Food Politics

I pack my child’s lunch with the same real food that we eat at home instead of buying the school lunches. Whatever the “improvements”, our local school system is still offering highly processed food that is prepared off-site and transported to the school (there is no kitchen at his school), high in sugars and especially starches, and too low in the natural fats that kids need. These high carb, low fat foods are the very “solutions” that will worsen the childhood obesity problem, and all the attendent health problems such an unnatural diet produces.

How do we expect kids to eat stroganoff, ratatouille, or moussaka (substitute any real dish you wish) without balking, when we offer daily lunch choices of pizza, chicken nuggets, bean burrittos, and processed chicken/burger/soy patty on a bun? Adding little baggies of carrot stumps, presliced sugar solution-soaked apple slices, or a carton of concentrated fruit sugar sweetened juice isn’t a solution.

[...] check the full story here [...]

[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]

[...] Marion put an intriguing blog post on School food getting better?.Here’s a quick excerpt:A new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds “considerable improvements” in school food in recent years. In response to concerns about childhood obesity, schools are making changes in food availability … [...]

[...] Marion created an interesting post today on School food getting better?.Here’s a short outline:In response to concerns about childhood obesity, schools are making changes in food availability and physical activity requirements. Well, maybe some schools. If you are an optimist, you will be cheered by what’s happening: nearly 30% … [...]

I am heartened by this. While I also was lucky to have a parent who packed a healthy lunch for me every day when I was in school, so many kids don’t have that option. Those with lower incomes on reduced-cost lunch plans suffer especially when food resources at schools are poor – their school lunch could be the most nutritious meal of the day. The junk food ban increases are a positive sign (though who knows what else is considered “okay” in those vending machines), as well as the decrease in number of schools selling fried potatoes (halved from 40 to 19 percent). Unfortunately it seems that changing rules for schools isn’t enough – we have to change the way agricultural subsidies and surplus food are handled in our country to avoid the way cheap calories are currently shunted to low-income schools for food programs…as well as getting our schools the funding they need so they won’t have to sell vending rights to corporate fast food interests to afford computers and needed equipment.

Curiously, these ‘programs’ to curb obesity by banning things, ‘re-educating’ kids, and encouraging activity don’t seem to produce any results. At least no so far.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/bmj.39342.571806.55v1

“The original project provided hope that a simple intervention could be beneficial in preventing obesity, but our new results show no effect two years after the end of the intervention.”

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/298/14/1661

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