It's Not Easy Eating Green at School |
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October 26, 2005
By Dr. Michael Greger
Kermit the Frog may have thought it's not easy being green, but for most children whose schools participate in the National School Lunch Program, it's not easy eating green.
A study published this summer in the medical journal Pediatrics showed that given the right guidance and nutrition education, children can learn to prefer healthy foods like fruits and vegetables over saturated fat and cholesterol-laden choices like eggs and luncheon deli meats.
Why, then, are our children's school lunch offerings as lopsided as a broken seesaw, light on the healthy side and heavy on the unhealthy side?
Nutrition information can be confusing for all of us. So in 1999, in the Journal of the American Heart Association, our nation’s top health organizations got together and published the Unified Dietary Guidelines. According to the American Cancer Institute, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, the American Dietetic Association, and the National Institutes of Health, we all need to "choose most of what you eat from plant sources" and "eat high-fat foods sparingly, especially those from animal sources." This may not be easy for our children to do while eating in the school cafeteria.
Catering to Agribusiness, Not Children
Unfortunately, the National School Lunch Program continues to rely on U.S. Department of Agriculture commodity goods, buying up hundreds of millions of pounds of excess chicken, pork, beef, milk, and other high-fat and high-cholesterol products to bolster sagging prices in the animal agribusiness industries. The federal government should cater less to the needs of U.S. animal agriculture and more to the needs of our children.
The Government Accounting Office of the U.S. Congress found in its 2003 report that schools continue to exceed limits for fat, saturated fat, and sodium. In addition, while the vast majority of the American high schools studied made chocolate candy, soda, and potato chips available to students outside the cafeteria, only one school in five offered fruits and vegetables.
So, as the school year rolls along, we may want to send our kids off to the classroom with a brown-bag lunch instead of sending them to stand in line at the cafeteria.
Preparing School Lunches that Make the Grade
Load on the fruits and veggies to reduce your child's future risk of heart disease, cancer, blindness, and stroke. To boost the chances these healthy foods are actually eaten instead of traded or trashed, try supplying a healthy dip like peanut butter for apple slices or hummus for finger-food veggies like baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, or bell pepper strips.
For variety and convenience, small chunks of fruit such as strawberries, grapes, or tiny orange sections can be skewered onto long cocktail toothpicks (when age appropriate). Although fresh fruit is always a good choice, parents can also consider small pop-top cans of pineapple, peaches, and other fruits. Natural fruit leathers and dried fruit, like dried apricots or cherries, pack a concentrated wallop of nutrition. If you include juice in the lunch, make sure it's labeled as "100-percent fruit juice" and, preferably, calcium-fortified.
Choose whole grains. Make sure the first ingredient in the bread or pita for your sandwich, the pasta for your pasta salad, or the tortilla for your wrap is "whole wheat." You can also try your hand at baking healthy muffins loaded with fruits and nuts and freezing batches you can reheat in the morning.
Use your bean. Pack in the protein with canned baked beans and sliced vegetarian hot dogs. There are even meatless corn dogs available frozen at markets like Whole Foods. Try rolling up a tortilla spread with refried beans and salsa. Spread bread with eggless mayonnaise (like Vegenaise) and pile on meatless deli slices—such as "Foney Baloney" (or "Fakin' Bacon" for a BLT)—and Tofutti American soy cheese slices. Smaller kids might enjoy sandwiches cut into triangles or fun shapes using cookie cutters. Soy yogurt cups (try WholeSoy or Silk brands) and chocolate or vanilla Silk soy milk singles are loaded with protein and calcium without the cholesterol. And, of course, don't forget the PB&J.
Michael Greger, M.D., is director of public health and Animal Agriculture in the Farm Animal Welfare division of The Humane Society of the United States.
Related Links
The HSUS Guide to Vegetarian Eating
