t eat,” said Jada.

The rejection of school lunch has also caused students to engage in bad eating habits, which have negatively affected their health. “I buy chips, lots of chips,” Sophia Coconi admitted.

“My button popped while I was eating” said Jada. “I have been gaining weight.”

When asked if they were concerned about the negative effect that their food habits have had on them, students responded eagerly.

“See, when I don’t eat and when I get angry, I bring my anger out on the teachers,” said Jada. “I’m pretty sure they don’t want me in detention.”