Schools to serve more-nutritious meals under new guidelines

[alp227]

(Wash. Post photo) The first lady's campaign for fitness and healthy eating:?Michelle Obama’s campaign for health and fitness has included planting gardens, playing soccer and hula-hooping on the White House lawn.

School cafeterias will be serving more-nutritious meals with twice as many fruits and vegetables, more whole grains and less sodium and fat under new guidelines that will revamp the federally backed school meals program for the first time in 15 years.

The meals will continue to include pizza and french fries because Congress, after heavy lobbying from the food industry, derailed the Obama administration’s original plan to limit tomato paste and starchy vegetables such as potatoes.

Even so, consumer groups hailed the changes as a major improvement over the current standards, echoing remarks by first lady Michelle Obama when she unveiled the new nutrition rules Wednesday at Parklawn Elementary School in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County.

“When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home,” said Obama, who has championed efforts to combat childhood obesity.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/schools-to-serve-more-nutritious-meals-under-new-guidelines/2012/01/25/gIQAFYGzQQ_story.html

See also: "New fed guidelines mean healthier food in schools" (San Francisco Chronicle)

Conservative heads exploded, from these perspectives: "I can feed my kids healthy, I don't need those nanny state Marxists in the White House telling my kids what to eat," or "Moochelle Obama eats meat but wants to send parents to jail for feeding meat to kids! Derka derrrrrrr!" Seriously. How do conservatives live with their greased-up logic by saying that uninsured people should just get a job or die then going all defensive when Obama even dares promote healthy food. (Mediamatters.org has examples of such melting brains here and here.)

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Argle bargle blargh ! nt

[mia]

2. School cafeterias also sell chips, cookies, ice cream and candy. Kids eat this first,

because they're not allowed to take any food out of the cafeteria.

Our school serves fresh fruit and vegetables every day. Most of it ends up in the trash.
I see this every day.

[femmocrat]

3. Same here. I have both lunch and breakfast duty every day.

I welcome the new changes, but I hope they get rid of the fatty, salty snacks, too!

BTW, our cafeteria workers are all upset about it, saying that the kids won't eat the food. Well, with that attitude, probably not!

[mia]

4. Another reaon that the kids don't eat the food is because they're not hungry for lunch

at 10:00 AM. I've gotten used to eating my "brunch" at that early hour and find the food served in the cafeteria to be farily tasty, nutritious and inexpensive.

The cafeteria woukers probably know too well about the wasted food. I'm not sure that many kids in the US are used to eating wholesome foods at home.

[TheCruces]

5. I remember one year in middle school (early 90s) lunch was at 10am

It was awful. I'd never be hungry for lunch at 10am (school started at 8am) and by the time we were half way through the afternoon, I was STARVING.

[Bonobo]

6. It would help if they actually cooked the food.

Instead of shipping in pre-made frozen crap that they just reheat.

[ellisonz]

7. I think it will take some time...

...for the kids to get used to it. But let's face it, we have a significant childhood obesity problem in this country, and that the First Lady has chosen to make this one of her principle causes is magnificent. I applaud Michelle Obama for her efforts, hope that there won't be backsliding on this commitment, and think nutrition is a fundamental part of learning.

[alp227]

9. When it comes to obesity, I consider it bigoted to judge others, but more for adults than kids.

see this thread i posted at Health forum http://www.democraticunderground.com/11421008

[ellisonz]

10. Recognizing childhood obesity isn't bigotry...

...it's social fact.

Obesity rates among all children in the United States

(Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey)

Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese.
Since 1980, obesity prevalence among children and adolescents has almost tripled.
There are significant racial and ethnic disparities in obesity prevalence among U.S. children and adolescents. In 2007—2008, Hispanic boys, aged 2 to 19 years,were significantly more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic white boys, and non-Hispanic black girls were significantly more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic white girls.

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/data.html

I actually think it's slightly bigoted to deny that this is an issue. I don't doubt, there will always be "big" people. But to deny that our eating habits have worsened and that this has an effect on health is just not quite right. I say that as someone who went to a minority dominated high school and at public school lunch K-12 for the most part.

[woodsprite]

8. Our public middle school lunch 1 day last week was Rachel Ray's Orange Chicken

I had forgotten about it, but my 6th grade son actually came home and enthusiastically said "Guess what we had today for lunch?"

He is bummed that they have been told that pb&j will no longer be served at school. I don't know if it has anything to do with this new push, or if it's kids allergies. His aftercare serves soybean butter & jelly because of so many kids with nut allergies. They are also moving to a computerized pay system which is supposed to allow parents to log in and pay for lunches and show your child's selections that are charged. That's supposed to start Feb 1.

In public high school, my daughter had a choice of taco/fajita/wrap station, a salad station, pizza/burger or stir fry of the day station, or pb&j/cheese sandwich station.

When I went to the same schools (70s & 80s), the main selection was either the chefs choice of the day or a bologna sandwich, with your choice of beverage - water, white milk or chocolate milk. But then again, we had a smoking courtyard for students and teachers who wanted to smoke at lunch or on break. That's been turned into a wildlife habitat now.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

11. My high school also had a smoking courtyard ... but for students!

Seriously. It was around for at least ten years in the '70s and '80s.

Though I don't really know the reason it existed, I always suspected it was to keep smoking out of the buildings (never had to deal with smokers in bathrooms, for example) or from running out to cars to smoke between classes. And it kept the butts concentrated in one area, I guess.

It was a fairly large area between two of the buildings, with a painted line around it to mark the area. One of the assistant principals or other admin staffer would be out there to enforce the borders and sweep sweep butts back into the crowd (both people and cigs). It was an out-of-the-way area and those buildings had entrances with higher traffic, really only the smokers would go there. Non-smokers avoided it in part because it was out-of-the-way and if you even walked near it, your clothes and hair would reek because of the high concentration of cigarette smoke there for five minutes between each class period. Smoking at my high school - because of that - was not for the casual, one had to commit entirely to it because the reek would be with them the entire day, even from one visit.

Teachers? They smoked in the lounge.

[d_r]

14. we had no smoking

but you were allowed to dip snuff in an outside lunch area during the lunch time.

[Responder3]

12. As long as pizza is still there n/t

[d_r]

13. although I'm all for this

I have a very different point of view. My eight-year-old son lingers around the 3rd percentile for weight; my daughter who is four and will start kindergarten next year weighs 25 pounds and is off the growth curve. They are both health and who they are, but we are also constantly sneaking in "extra" calories. Put a little butter on that macaroni and cheese. Put a little cheese on the broccoli. Ranch dressing? Whole fat, of course. Milk too. And so on. I want them to eat their veggies and their fruit, but I want calories in them, too. I know that in a time of rising childhood obesity that isn't the typical story, but I really don't want pizza and tater tots taken off the table. But for public health policy, I think this is a good step to get away from the ketchup=vegetable view of the republicans.

I would also say I believe myelination continues through the preschool years into middle childhood, and when there is no risk of obesity children shouldn't be cut off from whole-fat diary at age two, but that is my opinion. Personally, I'd love to see whole milk as an option in elementary schools, but don't worry because that isn't going to happen.