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New Guidelines Would Make School Lunches Healthier
Filed under: In The News, Mealtime, Nutrition: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Nutrition: Big Kids, Nutrition: Tweens, Nutrition: Teens
New federal standards could have your kids eating healthier at school. Credit: AP
The Agriculture Department proposal applies to lunches subsidized by the federal government and would be the first major nutritional overhaul of school meals in 15 years. It is expected to be announced Thursday.
The guidelines, which were obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by USDA, would require schools to cut sodium in those meals by more than half, use more whole grains and serve low fat milk. They also would limit kids to only one cup of starchy vegetables a week, so schools couldn't offer french fries every day.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new standards could affect more than 32 million children and are crucial because kids can consume as much as half of their daily calories in school.
"If we don't contain obesity in this country it's going to eat us alive in terms of health care costs," Vilsack said Wednesday, prior to the release of the guidelines.
While many schools are improving meals already, others are still serving children meals high in fat, salt and calories. The new guidelines are based on 2009 recommendations by the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.
The announcement comes just a few weeks after President Barack Obama signed into law a child nutrition bill that will help schools pay for the healthier foods, which often are more expensive.
The subsidized meals that would fall under the guidelines proposed this week are served as free and low-cost meals to low-income children and long have been subject to government nutrition standards. The new law for the first time will extend nutrition standards to other foods sold in schools that aren't subsidized by the federal government, including "a la carte" foods on the lunch line and snacks in vending machines. Those standards, while expected to be similar, will be written separately.
The announcement is a proposal, and it could be several years before and schools are required to make changes.
The new USDA guidelines would:
- Establish the first calorie limits for school meals.
- Gradually reduce the amount of sodium in the meals over 10 years, with the eventual goal of reducing sodium by more than half.
- Ban most trans fats.
- Require more servings of fruits and vegetables.
- Require all milk served to be low fat or nonfat, and require all flavored milks to be nonfat.
- Incrementally increase the amount of whole grains required, eventually requiring most grains to be whole grains.
- Improve school breakfasts by requiring schools to serve a grain and a protein, instead of one or the other.
Some school groups have criticized efforts to make meals healthier, saying it will be hard for already-stretched schools to pay for the new requirements. Some conservatives, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have charged that telling children what to eat is a case of government overreach.
Vilsack says he understands the new standards may pose some challenges for school districts, but he believes they are necessary. He compares obesity and related diseases like diabetes to a truck barreling toward a child, and the new guidelines are like a parent teaching that child to look both ways before he or she crosses the street.
"You want your kid to be able to walk across the street without getting hit," he says.
According to the USDA, about a third of children 6 to 19 years old are overweight or obese, and the number of obese children has tripled in the past few decades.
The Agriculture Department also is planning to release new dietary guidelines for the general public, possibly as soon as this month. Those guidelines, revised every five years, are similarly expected to encourage less sodium consumption and more grains, fruits and vegetables.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. This article was written by MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
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ReaderComments (Page 2 of 4)
1-18-2011 @ 7:52AM
Jeannie said...I am a daycare provider and try my best to fix healthy meals for the children. We have the occasional sandwich and chips and baked fries about once a week, however the children usually don't want to eat the healthy home cooked meals that I prepare. No problem for them because they know that mom or dad will run by McDonalds or Jack's before going home. I even have one parent whose daughter is in elementary school and will not eat lunch there, her mom said she has to take her to McDonalds every day just to get her to eat something, and another child who goes to a different resturant every night because his mom DOES NOT cook anything. huh! So as good as all this change to the lunch menu sounds, if parents don't change at home it is of no use and a waste of money because the kids will just throw it in the garbage. They might can make them put it on their plate but they can't force them to eat it.
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1-18-2011 @ 8:00AM
Lynn said...You cannot make kids eat homecooked food. They simply don't like it and it is a waste of money to buy them something they will not eat. Blame it all on the parents. You can shove all the peas and carrots you want down akids throat while they are small but when they can choose they will not eat it. They change needs to come from the food manufacturers. They do the same thing for prepared foods that the tobacco industry does to the cigarettes, they keep chemists on had to develop stuff that tastes good to humans. Doesn't matter what they put in that harms you - like ingredients that increase your appetite so that you come back. That is where the change needs to be.
1-18-2011 @ 11:00AM
patricia pace said...Food is rarely healthy. Usually, it is dead. Sometimes, it is healthful.
1-18-2011 @ 7:54AM
TCHBD5 said...Improving school lunches is only a START to the problem. Many children on government subsidized lunches cannot get that quality of food at home nor do they like to eat it. What ever happened to keeping the kids active? Play 60 is also a great idea but we have eliminated most gym classes every day so what they eat will only do so much.
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1-18-2011 @ 7:53AM
Lynn said...They've got to be kidding right? My son won't eat half that they provide now. He won't touch anything green or eat an apple that is either red or unpeeled. the only veggie he will eat is corn and potatoes. They are gonna starve him to death, along with many other kids. They need to keep their nose out of the parenting of our kids. Obama is NOT my kids parents to decide this personal choice. If they want kids to not be over weight let them make PE a daily requirement.
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1-18-2011 @ 7:54AM
Frostie said...Whole fat milk is fine, get over it.
Its the ingredients in the everyday foods that are a problem.
Too much MSG, Sodium Benzoate, etc etc etc
Its all the junk in everyday food that is slowly killing people.
That no one touches. How come no one is screaming
about the true source of the problem.
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1-18-2011 @ 9:01AM
caitengl said...The government isn't telling kids what to eat, you can always bring a lunch from home. The government is saying that they won't pay for un-nutritious food. Now if they would just stop giving my kids food that is a lower grade than prison food.
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1-18-2011 @ 8:03AM
maxiesmom067 said...More Nanny-government interference where it doesn't belong. They've already created a generation of liberals. What scourge will they produce next?
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1-18-2011 @ 8:05AM
John F.C. Taylor said...This new legislation would be about as effective as trying to kill an elephant with a fly swatter. I grant that not all parents can afford to provide a healthy lunch for their children and must depend on these subsidized meals. However, the vast majority can. Until the vast majority of parents stop feeding their kids the foods that are unhealthy we're going to continue to see children becoming over weight and unhealthy.
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1-18-2011 @ 8:09AM
maxiesmom067 said...The kid who won't eat home-prepared lunches or red apples with the skin on doesn't because he gets away with it. $25.00 a week for the slop they serve in school is ludicrous. Pack him a lunch and let him learn to eat it or go hungry. He'll get the message and you'll save a bundle.
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1-18-2011 @ 8:11AM
ConnieJ said...Just another government mandate to teach our children that they have no responsibility for their actions; that the government will do it for them. The USDA has no business in our schools. The school's responsibility is to provide a balanced lunch in a clean and safe environment, without government interference. If a parent chooses for their child to not participate, that is the choice of the parent. I can see the 'success' of this program, the same as the 'free breakfast' programs in schools, where 80-90% of meals end up in the trash. Kids pick out what they want (if any) and trash the rest. We need LESS, not more, government interference in our lives and the lives of our children.
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1-18-2011 @ 8:34AM
snorinlorin said...Do ya think little darlins might not be so obese if they got off their butts and got some phyiscal exercise instead of staring at a screen ?They might even find that their lungs,heart and muscles would develop and grow stronger, thus decreasing medical costs down the road.
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1-18-2011 @ 8:43AM
drralc said...These comments about government control are just silly. If you don't like what the school is going to serve because it is healthier for the children, then have your kid brownbag some garbage food. Who cares? If you prefer to have your children eat the food at school, then they will get what is served, so stop complaining.
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1-18-2011 @ 8:47AM
Nell Earhart said...So, these food Nazis think that the 180 meals that a children eat in school each year are making our children obese. What about the 915 meals that they eat at home, and the countless snacks? This is much to do about nothing.
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1-18-2011 @ 8:58AM
Beel said...More government control by the control freak Socialists in
Washington. Even if the intentions are good, do we really need the damned government putting it face into every aspect of our lives? CFLs vs. incandesants, low water toilets (thats a real winner), telling us how much or little salt, fat, etc we should eat, what type of car we drive, and on and on. Washington, GO AWAY!
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1-18-2011 @ 9:58AM
John said...Guess you don't remember air pollution where you couldn't go outside, rivers that caught fire--here in the US!, and many other things that the "free market" has been unwilling to take care of on its own Same thing with schools serving cheap unhealthy foods.
1-18-2011 @ 9:16AM
Kristy said...I think it is a wonderful idea. Before my daughter started attending school, she would opt for healthier items at home. I cook low-fat, healthy meals in general. After her first year at school it was a constant battle with her, she would want me to feed her canned ravioli, pizza pockets, pizza sticks, chicken nuggets, french fries, etc. That is what our schools largest percentage of their menu is. Breakfast was also another problem, instead of the normal oatmeal, scrambled eggs, toast, etc. She wanted pop tarts, danish type rolls, high fat egg, sausage cheese pastries, all what they serve at school. I stopped taking her grocery shopping with me to stop the fits at the grocery store. A healthier lunch at school would be a great idea, some children don't get healthy foods at home and that would be great for them as well. I'm a divorced mother who also works full time, there isn't always enough time in the morning to fix a healthy breakfast or to pack a healthy lunch the night before, so even some little changes at the school would be beneficial.
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1-18-2011 @ 9:12AM
cjw said...School lunches are NOT the reason our children are overweight. As many times as I have gone to have lunch at school with my two children, the children are not eating what's being served. On hamburger day, the menu says Milk, Hamburger, salad, fruit. The hamburger meat has been sitting in a warmer for hours on end and is like trying to eat leather, the "salad" is 1 small pc. of lettuce and a few chunks of tomato (enough to put on the leather hamburger). If they are having chicken nuggets - they are given 3 VERY small chicken nuggets and 8 baked french fries that are so dry, you choke on them....that's right - they COUNT the french fries. I have watched kids get up from the table, they only drank the milk and throw their entire lunch in the trash. This year I have made a point to pack both of their lunches, they have eaten the school lunch 6 days since school started. On those days, both of mine come home thinking they are starving. One of them is involved in gymnastics and jazz dance, the other is in karate. They are both at excellent weights for their age. They don't drink cokes and candy is pretty much non-existent in our home. I noticed in quite a few of these comments, parents said their children would not eat vegetables, that is not a problem the school started, it's a problem that started long before these children started school. They will eat what they are used to. Given a choice of pizza or baked chicken, mine would JUMP on the pizza...but, if we're having baked chicken for dinner - THAT'S WHAT WE ARE EATING. Guess what - they eat it and don't complain.
I understand the schools are under such pressure to teach these children to pass the TAKS test - loads of homework every night, and no PE through the day is not teaching these children. Not feeding them meals that are at least SOMEWHAT appetizing is not helping at all. Children are sitting at school 7 - 8 hours a day, going home and sitting another 2 hours doing homework and are having no off time. The people making all of these new rules about lunches need to actually go to the public schools, sit down for a week with these students and eat the same lunches as the students do, and then decide what they can do to "fix" the school lunches.
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1-18-2011 @ 9:56AM
Erica Freeman said...Because not all parents can afford to send food with their children. Free school lunches, and in some cases, breakfast as well, was started because for some kids, that school meal is ALL THEY WILL EAT THAT DAY!
Poor people do still exist in this country.
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1-18-2011 @ 9:31AM
Giselle said...What 'healthy' is this Obama character talking about??? Who's going to make sure the 'healthy' food isn't rancid or tainted with E.coli or salmonella?? He should mind his own business about other peoples' parenting skills and do what he does best---nothing.
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