USDA school lunch rules 'best ever' -- though pizza is still a 'vegetable'

Los Angeles Times ^ | January 25, 2012 | by Amy Hubbard

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Yes, there's plenty to celebrate with the USDA's new school meal standards, promoted Wednesday by First Lady Michelle Obama at a Virginia elementary school. Still, French fries will flow in school cafeterias.

The new rules are the first such standards to include whole grains and limits on sodium and trans fats, and they'll "double the amount of fruits and vegetables" served to kids, said Margo Wanker, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. This makes them the "best ever," she said. And yet, there are a couple of things she was less enthusiastic about -- the things "Congress meddled with."

"These nutrition standards are a huge step forward from where the current standards are and from where most schools are today," Wanker said. "It does mean that we all need to pull together -- parents, food manufacturers, food service workers, principals, USDA, to help schools meet these standards. It's not enough just to have standards on paper."

[Oldeconomybuyer]

L.A. Schools' Healthful Lunch Menu Panned By Students [Meals Rejected "En Masse"!]
	12/17/2011 8:33:29 PM PST · by Steelfish · 102 replies LATimes ^ | December 17, 2011 | Teresa Watanabe,  L.A. Schools' Healthful Lunch Menu Panned By Students For many students, Los Angeles Unified's introduction of healthful lunches — part of a campaign against obesity, diabetes and other problems — has been a flop. The district says the menu will be revised. By Teresa Watanabe December 17, 2011 It's lunchtime at Van Nuys High School and students stream into the cafeteria to check out the day's fare: black bean burgers, tostada salad, fresh pears and other items on a new healthful menu introduced this year by the Los Angeles Unified School District. But Iraides Renteria and Mayra Gutierrez don't even...

[Don Corleone]

day's fare: black bean burgers, tostada salad, fresh pears and other items on a new healthful menu introduced this year by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Just say ,"NO!".

[Cricket24]

OMG!! I am so SICK of the WHOLE GRAIN bandwagon. THAT is what is making everyone FAT and obese! It’s not the fat you eat, eats the CARBS!! How disgusting! Moochelle is a prime example!

[stonehouse01]

It will be thrown away.

Kudos to the homeless who have first dibs on those dumpsters

[rex regnum insanit]

What a brilliant idea. Put carrots on their plates instead of fries and they’ll automatically eat them. Just because you make the kids take it doesn’t mean they’ll eat it. Something tells me our schools are going to have the healthiest garbage cans in the world.

[varmintman]

Basic rule of kid/cat nutrition: If the kid (or the cat) won’t or can’t eat it, the sum total nutritional value is ZERO.

[moovova]

...Margo Wanker, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. This makes them the "best ever," she said.

"Best ever"?

I'll wait to see how the kids vote.

[American in Israel]

So if the kids still get fat, can the parents take them back from the state?

[jospehm20]

Wanker is an apt name for the busybody.

[null and void]

That's called "Home Schooling".

It's EEEEEEEVIL!

[Wiser now]

I agree for the most part. We are being encouraged to eat far too many grain servings, and it’s the carbs that are making us fat. The current recommendations are 6 to 11 servings per day, even for diabetics!
Personally, I think six servings per day should be the maximum and that only for very physically active men.
Whole grains, themselves are not the problem. They do offer more fiber, and some nutrients. But read the labels on whole grain products; alone they are not nearly as nutritious as they are touted to be.
I remember hearing the grain recommendations were the result of very heavy lobbying by the grain farmers. That would notsurprize me a bit.

[Gabz]

Margo Wanker, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. This makes them the "best ever," she said.

Oh the irony of her name!

Anything, and I mean anything, supported by this nut job group CSPI needs to be tossed in the trash.......which is what will happen with most of these "healthy" lunch choices.

[TLI]

there are a couple of things she was less enthusiastic about -- the things "Congress meddled with."

That damn Congress thing again.

Sure would be easer if you could just do it yourself, right?

That sounds kinda familiar...

.

[Wiser now]

The LA schools already do. The kids have already begun to pitch the food they do not want.

[P-Marlowe]

If the kid (or the cat) won’t or can’t eat it, the sum total nutritional value is ZERO.

If my cat doesn't like what I feed him, he will go out shopping at the field below my house and bring in some kind of small mammal (rat, gopher, rabbit) and gut it on my living room floor.

Does anyone know where I can buy rat flavored cat food?

[digger48]

black bean burgers, tostada salad, fresh pears

I wouldn't eat that either.

You put a burger in front of me made out of anything but meat, and that sumbitch is coming back at ya.

[Venturer]

Is there any extreme the Obama’s can go to that the LA Times will not gladly get on their knees and kiss their posteriors for?

[squarebarb]

LOL! Well said.

[goodnesswins]

YEP....even a newsletter “Bottomline” my husband just got decries the “whole wheat” stuff...says today’s wheat is NOT our grandparents wheat....and is likely causing lots of problems. Also says people need MORE PROTEIN, and LESS CARBS!

[FlyingEagle]

Margo Wanker, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington

You can not make this stuff up.