GOP: Drop fresh fruit, veggie rules for school lunches

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Congressional Republicans are moving to waive a federal rule - championed by Bay Area lawmakers and first lady Michelle Obama - requiring that children who receive school lunches be served at least one helping of fresh fruit or vegetable each day, whether they want it or not.

Some schools say the rules are too rigid, and that children are rejecting the food and dumping millions of dollars of produce in the trash each day. On Tuesday, a House Appropriations subcommittee approved a GOP bill that would waive the rules for districts that are losing money on the federal school-lunch program, and a similar proposal is pending in the Senate.

... The first lady is fighting back, along with nutrition advocates, the produce industry and Democrats who say it might be hard to wean kids off junk fare, but that it's important to keep trying.

... Some food advocates charged that Republicans are simply looking for a way to attack the first lady and taint one of the big legislative accomplishments of the Obama administration.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/GOP-Drop-fresh-fruit-veggie-rules-for-school-5493283.php

[MrScorpio]

1. If the President ever came out for fresh air and sunshine...

Well, you get my point.

[freshwest]

31. If only he would! The GOPigs can wave their rebel flags yelling NO! till they run out of air!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. I thought the Republicans claimed they were for family values?

Don't they want healthy kids?

[babylonsister]

3. A way to attack Mrs. Obama? Say

it isn't so! Awaiting blowback.

[catnhatnh]

4. If this passes we need a new Executive order....

...no fresh fruits or vegetables to be served in the congressional dining rooms.

[factsarenotfair]

51. Yes! n/t

[Warpy]

55. Something tells me that Republicans grew up hating vegetables, anyway

and are now two fisted, meat and potatoes macho men, especially when it's on somebody else's expense account and can be washed down with multiple drinks.

[Dopers_Greed]

5. If anything...

The ENTIRE free lunch should be only fruits and veggies.

[tavernier]

6. I help serve in the food line

at our high school. There is always a choice of three veggies and several fresh and canned fruits. The salads disappear first. Corn, beans and potatoes are popular. Peas, carrots and broccoli, not so much, but some kids load up on whatever is offered. No one HAS to eat anything. Leftovers are used in stews, etc. and those go over pretty well. There is very little waste, so I have to wonder exactly who is throwing the food into the trash??

[targetpractice]

9. I suppose they mean stuff left on the plate...

...that students throw away.

[freshwest]

32. Excellent point and anecdote. Thanks. n/t

[displacedtexan]

39. Republican children must be following orders from their parents. Here in SF...

... The school lunches, especially the cold box lunches (subs with micro greens, fresh cheese and gourmet sauces) are coveted. My husband brings them home when he has meetings at the high schools. I wish that all SFUSD employees could get those lunches every day!

And remember: there are very few Republicans here, but they get quoted as if they were equal in number to the rest of us. Most of the time, there aren't even Repukes on the ballots.

[Warpy]

7. They'll have them on bowls of unadorned gruel before we know it

It's traditional for peasants and other disposable people and the children they produce.

[Omaha Steve]

8. Raygun wanted to use this as a vegetable....

[jmowreader]

10. Raygun WAS a vegetable.

[RoccoR5955]

17. That's an insult to vegetables!

I should call a jury for that one!

[Brother Buzz]

15. And Del Monte was caught flat footed when they discovered....

their product would be excluded from the proposed ruling so they quietly changed the spelling.

[kwassa]

11. Vegetables are Un-American!

Did our forefathers eat vegetables? Hell no1!

They ate pizza, like all God-fearing Americans!

And burgers! and fries!

Fries with their pizza, too!

[MillennialDem]

34. You do know that 95% lean ground beef is quite healthy right? Pizza and fries are indeed crap though

[kwassa]

45. Lean ground beef still has lots of fat. Not so healthy.

According to the USDA, four ounces of lean ground beef (90 percent lean, 10 percent fat) is worth 199 calories, with 11g of fat. Given that there are nine calories in each gram of fat, 99 of those calories, or 49.7 percent of them, come from fat.

Similarly, four ounces of extra-lean ground beef (95 percent lean, 5 percent fat) is worth 155 calories, with 5.6 g of fat, or 33.3 percent of its total calories.

But to put this into some perspective, four ounces of ground chuck (which is 80 percent lean and 20 percent fat), most commonly used in burgers, chili, and meatballs, contains 287 calories and 22.6 g fat, which comprises 71 percent of its calories.

The question is, does this matter? The total number of calories in that four-ounce serving isn’t all that bad, especially if you eat about 2,000 calories a day. Although there is no set recommended dietary allowance for fat*, it represents about 30 percent of suggested intake for those on a 2,000 calorie a day diet. But put that four ounces of chuck in a bun with cheese, bacon and some kind of mayo dressing, then throw in some fries, and those calories, along with the fat count, will soon add up, tipping you over 1,000 calories for just one meal.

http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/lowfatbasics/a/leanbeef.htm

Edit to add:

The protein content in a serving of extra lean ground beef is its nutritional highlight at 21 grams per serving. Based on a 50-gram DRI, that is 43 percent of your consumption. Your body uses protein as its primary fuel to repair muscles and tissue. If you are below your protein DRI and you have not eaten more than two servings of red meat for the week, lean ground beef is a solid choice. Fats help your body process vitamins, but too much leads to health problems. The fat content of a serving of ground beef is 4 grams, 2 grams of which are saturated. This is 9 percent of a 44-gram DRI for fat and 15 percent of a 14-gram limit for saturated fat. In addition to the fat, you consume 53 milligrams of cholesterol, or 18 percent of an average daily limit, with each serving. High blood cholesterol levels are a contributing factor to cardiovascular disease, stroke and other health issues.

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/nutrition-95-percent-extra-lean-ground-beef-1377.html

[MillennialDem]

47. Your link and post essentially glosses over 95% lean and talks about 90% and fattier

meat.

So anyway. Yes, it does still have a decent amount of fat - but it has 25g of protein (important) and also a lot of important minerals. In fact, add a lot of healthy carbs to the mix and you are in the range of macronutrients, but hey, whatever ignore actual nutrition.

[kwassa]

59. No, it doesn't gloss over anything. Regular hamburger is about 80% lean.

so the 95% figure is only relative to that.

and protein and minerals can be obtained from other less fatty alternatives. Including non-animal sources.

I think your definition of nutrition needs a little work.

[MillennialDem]

61. Well, that's under the assumption of not caring what % beef you get. I only cook 95% lean for myself

And it's very very hard to get Carnitine without eating beef which is important for bone density.

[Psephos]

58. You really should read the more recent science. Fat is not the problem.

Study Questions Fat and Heart Disease
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/study-questions-fat-and-heart-disease-link/

Time to End the War against Saturated Fat
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-saturated-fat-20131022-story.html#axzz2iVqDuTTZ

The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303678404579533760760481486?mod=trending_now_1


I suggest going to the primary sources referenced in these articles and giving them a close read. Impressive science indeed. The old thinking has been shown now to have been based on poorly-designed studies...or worse.

[kwassa]

60. I have read a number of these articles .... and they are really reaching in many cases.

and quite honestly, the jury is out, but saturated fat is clearly part of the heart disease problem. There may be other unknown factors, but a low saturated-fat diet is clearly a positive.

I had a heart attack, (despite having no known risk factors, even family history) modified my diet to reduce saturated fat, and saw a large drop in my total cholesterol. With medication, and careful eating, my total cholesterol dropped to 85. Without the careful eating, but still with a large statin dose, 139.

[Psephos]

62. In other words, you didn't read these articles or the studies behind them.

It is of course, your choice, but you wouldn't have said what you said if you had.

Here's one of the primary sources. http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1846638

I don't need to be right or wrong here. The science speaks for itself.

One more thing to consider. Evidence is clear now that elevated cholesterol is an effect, not a cause, of cardiovascular disease. Suppressing it with statins does not address the root problem much.

[kwassa]

63. well, I can't read this article without subscribing and paying money. So, I didn't.

"the science speaks for itself". What bullshit. At this point, various scientific sources speak against once another. There is a lot of scientific controversy in this area, but not resolution, yet, except among contrarian ideologues.

Evidence is clear now that elevated cholesterol is an effect, not a cause, of cardiovascular disease. Suppressing it with statins does not address the root problem much.

and what clear and widely accepted evidence would that be? Please give me a free, peer-reviewed, and credible source.

Edit to add:

I admit I read none of your links, because I have already read much on this subject. I went back and looked at them just now. You apparently didn't read them either, because they don't support your case. The last link, a piece by Nina Teicholz, is wildly biased. She has written an opinion piece, that is all. I also don't take advice on vaccines from Jenny McCarthy, to make an accurate analogy.

[Psephos]

64. If you read my first post, I clearly said "refer to the primary sources."

But you didn't. Consider that your own opinion may be "wildly biased."

The fact that you choose to respond with put-downs tells me that your opinions are held emotionally, rather than scientifically. Reasonable discourse is not possible in such situations.

Science is at its heart an attempt to prove an idea wrong, not right. It's organic to science that hypotheses be subjected to attempts to falsify them, to prove them wrong. If an hypothesis can not be tested this way, it is not scientific but rather, a belief, and cannot be elevated to a theory.

In any event, I bid you well.

[Bandit]

46. Not just fries but "FREEDUMB FRIES"

[YOHABLO]

12. Sorry but they have a point. Kids notoriously don't like anything green.

Broccoli? Forget about it. Peas? Not a chance. Now give them pizza, hot dogs, chicken tenders; they will woof those down. Vegetables and fresh fruits (not canned) are perishable and very hard for a school lunch room to keep them from rotting. So it is a problem of waste. Perhaps coming up with recipes that incorporate fresh vegetables in them. Kids are finicky.

[TBF]

19. You're joking right? My kids eat broccoli all the time -

my daughter even likes spinach. Of course I don't serve them from big cans ... What's wrong with carrot sticks, fresh broccoli and some canned fruits like mandarin oranges? They are buying in bulk so it shouldn't be that pricey.

[olddad56]

22. that isn't true, my kid likes money, but it is the only thing he likes that is green.

[roody]

28. I work at elementary school.

The kids throw away a lot of food, meat and vegetables and grains and milk.

[Codeine]

30. My daughter gets mad when we don't serve broccoli enough.

Veggies are just food to her and her brother. Crudites with hummus are a favorite lunch for both my kids. Occasionally she'll have a texture issue with something like avocado, but she usually powers through.

Kids are only finicky if you let them be finicky, and I refuse to play that game. Kids in other countries each veggies with no problems, so it's obviously an issue of conditioning rather than something inherent in children.

[wickerwoman]

33. Broccoli was the only veggie I liked as a kid.

Mostly because it was the only veggie my parents liked and therefore the only one I was ever served at home.

Most kids need to try new foods at least 10 times before they decide they like them. Sometimes a small change to the preparation can turn them around. Sometimes they just need to be hungry enough.

When I went away to college and actually started trying veggies, I found out I love asparagus (never saw a stick until I was 23), spinach, mesclun, avocado, sprouts and on and on. I didn't like peas until my early 30s but mostly because I associated them with the dreck my day care slopped out of cans without even bothering to rinse.

The problem isn't that you can't get kids to eat greens. The problem is that their first exposure to greens is so often to their cheapest and most miserable form. You still couldn't pay me to eat canned peas or green beans.

[NJCher]

38. excellent point

The problem isn't that you can't get kids to eat greens. The problem is that their first exposure to greens is so often to their cheapest and most miserable form.

Anyone on this thread see Jamie Oliver's program where he went into the schools and tried to serve fresh fruits and vegetables?

The problem is that our kids are a dumping ground for unhealthy foods. Pitiful that a society like ours does this to its children.

When I was a kid, if we wanted a snack it was an apple or carrot sticks. Mom's meals weren't complete unless there was a green salad with raw vegetables. To this day, it's not a real meal to me if it doesn't have a salad.

Love you, Mom!




Cher

[wickerwoman]

44. My favorite part of that show

was in one of the test schools when they had the teachers walking around the cafeteria giving stickers to kids that tried new foods and praising them for being adventurous and trying something new.

That's how you get kids to eat greens.

And I would 1000x times rather have kids graduating from school knowing that being open-minded and trying new things is the way to go through life than being able to score well on a multiple-choice test.

[blkmusclmachine]

13. The GOP can't help but being dicks, even to kids. Dickishness is deep bred into the GOP's DNA.

The GOP isn't "pro-life." It's pro-fetus, and fetus only.

[Sunlei]

14. States that don't want to feed children a healthy meal should not get Federal funds.

Let the Federal Gov. bypass the states & contract healthy meals to be directly shipped to those children or provided by a Federal Gov. employee.

These days we have shelf safe foods and the Federal Gov. doesn't need States squandering our Federal Funds.

[Psephos]

16. Forget the pugs, the problem is that kids won't eat a lot of the stuff they're getting.

So they throw it away, or go hungry. The waste is insane. My sister runs a school kitchen, she's says it's a joke.

Legislating dietary tastes is not going anywhere, folks. Especially with kids.

Further, it's not helping matters much when the people pushing this highly unpopular "for-your-own-good" diet don't follow it themselves. Nor does it help much that the government has gotten dietary recommendations criminally wrong for the past 40 or 50 years. C.f. "Food Pyramid" and low-fat/high carb dietary guidelines. Nothing could be worse for you, as the science clearly shows.

[TBF]

18. From the folks who decided ketchup was a vegetable ... nt

[DetlefK]

53. That was a pure economical decision.

There was a law that each menu should contain vegetables. And declaring ketchup as a vegetable would have allowed to replace real vegetables and save costs.

[TBF]

57. That's how republicans operate - no secret about that. nt

[mopinko]

20. chickens. the answer to this is chickens.

feed the leftovers to the girls, feed the eggs to the kids.

srsly, i have a friend who is in inspection and enforcement for school lunches. he says the racism that motivates the critics is thin to outright.

eta- IN.ILLINOIS......

[Sunlei]

48. really is a shame to throw away any foods. food could be frozen in a big block & a farm will buy it.

The school could even compost leftovers if they have a school garden.

Who knows maybe their school pays (out of their Federal/state funds) a private 'for profit' to feed school meals & the $$ervice picks the garbage/sells scrap foods to farm animals.

[mopinko]

50. lotta laws about such things.

we JUST got our first food scrap composing facility in chicago. you need a special license as an urban farm or community garden to collect food scraps from anyone outside the operators.
it is happening, tho. one of the best restaurants in my area, tho over the border into evanston, buys everything they can from the local farmers, and saves and returns to same all food scraps, including from the plates.
i've thought about doing the same with my corner joint, but they buy commercial.....
i dont eat the lettuce they put on my plate, and dont see any reason to give it to my chickens except if they are thirsty. only water in it.
may do it some anyway, tho. they are getting used to me taking the leftovers from everyone at the table home to the girls....

illinois just rewrote their composting laws, also, and it isnt real good. they expanded what rural property owners could do, but they bowed to waste management, inc, and do not allow tipping fees. so, ok to do it, just not ok to even cover your costs with it.
wrong, but....

[Sunlei]

52. oh I know what you mean about local laws. over-regulated IMO.

My chickens love most all table scraps. They also free range and I've had flocks as large as 100 who didn't even hardly touch their free-choice pellet feed in the summer months.

[mopinko]

54. well, chi

one thing ya gotta remember about laws in chi.
they are usually pointed at curbing or seeming to curb mob misbehavior. except when they are pointed at curbing the behavior of their competitors.
waste hauling has a looooooong history in this town.

[olddad56]

21. if it were up to the GOP, the kids would be eating Soylent Green.

[angrychair]

23. can't believe what I'm reading

We have people taking the position of "fuck it, let kids eat processed, high salt, high sugar foods...it will save us a couple of bucks...besides it hard and stuff."

It a much better idea to have the future of our country crammed full of "chicken" nuggets and french fries and drinking a carton of "chocolate"-like milk that has more sugar by volume than a 20oz bottle of soda. Who am I to argue. Sounds like a plan.

"Its good for you, it has electrolytes!"

[L0oniX]

24. GOP: We need more salt, fat and sugar for "your" children.

[Botany]

25. These people need to be taken out and and given a beating

"They" have no shame. The school lunch program is not about running a profit.

At one time both republicans and democrats wanted to do what is best
for our country, it's citizens, and it's future but that is no longer the
case. We all know what needs to be done but by blocking simple moves
that can help all of us ..... school lunches, jobs programs, clean energy
and anti climate change programs, a higher minimum wage, and doing
everything we can to help public education ...... this current crop of GOPers
show themselves to be without either a heart or a sense of decency.

Everybody should know the story of the late Sen. Margaret Chase Smith and what this
decent republican lady from Maine did with only a high school degree. (she went to
a public school)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Chase_Smith

[dem in texas]

26. It's all about the money

The big processed food manufacturers give big political contributions to the Repubs. That is why they want to remove the fresh fruit and veggies. Let those kids eat more junk food and French fries while the Repubs line their pockets with money.

[Rhinodawg]

35. Exactly.

[MissB]

27. Our high school doesn't do the federal lunch program, so we don't adhere to any of the guidelines.

We have a public school, but it's not exactly economically diverse, so we can get away with not tapping into federal funds for lunches.

The lunch folks started serving free raw veggies last year. It's set up like a salad bar - you can cruise along and grab whatever.

And the kids do clean out the veggie bar every single day. As a parent, I certainly appreciate the lunch folks' efforts. Most of the teachers allow post-lunch snacks in the classrooms, as long as the kids are snacking on the veggies. I stopped packing carrot sticks in lunches from home, and now throw in a fresh fruit in their lunches each day.

[dem in texas]

29. I totally disagree about the fruits and fresh veggies being hard to serve.

It would be a little more labor intensive for the lunch workers, but feeding kids is not a profit center, the school should budget for the workers' time. The emphasis should be on eating the right foods. And not all kids dislike vegetables. My kids always liked vegetables, but they started eating them at an early age. Cooked carrots, corn and green beans, most kids like these vegetables. When you talk about vegetables, you don't have to always bring up broccoli. Lots of green salad, what's not to like about that.

I watched a show on TV where Jamie Oliver was trying to introduce a healthy lunch menu at a school where they were eating heated up frozen pizza, chicken nuggets and French fries. He asked the kids what they ate at home for supper and they said chicken nuggets and French fries. USA - we have a problem.

[NJCher]

40. Jamie Oliver's series on this topic

See my post 33.

Did you watch all the shows? It was amazing how entrenched people are with this "food" like chicken nuggets.

Did you see that part about where he showed how a chicken nugget is made and then asked them if they still wanted one? And they wolfed them down.

I've never been able to think the same about "chicken nuggets" since that time.

And to think, I was the marketing person who worked for McDonald's at the time they were introduced. I wrote the Chicken McNuggets marketing plan, one of the most successful new product introductions in McDs history. At the time I did that I was a full-fledged vegetarian.

Talk about being a hypocrite!

To be fair, though, they didn't come up with that production process until much later--many years after they had been on the menu and served by other fast food chains and found in grocery stores.


Cher

[MissB]

41. Our school doesn't serve chicken nuggets, thank goodness!

The backstory about being the marketing person is fascinating! It was your job- hard to call you a hypocrite for that.

Our school is a bit odd in that we have a vendor come in to provide lunch. He makes it onsite and there is a variety of foods available each day (things like fresh baked pita bread, homemade hummus). Yes, there is pizza available but at least he is using organic meat, locally sourced. The kids can order lunch in the morning if they want so its ready to pick up. More expensive - lunches are more along the lines of adult priced lunches - but they also use good ingredients.

The grade school lunch program is similarly run, except they don't have an on site cooking facility so they have five different vendors set up to deliver meals (one vendor per day, so parents have to order/pay the month in advance).

My kids only buy lunch maybe once per week. They'd rather take lentil tacos or caeser salad, some yogurt and fruit (and the occasional crappy granola bar).

Kids food choice are so often tied to the choices that the parents make. It's hard to make a change in a kid if they haven't experienced certain types of food.

[DeSwiss]

36. A wonderful display of ''Christian'' values:

''It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.'' Luke 17:2

K&R

[CrispyQ]

37. Kids who are eating McNuggets & pizza at home are not going to eat fruit & veggies at school.

I read that it takes 2-3 weeks to re-condition your taste buds off of sugar & salt.

One problem is that produce is one of the most expensive departments in the grocery store. Fifty cents for a lemon, a buck for a box of mac-n-cheese.

[FSogol]

42. The RW won't be happy until the kids are fed shredded newspapers and concrete dust.

[truthisfreedom]

43. Seasoned with mercury and lead, with a hint of Fukushima.

And a side of dumpster juice.

[Sunlei]

49. republicans probably back the food services corps who provide foods to a lot of our public schools.

In return the 'for profit' food services get the federal funds and state money.

Those food services want to serve the cheapest, easiest (not fresh) foods to maximize the 'profits'.

[appleannie1]

56. We always had the rule that you had to eat at least one spoonful in our house.

As a result, all seven of my kids learned to like vegetables and they are raising their kids the same way. Feeding kids junk food is not only unhealthy, they tend not to do as well in school. Maybe if they spent more time teaching their kids to eat properly and less time trying to find ways to diss our president and his wife, they would look less puffy and be able to think better.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

65. Republicans want kids to have poor nutrition soda, chips and cookies.....

...so they can get obese and sick.

[cap]

66. If you don't eat fruits and veggies

You are going to be constipated.

Hmmm. GOP is in favor of constipation...,

[tenderfoot]

67. I'm not sure what's worse. The GOP's stupid idea or the random idiots here defending them.

[shenmue]

68. Republicans should just say it:

"We want kids to die."

And they call themselves pro-life. Liars!

[tabasco]

69. How evil and rotten are these scum republicans.

We will have to fight another Civil War someday to rid our nation of this evil.