Really. The Institute of Medicine released a report today recommending that school lunches be brought in line with the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans and Dietary Reference Intakes.

If you have children in school you are well aware of what a school lunch menu offers in the way of nutritional and tasty food: such things as hot dogs, corn dogs, chicken fingers, and chicken Os – items that, because of their largely chemical composition, will likely age better than you do.




Sample school lunch menu:

It’s not really your school district’s fault that lunch menus are such an abomination.  Instead, blame it on the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program whose guidelines must be followed if your school offers free lunch and breakfast for needy kids – which nearly all public schools and many private schools do. Current school menus are based on nutritional guidelines from 1995 Dietary Guidelines and 1989 Recommended Dietary Allowances – information that is 14 and 20 years old!  


I had to throw in this video about that other favorite food group of American children –  McDonalds:

I think that most of you are intelligent people who read, so you know that fostering healthy eating habits in your children and consuming school lunches don’t go hand in hand.  School lunches are tasteless at best; and full of high fat, high sodium, low fiber, mystery-meat contributors to heart disease and diabetes at worst.    


With all the information that has been researched, written, reiterated, and otherwise made widely available about the American diet and its contribution to childhood obesity, it is unbelievable that our children, “our future“, have been subjected for so long to poor nutritional standards in the system that is supposed to educate them. Well, on second thought, maybe not…


For those of us whose children do not rely on the free breakfast or free lunch program to meet their nutritional needs, I hope that your kids are bringing a lunch from home – a Peanut butter  & Jelly sandwich is healthier for god’s sake, or an apple and string cheese.  Lots of households have worked out a system where the kids make their own sandwiches or choose from a selection of easily-packed, healthier foods. I know we’re busy working people and mornings are hectic but don’t cha think they’re worth the effort? 

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© Priscilla for She's Cookin' | from the heart, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: childhood obesity, dietary guidelines, healthy foods, school lunches

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