Updated school lunch rules (pathetic)

The problem is that a large number of Americans are so stupid or getting paid by keeping the current system in place that they will fight it. Try to ban soda, and the Libertarians will scream, don't let government take away my kids right to choose what they drink... Try to get healthy foods, the kitchen staff will complain that it takes longer. Try to get kids to eat healthy food that tastes good, and a lot of them will want the pink slime deep fried with dipping sauces. It isn't easy to change, but nutrition and cooking should be one of those classes that people take in junior high. And I'm not a perfect eater, but I eat healthy 80% of the time. And don't get me started on the fast food industry, which has started creating some healthier menu items, but I'm not sure the people are buying them.

 

that is just a ploy to get the guy who wants to eat the burger in there, when his girlfriend says "No way am I eating that crap!".

 

I still can't believe this....the problem, school lunch food is unhealthy....the solution, redefine what a vegetable is with a law. Wow...just wow.

This legislation shows that the people in Congress just don't care at all about the public but would rather appease the corporations. If they legitimately cared about serving healthier lunches they would have found a way to do so instead we get this garbage.

Reminds me of the Colbert Report the other night when he was showing clips of Mitt Romney talking about the poor scared banks....these guys just don't get it.

 

I enjoyed Bittman's column.
He made some good points. I think my anger about the ongoing ability of big corporate agriculture and food companies to buy what they want from Congress made me overlook some positives of the program.

 

Potatoes, white rice, white four... three things that should be largely eliminated from school lunches.

 

I don't know that exceptions should be made. Kids are getting enough simple carbs at home and when they are eating fast food.

 

I eat a lot of potatoes. Lots. My entire life. I am in shape and healthy. The (non-fried) potatoes aren't the problem.

But other than that, this is a big step in the right direction.

 

Really? Your synical comment was unnecessary. If you had read the whole thing you would have realized that my request was that she only TRY the food. I did not require that she eat a whole meal of it. I also did not simply starve her for that time. She always had the option of trying the food and then moving on. As for the comment "bending her to your (my) will". Uh, I am the parent. We all have to bend our wills to obey certain laws throughout life. That IS life. If I do not try to mold her behaviors she can become spoiled and bratty. I want the best for her and if she does not learn how to try things that may not sound or look appealing to her she will be prevented from enjoying a multitude of things in the future. I have had several doctors including pediatricians who commended my actions in that particular instance. I did not scream and yell at her insist that she sit at the table and she fell asleep in her place, ground her for months, or any other more forceful things. I gave her the option to try the food or not. I was clear that once she tried the food she could have whatever else she was wanting. She insisted that she was not hungry each time so I dropped the subject. Your comments shos me how small minded you may be and make you sound like just the type of person who behaves like a spoiled, rotten brat.

FYI, my daughter is much older now and VERY confident, a leader among her peers, athletic, healthy (not obese OR mal-nutritioned), an honor roll student, has many friends, and has aspirations to become a medical doctor. She has no food issues. I also have four older step-daughters who were raised with the same type of standard - try what's on your plate - and all four are confident young women who do NOT have food issues but who are very experimental in what they eat. IMHO, You just got lucky with your son.

 

By your own admission, you told her she could eat breakfast after she "tried" the food you insisted she eat. So you did "starve" her by withholding nutrition until she gave in to you. I am very lucky with my kids, but it also is a lot of work, picking your battles and understanding they are their own persons, not little "uses". You are the lucky one-I find your method, your attitude and your holier than thou perception of your incident pretty obnoxious. Your IM(not really)HO means crap to me-when you actually KNOW me and mine, I'll consider it. Otherwise, like my own commentary, it's conjecture and unlike mine, not based on anything.

 

Every kid does something absolutely retarded at some point. I remember having the "cake" fight with my mother at one point and her solution was to just tell me I was going to get sick and then let me have it anyway. Sure enough that night I shouted cake over the white phone for a good while. The closest thing to lasting harm is that to this day I can't bring myself to eat that kind of cake.

Not eating a single thing for 42 hours is however extreme. Yes you as a parent have a responsibility to make sure your kid learns not to be a dumbass, but you also have a responsibility not to let them harm themselves in the process. Confronted with a kid that determined my method would've been to let them continue to eat but utterly barebones subsistence food.

Then again I'm biased. My mother grew up around holocaust survivors, the idea of using food deprivation as discipline provokes a reaction that can't be put into words fully. It's something that she simply utterly refuses to acknowledge as having any right to continued existence in her universe

 

Do you mean physically hurting themselves, or mentally?
I think a healthy child is very unlikely to be physically harmed by 42 hours without food.

 

Netvorfena and Ngdawg I think you are both right... but you have different children and different situations. Sometimes you have to pick your battles but if you give in constantly why have rules to begin with?

Honestly I had the same experience with my daughter one time with split pea soup. We had a simple two-bite rule in our house and same thing, they did not need to be huge bites. My daughter refused to eat the meal at dinner, I did give her a normal breakfast but it was offered again the following day at lunch and finally at dinner she tried it. Guess what? She decided she really enjoyed it. I had that one time she tried to fight the rule and it never happened again. It isn't like I was forcing a 4 year old to eat something inappropriate like 5-alarm chili, it was soup that frankly does not look very palatable. To this day my daughter is thankful that we had the two-bite rule. There were a number of things that she started out not liking when she was little and this encouraged her to retry things she hadn't in a long time and our taste buds do adapt over time. For example she used to dislike Brussel sprouts and now they are one of her favorite veggies, and she loved split pea soup ever since.

On the other hand, I have a nephew who I once saw have a violent reaction trying to eat a mushroom. He was so so repulsed by the mushroom he tried (per his own choice) that he was gagging. Under those circumstances it would have been cruel to insist that he try them again. He was at a point in his life where he wanted to expand his palate and try things that he previously didn't like. I actually suggested he not try them again... believe it or not he actually enjoys them now. Go figure.

I don't consider insisting a child taste something being a harmful thing. Growing up I had the same experience. My parents weren't wealthy and they worked hard. When dinner came around it was late, my parents were tired having worked all day. It was a manner of respect, you ate what you had been given. They didn't have the time to cater dinner to 4 different palates and I wouldn't have expected them to do so. You asked permission to be excused from the table and if you failed to eat your fill, you went hungry and were probably reminded about starving people in Africa.

 

Nothing to add, aside from these pro-potato pics: