Posted on 12/12/2014 12:47:01 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Health advocates are blasting provisions in federal funding legislation that are seen as dialing back school nutrition standards, even as the White House seeks to downplay the riders as “minor adjustments” to the first lady’s signature policy.
The bill known as “cromnibus,” contains language that would allow states to exempt struggling districts from having to offer all whole grain products and eases requirements for schools to reduce sodium levels.
Critics who lobbied against more restrictive nutrition rules hailed the language as a win.
The American Heart Association, meanwhile, worries the changes will open the door for more legislation that will allow schools to revert back to serving pizza and French fries every day for lunch.
“I don’t think we quite know the extent of what these provisions will do and how to move forward with them,” AHA’s Government Relations Manager Kristy Anderson said. “This is the tip of the iceberg for them to keep chipping away and rescind a popular law that works.”
The White House, which formally came out Thursday in support of the $1.1 trillion package, is denying that the riders will have any major impact on Michelle Obama’s prized standards, which are in line with her efforts to combat childhood obesity.
“In light of the efforts to roll back school nutrition standards, we consider the minor adjustments to the standards a real win for kids and parents,” Sam Kass, the executive director of the first lady’s “Let’s Move!” initiative said in a statement.
“The Administration will continue to support districts across the country in every way we can to achieve the goal of providing good nutritious food for students,” added Kass, who is stepping down as President Obama’s personal chef at the end of the month.
The AHA is also upset about language in the bill that will keep schools from being able to use federal funds to implement the second round of sodium reductions in 2017 “until the latest scientific research establishes the reduction is beneficial for children.”
Sodium levels in school lunches now under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act must be less than 1,230 miligrams in elementary schools, 1,360 mg in middle schools and 1,420 mg in high schools. By 2017, those numbers were expected to drop to 935 mg, 1,035 mg and 1,080 mg respectively.
“We know that reducing sodium and increasing fruits and vegetables is critical for the cardio vascular health of children across the U.S.,” said Laurie Whitsel, AHA’s director of policy research.
“We’re seeing high blood pressure more and more in young children and that’s related to the obesity epidemic and high levels of sodium in the food supply.”
Whitsel admits the current sodium levels aren’t unsafe. They just aren’t the optimal levels the dietary Guidelines of America recommend.
Still, Jessica Donze Black, a child nutrition expert at the Pew Charitable Trusts, believes that U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, due out next year, will provide sufficient data to trigger the more stringent standards.
As for whole grains, Cromnibus allows schools struggling financially to revert back to 2012 standards, which require only 50 percent of all grains used in meals to be whole grains rather than the new 100 percent standard, which kicks in this year.
The School Nutrition Association, a vocal critic of the tougher regulations, is calling this new flexibility a win for its members.
“We strongly support the legislation and see it as a critical first step in addressing unintended consequences that have resulted from some of the regulations,” SNA Spokeswoman Diane Preatt-Heavner.
The national nonprofit said it couldn’t wait until next year’s reauthorization of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act to lobby for more relaxed rules. The group instead hired Barnes & Thornburg LLP to push through riders in the appropriations bill.
Preatt-Heavner said SNA members are having a hard time financially keeping up with the current standards that require everything from croutons to the breading on chicken patties to be whole grain rich.
“In surveying our members, only 18 percent expect their program to break even by end of the 2014-2015 school year, over 50 percent expect costs to exceed revenue and the remaining are unsure,” she said.
“And school meal programs are not permitted to carry losses over from one year to the next, so when school meal programs can’t break even, the school district is required to pick up the tab.”
The bill, however, does include $25 million for school food equipment again this year to help districts purchase “sectionizers” and slicers to help cut more fruits and vegetables.
Though Donze Black believes the nutrition standards shouldn’t be changed through the appropriations process, she said there is a silver lining: it could have been worse.
“What came out at the end is less damaging than what was originally proposed,” she said. “We appreciate that they didn’t include waivers that would have been a full-scale rollback.”
This story was updated at 10:08 a.m. to correct Donze Black's title. She works at Pew Charitable Trusts.
So this is it`s ‘bright side’?
Bread, cheese, tomato sauce and potatoes are bad. Got it.
Pass a law requiring term limits and dismantle the public school system.
My great-uncle died at age 93 after a long life serving as a Catholic priest, which included a stint in a Japanese internment camp during the war.
He picked up the habit of chewing tobacco while in the missions. When he died at 93 New York State listed “tobacco use” as a contributing cause of death on his death certificate.
Just had to have the statistic.
Oh geez! Let the kids have their junk food. How petty.
I agree with you-and besides, that pre-packaged whole grain bread, 1-2 ounces of canned/packaged mystery meat and a couple tablespoons of mostly canned and/or overcooked veggies is not healthy food-it is processed packaged stuff that has almost no nutritional value with or without sodium and added sugar. Healthy food is fresh cooked meat, veggies, fruit, and fresh baked bread.
Oh the horror! All I can think of in reply is the chorus to a song I have otherwise forgotten:
Corn Mazola
RC Cola
TV Dinners
A Plate of Twinkies
I need a big burrito
Lord, they keep me clean (yes, they keep me clean, oh, they keep me clean).
(If anyone remembers who did that song, give me a ping, please) : )
About time. At least those aren’t immediately thrown in the garbage by Moo’s starving children.
They came for our pizza and no one complained. They came for our sloppy joe and no one was left to complain.
I would happily off myself before I’d go to one of those prisons-I will die with my freedom. I come from a family who believes God will punish you if you send a family member there to be tortured in their last years.
Way back in the good ole days, we had wonderful lunches. We also got to play outside every day just like we did when we got home. In all my school years, I knew 2 over weight kids. From 1-6 grades, we had 2 recesses plus lunch time to play. Then, the powers that be got rid of the high swings, slides, etc because a kid just might get hurt. I don’t remember a single one getting injured. We were being educated, too. No one passed without earning it. Education is not what is happening today.
Mmmmm. You are speaking of the elusive Bacon-Cheeseburger Pizza... One of the best_things_on_earth.
You can make one at home... I'll bet you can name every ingredient off the top of your head (that's the fun of it).
Easy on the mustard (use a dark, smoky mustard) and dill pickle... and deep fry the fries before the fact... add them in the last 5 min. Lettuce and tomato sliced thin and added cold, after the fact.
In this country, parents decide what to feed their children.
In a socialist country, the state decides what to feed their children. Parents have all the info they need on
the net, their doctors, etc. regarding proper nutrition.
When my late husband was dying from liver cancer, he needed pain medicine but the nurse said, “no, he might get addicted!” Either my niece or daughter went and told her he needed it now and to give it to him. No one messes with either lady and he got the pain med. We just did not understand where their common sense was.
Pizza, fries in schools? Really... my boys eat them at school... oh wait, they are HOMESCHOOLED! Another reason to home school, kids can eat pizza or have fries at school...
“Health advocates are blasting provisions in federal funding legislation...”
They’re not health advocates, they’re Nazis.
Good grief. So glad he got the meds for some relief.
There’s not that much wrong with a sliced of loaded {the works} pizza once a week. The French Fries? LOL I hate to inform the Food Patrol Morons this but the Fries are usually BAKED not deep fried in places like schools & hospitals etc. Main reason is safety and speed. Four trays of fries in a high speed oven can feed a couple hundred in school portions.
The AMA needs to eat the garbage they are feeding the kids now. Beef and bean burritos, soybean steak fingers, etc. Not only that but the quantities are so skimpy that the kids are ready for their dinner by 4:00 in the afternoon.
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