Eye of the Storm
Chocolate milk is in the eye of the school lunch storm. No doubt about it. As a Mom, I am conflicted. This is ironic for those who know me, since when it comes to food I am an all or nothing type of eater. I admit to nudging (my Mom would call it ‘coercing’) my family to follow a hard line on what I deem to be ‘good food choices.’
Ah, but what are good food choices? Yours are probably different than mine. When you think of every single component and angle of our culture’s food system, every family seems to have differing thoughts. There are as many views as there are people and ingredients.
In my family, we eat nuts breakfast, lunch and dinner. Cashews with oatmeal, peanuts for snack, pecans on roasted apples, peanut sauce in our stir fry. I probably eat about 2000 calories from nuts a day, no joke and keep a bag of peanuts from Costco in my car trunk (my attempt at portion control). In our lunch program, though, the pendulum on nuts has swung to honor the needs of the many families who are increasingly dealing with nut allergies. I get that, but I sure wish the world was different, since I have been described as squirrel-like in my obsession with nuts.
My son is Asian by heritage and has become lactose intolerant. We drink almond milk, both unsweetened and ‘flavored.’ Chocolate almond milk has 45 calories and 3 grams of carbs. For my family, this is a healthy choice, but I wonder, when I buy the Trader Joes chocolate almond milk, am I doing harm by training my son to expect chocolate?
It’s worth reminding each other than we all have different and sometimes conflicting stands. The idea behind choicelunch, though, is truly to let as many families make their choices within our program as possible. We don’t always succeed, but honest to goodness, we try! So, what rules do you live by that you know are different from other families? Is HFCS your biggest concern? Compostable packaging? Milk derivatives?
