In January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture published new school meal standards for the first time in 15 years for schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program. I have written before about how Choicelunch already far exceeds these changes, and these new regulations won’t affect your kids. But, with all of the news on this issue, I thought it might be fun to think about what the USDA missed. These are just my opinions. The USDA changes focused on trivialities and sort of missed the point, IMHO.
Tater Tots should not count as a vegetable
To get approved for federal funds, NSLP schools have to prove that the kids took 3 of 5 meal components (meat, grains, fruits, veggies and milk.) In theory, kids could choose chocolate milk, French fries and canned peaches from a ‘salad bar’ and the school would get a ‘thumbs up’ from the government and given their money. You see, with food-based menu planning, any form of potato counts as a vegetable, including tater tots and French fries. Originally, the USDA proposed a limit of two servings of starchy veggies a week (think potatoes and corn here). Great! But the USDA received more than 130,000 comments many of them critical of these types of changes. Do you think the potato growers and processors had anything to do with that?
Sugar not on the radar
Reading through the lengthy text of the new regulations, you’d think that sugar would have been a popular topic, given its known connection to obesity. But instead of limiting the grams of sugar allowable in a school lunch, the USDA focused on sodium, fat and calories. That makes good nutritional sense, but sugar also should be evaluated when writing a balanced menu. There is a well-known Bay Area Chef, Cindy Gershen who advises that anything with sugar in the first three ingredients be classified as a ‘dessert.’ Good advice!
Recess and sitting down to lunch should be mandatory
Kids should have at least 20 minutes to eat their lunch; otherwise we are training them for fast food.
All students should have recess periods with mandatory exercise each and every school day, no matter their age, grade or where they go to school.
Diabetes checks could be mandatory like scoliosis, hearing and vision checks
All kids should have to go through yearly diabetes screening. Parents should have to be notified if in a danger zone, just they have to be notified if a child in suffering from hearing or vision loss. Currently, every kid is supposed to be checked for scoliosis by the school nurse, but we don’t check for diabetes or obesity. Which is the bigger threat in our modern era?
These are my ‘pie in the sky’ ideas of what I thought the USDA could have included. How would you have crafted the regulations, if it was up to you?
