School Lunch?

[kpete]

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MORE:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/09/1363388/-How-do-these-children-s-school-lunches-from-around-the-world-compare-to-the-United-States

[femmocrat]

1. They no longer serve cookies. The kids have to buy those extra.

Pitiful in comparison to those yummy looking lunches in other countries. But it's easier to blast Michelle Obama than to improve the meals.

[daleanime]

2. Is it just me....

or does the US lunch look the less tasty?

[MisterP]

18. if it looked good then more kids'd eat it!

[TreasonousBastard]

3. At least they all use the same plates.

[Frustratedlady]

4. The kids arent allowed enough time to eat much more than they are served

in that photo. I've attended Grandparents' Day with my grandchildren and was shocked that I barely got a couple bites and it was time to go.

This has always been an irritation to me, as even when they are adults, they are programmed to stuff it down as quickly as possible. An extra 15-20 minutes would give them time to at least chew the food and maybe learn some manners (or not forget what they've been taught at home). And, let's not forget the social part of meals.

The other thought is that the extra time would be a blessing to their stomachs and nervous systems by allowing the children to eat at a reasonable pace so the digestive systems don't have to work so hard during the afternoon classes. No wonder so many kids have problems.

[F4lconF16]

19. I remember in high school

having about 10 minutes to eat my entire lunch after waiting for 20 minutes in the lunch line, since we only had 30 minutes total for lunch. It got to the point where I would be literally shoving food in my face and wolfing it down, and then running to my next class.

[Frustratedlady]

33. That was my point. I'm sure it's caused a lot of problems in adulthood.

I never could break my son of taking huge bites and swallowing way too fast. I always told him to give his digestive system a break.

[F4lconF16]

46. Perhaps; I don't know, though.

What problems would you expect to see? Only real worry I had was choking, though I do agree it's best to not dump food in your stomach purely for ease of digestion. I don't know if that causes harm, though, unless the amount of food is also too much.

The eating too fast thing is also partially just me; my whole life I've eaten quickly, and I still do even though I have time now. That I was forced to eat faster than comfortable was more my point.

[Frustratedlady]

48. Well, for one, I should think that swallowing (basically) unchewed food...

would be harder for the stomach to process. That's why we have teeth. I don't advocate chewing every bite multiple times ad nauseum, but I should think it would be best to reduce the food to something other than lumps of meat.

When I was raising kids, I either ate after they were done or ate in spurts because I was jumping up and down to serve them more milk or whatever. I can't remember enjoying many meals during that period of time. Now that they are grown, it is so nice to actually taste the food.

[F4lconF16]

67. The stomach is actually designed

To take chuncks of hard to digest raw meat and leady matter, expose them to super highly concentrated acid, and then rummage it all around until it's broken down. They can handle some slightly less chewed food. Our mouths primary function is to bite and tear away meat as well as breaking down plant matter some. That's why we have the teeth we do-sharp in the front, grinding in the back.

When I was raising kids, I either ate after they were done or ate in spurts because I was jumping up and down to serve them more milk or whatever. I can't remember enjoying many meals during that period of time. Now that they are grown, it is so nice to actually taste the food.

Ha, sounds about right

[CrispyQ]

27. We had recess after lunch - a nice long one.

I understand that they are phasing out recess. How does a teacher teach kids who have pent up energy? I wasn't the most energetic kid, but recess revived me, mentally & physically.

[Frustratedlady]

30. We also had recess, but we couldn't go outside until everyone was done eating.

Spinach got passed around to anyone who'd eat it just so we could go out to play.

Our meals were also cooked from scratch and so delicious, who wouldn't eat them? It seems like school lunches started the downward side when chicken nuggets came into play. God only knows what's in them.

[progressoid]

5. Actually, that USA lunch looks better than some I've seen.

[pipi_k]

9. For sure!

Some Most of the school lunches I've seen (and eaten, 45 years ago) were positively repulsive in comparison.

[F4lconF16]

20. That's what I was thinking as well. nt

[dilby]

6. I figured this was staged because it was obvious the lunches were all made in the same kitchen.

So I did a search for school lunch images, and found some real pics of lunches. And it looks to be pretty much true, it's sad when the USA lunches only look better than lunches form 3rd world countries.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-school-lunches-look-like-in-20-countries-arou#.bhkr7N04M

[BeeBee]

7. Actually, that US lunch looks a lot better than most I've seen.

But, when I was working at a Lycee in France, the cafeteria food was quite delicious!

[Android3.14]

8. Selective photography and more USA self-hate

The fact that all the lunches appear on the same tray indicates the photographer built the lunches in the studio.

Additional problems with this limited story include this little bit. In Greece "...schools don’t offer subsidized lunches and students must bring their own or buy from a canteen..." In fact many countries do not offer a subsidized lunch program, so what we are seeing here is probably rich kids' lunch in other countries compared to public school lunch in the U.S..
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/04/18/the-price-of-austerity-greek-school-kids-going-hungry/

I question whether the author/photographer juxtaposed the best school lunches from other countries with one of our worst school lunches. This could be similar to Joe Scabborough's bit of sending a camera team to a "liberal" town and only recording the people who behaved like ignoramuses.

I would tend to trust the following story, which seems far more likely an accurate overview of school lunches around the world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-daily-meal/what-school-lunches-look_b_4427702.html

[HappyMe]

10. Yeah, those pictures look like bs to me also.

Wood in every single background? Give me a break.

[FSogol]

11. The same knot in several backgrounds, yet the table is photoshopped lighter in some.

[HappyMe]

12. Exactly.

Yet, we're expected to look at those photos and be outraged.

[F4lconF16]

45. Well, photoshopped maybe, maybe not.

Lighting changes would cause that. However, the lunches were clearly built in the same place. It doesn't follow that they aren't accurate, however. We would need more information to determine that, as Android3.14 called attention to.

[kpete]

15. not hate

awareness

it might surprise you to hear that i love this country,
i especially love California (i am a native)
and i work in the Public Schools

The Planet Earth is a very special place - We could take better care of it

better lunches for kids would be a good place to start

being aware (and sometimes fooled) is important to me
hate, i try to avoid

peace,
kp

[Android3.14]

16. Not you, kpete. The people who made the image series

It is one of those things that sounds plausible on the surface, but when you look even a little deeper, starts to fall apart. There's been a great deal of that occurring from the left in recent months than I've typically seen in the past.

Things like this school lunch comparison have fooled me in the past and will again in the future (hopefully not as often).

I agree that better lunches for kids would be great. In fact, I believe school lunches should be from fresh ingredients, grown as locally as possible, prepared with the help of the students, and created with nutrition as the top priority. A child should be able to thrive on the one state-funded meal they receive each day, despite what they may eat outside of school.

I also worked in the public school system for many years (Texas and Maine). The school lunch program, as it is in most public schools, is a mockery of the word "appetizing", but it is fair-to-middlin' nutritious most days and it is better than nothing. For some kids, it is extremely better than nothing.

[kpete]

17. "better than nothing"

especially for breakfast, some of those kids come to school without a bite...



peace,
kp

[Glassunion]

22. Actually, the real deal in France looks better IMHO...

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-14845/what-french-kids-eat-for-school-lunch-it-puts-americans-to-shame.html

[Aerows]

34. It's not "self-hate"

to recognize that we are fed shitty food in the US.

Rah rah all that you like, but with a nation with the resources that we have, we treat our children like crap.

Some folks forget that our resources are our children, and it behooves us to cherish them.

If you are going to put a gun in their hands, they should at least be well-fed.

[Android3.14]

41. But that's not what happened

The author/photographer is comparing our lunch program to countries that don't even have a lunch program. Or they are using carefully selected positive images to compare with essentially a colorless Happy Meal.

If you think my response was rah-rah, then you missed the point. My response was a criticism of the stretched truth.

[Aerows]

44. How many countries

pictured have you been in?

How many countries were you educated in and dined on school lunch?

[Android3.14]

51. 3.85 countries, approximately

But only if you count Grand Fenwick, with its single school, as a country.
And you?

[Aerows]

52. My ham and mustard sandwiches apparently smelled

so my mother was instructed not to pack them anymore.

And I still eat them to this day. I discovered pastrami and mustard was much better, though.

[Glassunion]

53. It would appear as though daily kos did some selective editing.

The article they are referencing clearly points out that they were all made in the same place. What they had done was to give a single comparison of lunch offerings around the world. Basically a visual representation of what was on the menu.

In my opinion the photo of a lunch from the USA does seem pretty typical of the offering. In HS I was on the track and football teams. Coach had me on a great diet. When he sat me down to go over my diet, his first rule was not to eat in the cafeteria. The food was all processed, loaded full of salt, sugar, and carbs. So I packed my own lunches.

I've recently (last year) had the displeasure of enjoying a school lunch during a daytime pageant at my nephew's school. It was their graduation, so in order to embarrass the crap out of him, about 10 of us bought tickets and loaded up in 4 cars. Lunch was being provided after the event.

My review:
Now our meal was served in the typical buffet style, so I cannot give or remove points on service. However the buffet staff were quite pleasant and talkative. Choice was not much of an option, as you simply had 5 options (which amazingly coincided with the number of sections in the tray), an entree, two sides, a desert and a beverage.

I will start with the beverage option. Now you had the option of low-fat milk, or low-fat chocolate milk. Personally I am a fan of whole milk. Primarily due to how it will fill you up for longer, at the expense of only adding about 40 calories. Not to mention the sodium and carb content of low-fat milk is a bit higher. But no points off.

Now for the two sides, we had corn, along with a medley of peas and carrots. Although I cannot speak as to the exact volume of margarine, but I can say it was significant enough that my lips had a nice oily film on them for several hours following the meal. In the section where you picked up your utensils they did offer pepper. Salt was conspicuously missing. However upon tasting the corn and medley I became acutely aware as to why there was no salt. None was needed. In fact, I did not have to add salt to the next 3 meals I consumed.

Now for the entree. Your standard, rectangular pizza. I opted for the pepperoni. I will not speak badly of it. It was baked to perfection, to the point that the imitation cheeses were so beautifully not caramelized along the burnt outer crust. It was a tad salty, however it did hit the spot.

Now for the desert. Peach cobbler. Now, I am a sucker for a good peach cobbler. Hell, I'm a fan of anything that ends in cobbler. I've been known to hug a shoemaker from time to time. It was good. It was dessert, so it would explain the unearthly amounts of sugar in it. Because dessert needs to be sweet. Like so sweet, that you notice the conspicuous dust that once was your tooth enamel escaping from your mouth and nose with each breath.

Now not counting in the added butter and salt, a simple review would show that the lunch consisted of the following:
1000 - Calories
48 - g of Fat
16 - g of Saturated Fat
166 - g of Carbs.
6 - g of Dietary Fiber
44 - g of Sugar
33 - g of Protein
1965 - mg of Sodium
Total Glycemic Load = 78

The Good:
Plenty of Calcium in the meal. That meal made up about 60% of the RDV on calcium.
Plenty of Vitamin A. Worked out to about 140% of the RDV.
Nice amount of Protein. 65% of the RDV.
Iron works out to about 28% if the RDV.

The Bad:
That one meal makes up over half of the calories that my nephew should be eating in a given day. He is at the high end of what a 7 to 9 year old should eat. About 1900 calories a day.
Sodium - That one meal makes up about 80% of the entire RDV.
Dietary Fiber is almost non existent.
Sugar is also very high, at about 88% of what should be in a diet.

Childhood obesity is a big problem in the US. Almost 1 in 5 children struggle with it. From what I've observed from actually going to school, and from what I personally observed within the past year at a school, and what anyone with Twitter (#ThanksMichelleObama) can see from a quick search of actual school lunches, that Michelle Obama is 100% correct, our school lunches are crap (I'm paraphrasing).

[Aerows]

55. "I'm a fan of anything that ends in cobbler.

I've been known to hug a shoemaker."

[Glassunion]

57. I'm a Georgia boy...

Peach Cobbler was a staple food growing up.

[Aerows]

58. Blackberry cobbler

is about the best thing on the planet, but peach cobbler is a close second.

[Glassunion]

61. It is good. But for me it's like picking a favorite child or something.

Peach, blackberry, huckleberry, blueberry, cherry, etc... I cannot decide.

But a good and hot Peach with a scoop of vanilla ice cream does send me to my happy place.

[maxrandb]

13. A lot of people don't realize that the School Lunch Program was a National Security issue

"Congress created the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) after an investigation into the health of young men rejected in the World War II draft showed a connection between physical deficiencies and childhood malnutrition. In response, Congress enacted the 1946 National School Lunch Act as a “measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It turns out that we had a hard time fielding an Army for National Defense during World War II because we found so many of America's children were malnourished, so Congress enacted the NSLP as a National Security initiative.

Just think, Republicans want to return us to those grand ole' days.

Hard to believe that folks 70 years ago were more forward thinking than we are today!

[CrispyQ]

28. I wonder how many martini lunches for shyster banksters our tax payer dollars have paid for,

while repubs whine about the hot lunch program for kids.

What fucked up priorities we have.

[Aerows]

38. Exactly.

People want to put guns in the hands of people that can barely hold a rifle.

WooHoo, let's go back to the good ol' days where vitamin deficiency was the leading cause of death and childhood illness.

A child had a better chance of scurvy and rickets than getting polio.

[maxrandb]

59. Yes

Back to when Americans had the "FREE-DUMB" to choose between cancer, or polio!

[Scuba]

14. Brazil for me, please.

[NightWatcher]

24. Same here. Yummy

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

21. Looks better than when I went to school in the 60s

They were always serving sloppy joes, with barely any meat in them, on old buns so hard and dense you could probably skip them across ponds.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

23. I'm glad I didn't go to school in Finland. BLEH!

[Aerows]

31. I'll eat yours

if you don't want it.

[Brother Buzz]

25. I'm envious - this was my school lunch from the late fifties through the sixties

On a bay day, I had to suffer with a huge shopping bag. Hell, one time I was even shipped off to school with a bread bag....

[Frustratedlady]

35. Joni Ernst, is that you? eom

[Brother Buzz]

37. Keep your grubby hands off my bologna sandwich

I'm not Joni Ernst, I sloshed to school through the rain in soggy Keds sneakers.

[Frustratedlady]

49. You should have eaten your bologna sandwich and put the bread bag over

your sneakers.

Just think, you could have been a senator by now.

[Brother Buzz]

63. True dat. But I'm holdin' out for somethin' better.

I figure fuck it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.

How do you like them apples?

[Frustratedlady]

64. By the time you accomplish all of that, you'll be too old to be POTUS.

Nice to dream, though...eh?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

26. Where's the beer or wine with the French meal?

Last edited Tue Feb 10, 2015, 04:50 PM - Edit history (1)

When I went to high school in France in the 1960s, kids could get beer or wine from the canteen. The beer wasn't very strong but the wine was great.

[Aerows]

29. Lord have mercy

Give me France!

[hifiguy]

47. France or Brazil for me. nt

I remember some pretty grim school lunches, but also some that were OK back in the 60s and 70s. I brought sammiches from home on the mystery meat days.

[Aerows]

50. My favorite sandwich was ham and mustard

and I remember the teacher complaining because it stunk .

My mom had to quit packing those. Who hates mustard that much that you would shame a child?

I *STILL* eat them to this day, so it's not like they were that bad.

[bobclark86]

32. Any pics of ACTUAL lunches? n/t

[Glassunion]

62. Post #60

[bobclark86]

36. Show us what our liberal neighbors to the north do...

Here you go:







Great pic, right? Yeah, they don't even have cafeterias in most schools.

[Aerows]

42. Because they don't have to

They have healthy children that are fed at home, and generous people that pack second lunches for those that don't.

I know right? Weird concept. People caring because they ... CARE. They aren't forced to care, they just DO.

Why would anybody do that?

[AngryAmish]

39. I pack my kids lunch every day.

Sandwich, yogurt, fruit, pretzels. I would not have them eat the garbage called school lunches. I think school lunches are weird. Except for hot dog day. That was awesome.

[Aerows]

40. European and Asian

nations recognize that their children are their very best resource, and they should be healthy.

The US has concluded that they are just more mouths to feed, and it's better to just cram whatever is cheapest down their throats, and the fittest will survive to play ball.

[Major Nikon]

43. I would have never guessed they would all use the same plates

[braddy]

54. I didn't even know that school lunch was perfectly regimented throughout the world

but especially in the U.S., this sure doesn't look like reality to me.

[Art_from_Ark]

70. I never would have guessed it would always be the same meal

at all schools in each of those countries.

[yuiyoshida]

56. Japan!

[Glassunion]

60. For those complaining about the photos.

Yes, all of the photos were prepared and taken in the same exact studio, prepared by the same people. The original article does not contend that at all. Hell, in the original article they even have a photo of 4 different countries sitting on the same table.

The original article took a look at typical lunches from around the world, and prepared them for a visual. The USA photo, IMHO is too generous compared to the crap I recall eating in school.

But, perhaps it's all exaggeration. Let's take a look at some real good old fashioned public school lunches.

#ThanksMichelleObama trending on Twitter - Article on crappy school lunches

Four our military brothers and sisters, this may bring back fond memories of the good ol'e shit on a shingle. This I guess is shit on a tater tot...


THIS... IS... SPARTAn!!!


It's carbtastic!


This would energize me through about 7 minutes and 38 seconds of English Lit Class.


Obviously they need to eat the carrots. Explains the blurry picture.


You know when the mountains on the Coors Light can turn blue, you know it's cold enough. Maybe the grey on the "meat" is how you can tell it's ready to eat.


I have not been able to successfully open a milk container without ripping the crap out of it in about 10 years. This kid has a future in engineering.


Yay! On the menu today we have yellow-yellow-brown-red-yellow.


etc....

[kpete]

65. Thanks

I won't be eating my dinner


peace,
kp

[Glassunion]

66. Come on over to C&B. I'm posting a recipe with pics a little later.

[SammyWinstonJack]

68. Learn to Eat your peas....kiddos....for future reference...

USA! USA! USA!

[bhikkhu]

69. Maybe I'm an odd duck, but I was never comfortable enough at school to eat much lunch

I brought a sack lunch in grade school, where we ate quickly at our desks then rushed out to recess. I don't remember what it was - a granola bar or baloney sandwich something maybe. In high school I never brought food, and never set foot in the cafeteria. My kids are about the same - a sack lunch up to 6th grade, then in junior high they never wanted to bring stuff. Neither of them had any interest in eating in the cafeteria either, in spite of explaining about blood sugar and so forth.

All of the pictures above look fine to me.

[Jamaal510]

71. I was lucky to even get a cookie

in my school lunches. Most of the time, it was just chicken nuggets, burgers, fries, and sometimes burritos or corndogs. Every once in a while, they'd give us cookies, cupcakes, or pizza. And I don't even remember getting potatoes or vegetables except when eating teriyaki in elementary school.