Updated school lunch rules (pathetic)

From today's NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/u...unch-rules-aimed-at-reducing-obesity.html?hpw
Snippet: The announcement came months after the food industry won a vote in Congress to block the administration from carrying out an earlier proposal that would have reduced starchy foods like potatoes and prohibited schools from counting a small amount of tomato paste on a slice of pizza as a vegetable. Under the latest rules, potatoes are not restricted, and tomato paste can qualify as a vegetable serving.


This is what you get from the government-industrial hybrid kleptocracy that runs the country.
I'm so glad we came up with rules that make the American Frozen Food Institute happy.
It is simply impossible to get the right thing done in this country when it conflict with the wants of industrial, government supported agriculture.

 

I'd love to know how the decision makers concerned can look each other in the eye, or at themselves in the mirror, when affirming that a quarter cup of tomato paste constitutes a vegetable serving.

 

AAAAAAnd that's why me and the wife pack lunch for my daughter.

 

The decision making happens when the nice man from the Frozen Food Institute hands Mr. or Mrs. Congressperson a 6 figure bribe (oops did I say bribe? I meant campaign contribution) and they see the merits of salt and tomato paste on the school menu.

 

This is another thing I'm happy about in Oz.

The menu for our school canteen is marked as Green = Everyday foods, and Amber = Choose carefully. The "red" items (i.e. these have very little nutritional value) have gone altogether.

 

You know, when you fill a menu with starches and flours, it makes it a lot cheaper to supersize. Then our kids can have more!

 

Priorities and politics don't mix

 

I can't remember where I heard it, but I once saw something about how there is more money spent on food for the prison system in California alone than what is spent on meals in schools in the entire country.

 

We need Jamie Oliver to save the day!

 

Potatoes must never be restricted. A potato saved my life once. If a potato ran for president, it would get my vote. Potato potato potato!

Fuck tomatoes.

 

No matter what they try, kids won't get better nutrition until parents step up. I see more than half of the food at school get thrown in the garbage. The kids today are SO extremely picky. Parents don't feed them properly and don't demand that they try everything on their plate. Kids learn to be picky. It took some work and what seemed like a couple years of daily arguments to get my daughter to eat what she was given. My rule is "Try everything on your plate. If you only eat a tiny spoonful the no snacks later." There was even one time that she refused a spoonful (I mean a dinner spoon, not soup spoon or serving spoon) of sweet potato. She refused to eat it. So she was not allowed anything to eat until she DID eat it. She got up in the morning and wanted breakfast. She was offered the sweet potato and told that when it was gone she could have some cereal. She refused and got nothing to eat for breakfast except water. This repeated itself every time she asked for a snack or when meals came up. She ended up going for 42 hours without eating anything before she finally ate the spoonful and pronounced "It's almost like mashed potatoes! I like it!" She never fought it like that again. The onus of teaching our children good eating habits starts at home and no matter what we try in school, they probably won't learn to eat well.

 

yeah! FUCK TOMATOES!

 

About half the kids at my children's school bring their own lunch. Unfortunately, a lot of those lunches are no less healthy than the crap the cafeteria serves. I'm not sure that what the kids eat at home is any healthier than anyplace else.

 

Like Netforvena said a lot does rest with parents coaxing their kids to try thing. We don't force our children to eat something, but we certainly encourage them to try stuff. We often got comments that our children 'eat a lot of different stuff' - well, that's what happens when you get them to try stuff. There are things they don't like to eat and we work around that, but they don't really get the option to say "I don't like that" before they try it.

 

NetvorFena has touched on the most important aspect of all of this... what kids are eating at home. It's no wonder that kids don't like it when healthy options are provided, they don't eat healthy at home. Most people eat pretty crappy food (i.e. food that might be tasty but is not good for them). There are a lot of reasons for this and none are easy to solve.

One big step in the right direction might be re-instituting home economics into schools. We need to teach kids all the stuff that their grandparents (and great-grandparents) took for granted -- how to cook, how to shop, how to balance a home budget, how to sew, etc. This should be mandatory for all kids.

Sadly, the parents whose kids need it most, will see this as needless interference in the raising of their kids.

 

Excellent point, and could not agree more.
The paper "checkbook" may be going the way of the dodo but kids should leave high school knowing how to balance one.

We invest a huge amount of time and effort preparing healthy meals for our kids at home.
It would be way easier to feed them processed junk. I know people are very "busy" and that can be a justification for taking the easy way at mealtime but some of the stuff that I see people being busy with does not seem all that important.

 

I sure hope your kid doesn't end up being a weird eater or have food issues when she grows up. That broke my heart reading that you did that to her. Her declaration was probably more of a surrender than a revelation. But congrats on bending her to your will, eh?
My son was a "picky eater" who seemed to live on only mashed potatoes. I didn't cook special for him, I just had the rule that if my kids didn't like what I made, feel free to make something else (not snacks). To insist on them eating something they are not prepared to, even if it had the effect you were looking for, is a battle that will come back to haunt. I've seen it more than once; I felt bad for the kids when they were little and just shake my head now that they are adults and I see the results of those food battles. One is 200 lbs overweight and his brother is obsessed with what goes on his plate, how it goes on his plate and how he must eat it. My son? He's now a young adult, a line cook at a chain restaurant and a budding chef when he's not in class who loves trying out new ethnic foods.
Any pediatrician will tell you a normal child will not starve himself and, while as parents we think they aren't eating, in reality they are and they are more than likely getting much of the nutrition they should. Forcing them to eat will only create problems later in life that may or may not manifest as eating issues.