NYT: Bill Strikes at Low-Nutrition Foods in School

[DeepModem Mom]

Bill Strikes at Low-Nutrition Foods in School
By MARIAN BURROS
Published: April 6, 2006

The days when children consume two orders of French fries in the school cafeteria and call it lunch may be numbered. A bipartisan group in Congress plans to introduce legislation today that would prohibit the sale in school not only of French fries but also of other fatty or sugary foods, including soft drinks.

Under the bill, an amendment to the National School Lunch Act, high nutritional standards would be required of all food sold on school premises. That means not just in cafeterias but in vending machines, school stores and snack bars as well, even at fund-raising events.

The measure, which has strong bipartisan support in both houses, would do on a national level what many school districts have been trying to do for years: require that the schools set an example by providing only healthful food and so perhaps reduce the incidence of childhood obesity.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, has watched what goes on in the school her two teenage sons attend.

"We talk a lot about healthy nutrition, we teach the kids about the food pyramid, and then they go down the hallway and get the high fat, high sodium and high junk available in the vending machines," Ms. Murkowski said. "We need to be consistent. People are beginning to connect the dots between rising health care costs and obesity."...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/education/06lunch.html

[oscar111]

1. only crackers for poor kids, South Carolina

i only read the title and scanned the first para, so might be off...
but that is what the title said... first para said parents who fail to pay for sch lunches ... their kids get only crackers for lunch.. despicable.

..was one news clipping in the sommary sent by email from
=================================================
FRAC.. FOOD RESEARCH AND ACTION COUNCIL IS i think, the full name... Olga Doty i believe is the editor..
=================================================


do subscribe.. google for the link to it

news on hunger poverty and the like.

Usually, ten good clippings from around the nation

=================================
also see our du forum on Poverty..

few post there... but i do. Try my posts

Fat, salt, sugar... bad nutrition

raw foods.. risk bacteria from field pickers' feces.. oft no bathroom facilties, so guess what they do... avoid also third world foods... governments too poor to inspect proprely, often.

food you boil yourself, is the safest food available.

Another good newsletter or site.. on nutrition...
Naderite.. but now detached from him..

===============================================
CSPI CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST.
==================================================

tOP quality staff,with f. science degrees.


==================================
FDA site is surprisingly great, for dirt on corporations..
=======================================

enter a company in search box, and look at the citations for filth, noncompliance, ignored warnings, and such. Amazing how some ignore toothless fda warnings.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Thanks, oscar!

[oscar111]

3. Thanks for the thanks

so few ever say thanks. You gave me a lift.

just edited my re, see the latest

[no_hypocrisy]

4. My own observations of a middle school cafeteria in suburban NJ:

1. a fair representation from Pizza Hut with extra cheese;
2. a good representation of bags of potato chips, cheese puffs, salty treats;
3. candy bars (yes! I'm serious!);
4. sugary, icy slurpies;

This is to arbitrarily name a few items that made me look twice. Not many kids bring their own lunch prepared at home to school. There's one Blimpie (sub sandwiches) that DELIVERS orders by the score every school day to the local middle school.

And we teachers have to deal with kids who have chemical imbalances throughout the day, but especially after lunch, due to their choice of foods (so-called).

[oscar111]

5. for profit food chains were nosing into the college campus

when i last was on one...

before, only the school staff fixed meals.

school staff is vastly superior as a source, tho even it can be problematic, in a lesser degree.

[oscar111]

6. vending machines and food poisoning

one was placed where evening sun hit it.. warming it

one for soft drinks had gnats swarming over the cavity where cups dropped and filled up. In the biology building! Where were the professors on that problem? Their lounge was twenty feet away.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Thanks for an on-the-scene report, nh!

[no_hypocrisy]

18. You are most welcome DMM. I just call'em as I see'em.

No sugar-coating (forgive the pun).

[Canuckistanian]

8. The Grease, Sugar and Salt lobbyists are not gonna like this

They put a lot of work into making unhealthy food so cheap.

[oscar111]

9. FatSS.. a way to remember the bad ingredients

capital letters stand for

fat, salt sugar.

[MissMillie]

12. don't forget Wonder bread

White processed flour---good for nothing but raising your blood sugar.

[noamnety]

10. We had to cancel our high school lunch program

Just couldn't afford it. Kids are on their own now.

[benevolent dictator]

30. The school has vending machines though...

[noamnety]

33. Oh, don't get me started

Those vending machines were supposed to be carrying sandwiches, soup, etc. No junk food. That's what the staff was told. I was there when the vending machine guy was pitching his program. No junk food, he said.

And now, the machines are filled with twizzlers, snickers, etc.

If you're back early from college and want to take over the cafeteria, please jump in, keep the profits for yourself if you like. The kids are angry that they have no other options, I'm angry. If a health food law were passed, we'd be able to enforce what our administration was too short-sighted to put in the contract.

[benevolent dictator]

35. They're too trusting. The admin just trusts everything will

just magically work out. They always have. "We don't need a dress code, everyone will just always dress appropriately!" "We don't need an attendance policy, our school will be so great that kids will never skip!"

But alas, I don't get back until June. I swear I have more school than anyone else on the face of the planet, except maybe my friend Lydia, who is also on quarters.

[saigon68]

11. We need CONGRESS to tell us what to eat

Unbelievable

HOW ABOUT WHEN, WHERE AND HOW MUCH, TO SHIT?

AM I ALLOWED TO SIT ON A TOILET AND DO IT?

[BuddhaGirl]

13. have you seen the movie "Supersize Me?"

in the movie there was a high school for kids with learning/behavioral problems. The school eliminated all the unhealthy cafeteria food and replaced it with healthy, fresh, vegeterian fare.

Voila, many of the kids' behavior improved, as well as their grades. All because they were eating healthier food and not the CRAP that had been served previously.

Yeah, God forbid students should eat healthy food. :eyes:

[Beaverhausen]

19. I was just going to mention that

and the cost is not any higher to give the kids real, healthy food.

[KurtNYC]

26. That school made many changes

all at once which makes it impossible to draw conclusions about the dietary changes. They didn't keep records of behavioral changes, etc. They simultaneously did aroma therapy, added PE, played classical music, teachers ate with students, ...all kinds of stuff.

I'm NOT doubting that diet makes a difference. I'm just saying that that school missed an opportunity to prove how big a difference diet can make.

Here is the whole story including the exact foods they were eating (see top link at the bottom of the page "Case Study: Appleton Schools...."). Very good analysis there. The other link is a geekier overview of the relationship between diet and behavior, specificlly within schools):

http://www.michaelfieldsaginst.org/programs/food/food_behavior.html

edit to replace bad link

[KittyWampus]

14. Right, We Should Allow Fast Food Industry To Tell Us!

after all, they have our best interests at heart.

[saigon68]

23. THE PARENTS OF THIS KID should be counseled

And then if necessary arrested

To let this kid gorge himself like Godzilla on this awful SWILL amounts to Child abuse

[DUHandle]

15. If the Feds are footing the bill, or a part of it

They do indeed have a say it what is served.

If there aren't, welcome to Mother Russia.

[Melsky]

16. they can bring their own lunches

if they want to eat crap.

[noamnety]

17. Nobody is telling the kids what to eat

They are telling government employees what they can provide to the kids. Huge difference.

[saigon68]

20. WHY SHOULD CONGRESS PASS A LAW

telling government employees how to feed children

WHY NOT JUST FIRE THE INCOMPETENTS AND REPLACE THEM WITH SOMEONE WITH COMMON SENSE

[noamnety]

24. I think I prefer it the other way around

1) Give clear guidance
2) Fire people that don't comply

rather than randomly firing people for doing something that's legal. :)

[saigon68]

25. I understand you now

Sorry :-) :-)

I just hate it when congress or some other body passes a law to correct a condition

that any idiot can see, with a small modicum of common sense.

http://folio.legis.state.wi.us/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=33933670&advquery=cigars%20manufactured&headingswithhits=on&infobase=stats.nfo&record={18B5A}&recordswithhits=on&zz=

[oscar111]

21. healthy food is cheaper

compare pure vegetables vs processed and gravy covered

if schools buy in bulk, school food would be cheaper than what parents can send off with the kid to school. At least, that is to say, the school food that is served pure, not requiring a lot of paid cooks to add unneeded gravies or mix ingredients for unneeded complex dishes like apple cobbler.

I eat only pure vegetables, no fixings on top, no complex recepies, and do just fine.

Some what like pizza.. but without the crust... the toppings are usually pure food, no gravies. Pizza is healthy.

[libpunkmom]

28. Cooks?

My son's K-5 doesn't have cooks. They have a serving area with warming bins and microwaves. Food is brought in ( example: breakfast think Jimmy Dean sausage and biscuit type food) a van at meal times, nuked, then served. The kids eat in the gym on fold out tables. They usually have 5-20 minutes to eat. That's it. Period. My son has never had a "hot lunch" at school.

[oscar111]

29. rushed lunches are all wrong

i have seen rushed lunch times. Bad for digestion, indicates cruel managment, bad for the nerves.. creates tension.. etc.

NO lunch hour at all, for some businesses. Bruce williams, radio talker, says he gives his workers no lunch time. Eat at the desk, he intones.

cruel, and Bruce showed no shame. We need unions. Greatly need them.

[noamnety]

34. I know that first hand

benevolent dictator and I stepped in and ran the lunch program here when it was first cancelled. Fresh salad bar, homemade lentil soup, fresh bread and hummus. Cheaper than the food service staff they let go, and far healthier.

But benevolent dictator had some idiot idea that it was more important to go off to college than stay and help :) and I couldn't run it forever when I was already working more than full time as a teacher.

[benevolent dictator]

36. Ha, you know, if you'd have just paid me more I might have reconsidered...

:)
Just kidding. I doubt you were pulling in the kind of profit that could have kept me at home, although I do enjoy that school (uh... now that I'm not a student there, that is) a lot more than this one. Ugh. Stupid Ohio.

[Rex]

38. Can you believe it has come to this shit?

May I sit on the floor...may I roll over...tell me what to do Congress, I a brain dead consumer!

[NashVegas]

22. If There Are No French Fries, How Will Kids Get Their Ketchup?

And therefor lose a valuable vegetable in their day, hmmm?

[SmokingJacket]

27. Fried mozzarella sticks are a regular lunch item at my kids' school

Seriously, not even adults ate that kind of crap until ten years or so ago, and then only after drinking a lot of beer at 2 am.

Not only that, but they serve them on non-biodegradable styrofoam trays...

[benevolent dictator]

31. Yep. Fried mozzarella sticks and tater tots on styrofoam. Either that

or cheese filled bread sticks and french fries. Yum...not. There was a reason I always brought my own lunch.

[saigon68]

32. Hey I live in America's Dairyland

Where the citizens larges derrieres are as wide as 2 (two) axehandles

[Rex]

37. What fucking school is serving the kids two orders of fries?

What a load of hypocritical bullshit by the usual suspects (Repukes). Hey stupid Congress creatures, you don't care about non-elite kids...what's the real lowdown on this new scam? I know it's to fuck the poor!