IOM Calls for Healthier School Lunches

Competitive Foods One (4.00 / 1)

To date, I've been focusing on getting nutritional standards for competitive foods...

I did not know that. I've participated in this blog for several months, and I did not know that. I know you're interested in school nutrition programs in a very general way, but I did not know that you have been focusing on getting nutritional standards for competitive foods.

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by: count @ Wed Oct 21, 2009 at 17:34:09 PM CDT

well, it seems like it's going to happen (4.00 / 1)

so it doesn't seem like I need to beat the drum too much there. But when I give talks about my book, I talk about 2 current issues: school lunch and food safety. And competitive foods is one of the things i bring up. It's also in the book. I've brought it up here too, particularly in the diary on the Health School Lunch Brigade lobby day on Capitol Hill.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Thu Oct 22, 2009 at 01:31:15 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Junque food (0.00 / 0)

IOM released another consensus report in 2007, Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools: Leading the Way toward Healthier Youth. I haven't read the report yet, but from the blurb,

...Congress directed the CDC to undertake a study with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to review and make recommendations about appropriate nutritional stand[ards]s for the availability, sale, content and consumption of foods at school, with attention  to  competitive foods. The ensuing report, Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools: Leading the Way toward Healthier Youth, concluded that:

federally-reimbursable school nutrition programs should be the main source of nutrition at school;

opportunities for competitive foods should be limited;

and, if competitive foods are available, they should consist of nutritious fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nonfat or low-fat milk and dairy products, as consistent with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).

The entire report is online.

Sounds good, but some details from the fact sheet are depressing. Chocolate milk with 22 grams of sugar per 8 ounces is a Tier 1 beverage, if it is nonfat or 1% fat milk. Yogurt with 30 grams of total sugar per 8 ounces is a Tier 1 food. Sick, sick, sick. From the Report Brief,

Dairy products are excepted because they provide calcium for bone health. To avoid eliminating popular dairy products due to the sugars content, the committee made an exception that flavored nonfat and low-fat milk can contain up to 22 grams of total sugars per 8 oz portion and flavored nonfat and low-fat yogurt can contain up to 30 grams of total sugars per 8 oz portion. These standards will maintain product palatability while still reducing intake of added sugars.

Perhaps they have a point: food directors might sell chocolate milk containing 30 grams of sugar or even 40 grams of sugar per 8 ounces. Nevertheless, I have yet to find any research adduced by IOM or anyone else that chocolate milk is unpalatable with 15 grams of sugar per cup. And by the way, although IOM refers to an 8 ounce serving, my understanding is that this product is often sold in 12 ounce units - 33 grams of sugar, folks. (Much of which is lactose, I understand that.)

Lots of foods have calcium - oranges, carrots, broccoli, onions, mustard greens, navy beans, pinto beans - and if IOM says kids won't eat broccoli, should we reply "No problem, just drown it in sugar"? The mindset that young people have to be bribed with excessive amounts of sugar to get their calcium is a disastrous error.

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by: count @ Thu Oct 22, 2009 at 15:33:04 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

It might happen? (0.00 / 0)

Would you give us some more information about that, please?

(I assume you meant standards for junk food?)

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by: count @ Thu Oct 22, 2009 at 15:39:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Competitive Foods Two (4.00 / 1)

The name for "everything else" is "competitive foods"...

It really is all about vocabulary, isn't it? As I understand it, "competitive foods" is the bureaucratic obscurantist bafflegab phrase for the stuff that is in vending machines and the in-school branches of Taco Bell, McDonald's, etc. When ordinary people talk about these food-like wonders, they (we) call it "junk food."

I dunno. What is the point of seeking nutritional standards for junk food in schools? Just get it to heck out of schools, period. The only reason junk food is in schools is to enhance district revenues in lieu of parents and other taxpayers being responsible. The presence of junk food in schools has nothing to do with student health, except that the two are inimicable.

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by: count @ Wed Oct 21, 2009 at 17:50:45 PM CDT

More vocabulary (4.00 / 1)

schools must simply serve items from a number of different food groups, including dark green and orange vegetables and legumes.

That is not true. Schools are not required to serve any of these things. They are required to offer them, but if students don't eat them, chucking the stuff into the dumpster at the end of cafeteria period is just fine.

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by: count @ Wed Oct 21, 2009 at 17:57:02 PM CDT

Awesome? (0.00 / 0)

OK, I feel bad being picky about this one. The recommendations would be an improvement, if implemented. Nevertheless:

School lunches should have a maximum calorie level

C'mon. We all know that the maxima would be set to accommodate Michael Phelps and 300-lb left guards.

Over the course of a week, schools should serve 1/2 cup each of dark green vegetables, orange vegetables and legumes

That isn't awesome. That is disgraceful, or it would be disgraceful except that current practice is so far short of that abyssmal mark.

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by: count @ Wed Oct 21, 2009 at 18:14:01 PM CDT

It's About Time (0.00 / 0)

It's about time schools got their act together. Back in the day (been a long time) the school baked pizza and had other unhealthy lunches. Not to mention the cafeteria was right next to the candy vending machines... hmm, where did my dollar go? Oh, the candy machine.

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by: campingfan @ Thu Oct 22, 2009 at 16:11:20 PM CDT