I wasn't even going to attempt a Friday post. But then in perusing Facebook, I clicked the link posted by Food Inc tonight. It is from Takepart.org. They have written a neat article about how schools are going to have clean up their lunch offering in order to meet new guidleines. Just about everyone in the school system that doesn't sell chocolate milk is thrilled to hear that. School lunches need a major upgrade. But when I noticed the complete lack of fat from the new proposed school lunch menus I thought I would give up my only free night and blog loudly. WE NEED TO EAT FAT!! FAT, EVEN SATURATED FAT IS IMPORTANT TO THE BRAIN DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN!! Yes, these school lunch menus are an enormous step forward in fresh fruits and vegetables. I actually like what I see overall. But my oldest child usually lands in the 40-50 percentile for height and weight for his age range. He does not need to be placed on a diet. These meals with their skim milk and their lowfat cheese are only approptiate for a child that needs to lose weight. And most kids don't need to lose weight-perhaps some need to go a year without gaining anymore weight. But these meals need some fat to help the kids stay hungry and focused.
I am all for changing school lunch. And I am NOT saying with this post that the changes are not good, or that these new lunches would be worse than the existing program. I am not sure anything could be worse than what we have right now. But let's not lose our minds here. We have a chance Mrs President to get some real food into our kids' tummies and to teach them to eat real food. So let's fill them up with veggies and real fat and whole grains so that they are too full to eat chips and soda and candy after that last bell rings. But your low fat cheese and carrot sticks might sadly do just that, leave these kids hungry and wanting more. Let's get rid of the french fries, the tater tots, the desserts and the chocolate milk. But please don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. What we know about fat has come a long way in even just the last 3-4 years, it would be wrong to update the whole school lunch program on the faulty low fat science we relied upon 15 years ago. Let's get those kids eating real food! Food that will carry them through their day and help them make the connections that they need to make to learn and grow and be the best that they can be!! So take these new menus and add back the fat to the cheese. Allow them to eat beef. Even keep the whole milk. Especially keep the whole milk.
Read the original article (Sorry, I can't do fancy embedded links on my phone. You are lucky to get a post at all!!):
And there it is! WHAT A COP-OUT!!
Sadly, still no control on the amount of sugar. Also, I see this as actually moving more towards processed foods mimicing the diet foods you see in the grociery store. Somehow I doubt that Mrs. Q's school lunch, and others that contract out their meals, will look as appetizing as the meal pictured in the article. Proper prep is as much a problem as the content of the meal, and with meals such as are served at her school, there were two modes of preperation: heat it in the oven, or plop it on the plate as is, even if it is inedible when prepared by either of those methods.
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