A student waits in the notoriously long line for coffee at Cherry Hill East on a Monday morning before first period. As she makes her way to the refreshments table with a cup in hand, she notices only artificial sweeteners appear to be available. The Cherry Hill East snack and refreshment cart simply does not provide raw sugar for coffee drinkers each morning.

Aramark acts as the district wide foodservice company. They have recently been trying to provide healthier options for students’ school lunches. Instead of a side of french fries, they may offer a vegetable choice. Instead of a piece of pizza, cooked chicken is available. Aramark should replace the ridiculous sucrose filled sweeteners with plain sugar packets. This would be another step in the direction towards healthier eating (or drinking) habits for students at Cherry Hill High School East.

Do you agree with the writer in that East should replace its artificial sweeteners for raw sugar?

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Artificial sweeteners are also proven to be more unhealthy than raw sugar. Plain sugar may dump more calories into your body right away, but sweeteners tend to cause an increase in appetite. Over time, sweeteners will take a larger toll on your metabolism and general health. This is crucial to students who have adapted a routine of buying coffee each morning. If students are going to drink coffee, it might as well be mixed with a substance that is a little less harmful to their health.

You may be thinking about the cost factor at this point. However, in local grocery stores granulated sugar packets are equal to or even less expensive than artificial sweeteners. In fact,  Shoprite sells packs of raw sugar packets that are less expensive than a smaller pack of artificial sweeteners. It would actually benefit the school financially to get rid of sweeteners entirely and replace them with raw sugar packets.

Emily Qiao, a junior at Cherry Hill East, weighs in on the subject.

“I buy coffee almost every morning and they never have real sugar, just artificial sweeteners… They’re really bad for you,” says Qiao.

Students seem to realize the sweeteners are bad for them. In that case, it may help Aramark profits if they could provide raw sugar and gain the business of students who are turned off completely by the artificial sweeteners. There is simply no reason that the only choice each morning is artificial sweeteners.

Coffee may not be the healthiest drink, but there is no denying that there is a large population of students who purchase the hot beverage at school each morning. Why not help East financially and also health-wise by replacing harmful sweeteners with natural sugar?