How Many Calories in a School Lunch Box?
A panel from the Institute of Medicine (part of the National Academies) has recommended to the government that school-provided meals should include more fruits, vegetables and wholegrains - even though this would push costs up.
You might think this is a no-brainer: of course our kids should be getting healthy and nutritious meals at school. With nearly a third of American children overweight or obese, schools need to set a standard for healthy eating.
But the cost of fresh produce could push an average school breakfast up by 25% and a lunch by 9%. Obama has suggested a $1 billion a year increase in funding for school meals ... but there's currently no source for that extra money.
Recommendations from the Institute of Medicine
The report by the Insititute of Medicine recommended:
- An upper calorie limit (currently, there's only a set minimum calorie amount per meal)
- Gradual lowering of salt levels over the next decade
- At least half of the breads and grains provided should contain 50% wholegrains
- More fruit servings - no more than half of them as juice
- More vegetables - focusing on leafy green and orange vegetables rather than starchy ones like potatoes
- Serving 1% or fat free milk, to cut saturated fat levels
The maximum calorie levels were reported by Medical News Today:
Lunches should not exceed 650 calories for students in grades K-five, 700 for children in grades six-eight, and 850 for those in grades nine-12. Breakfast calories should not exceed 500, 550, and 600 respectively for these grade groups.
If your kids eat school breakfasts or lunches, do you have concerns about the nutritional standards - or does their school provide plenty of healthful options?
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Serving 1% or fat free milk, to cut saturated fat levels
Why oh why? Protein goes best with fat, no need to give kids anything less then whole milk.
ReplyWhat schools need to do is to stop serving so many a la carte items like fries, pizza, chili dogs, etc. and start just offering one complete meal and maybe a salad bar or something. At least provide some healthier stuff for kids to choose from so they aren't tempted by the high-fat stuff.
ReplyWhy not make healthier alternatives to these foods? There are ways to make pizza, hot dogs and the like healthy. My HS served the greasiest ala-cart food, which is why I never ate it, but why not let the kids have these options but done in a way that they don't have to sacrifice nutrition? It maybe hard to come up with a healthy alternative to nachos but why not?
ReplyThat won't solve the problem of teaching kids how to eat properly. Sure, they might get "healthy junk foods" in school, but when they get into the real world, those healthier versions likely won't be there and they won't be used to eating actual healthy foods.
ReplyI am pretty sure this has come up here before, but I say get rid of the vending machines.
If there is junk food and drinks in vending machines then they will always have the option to eat that. Even if you provide healthier options the junk food in vending machines will tempt some away.
ReplyExcellent points! Before we started paying close attention to the calories in lunch items, I confess I was unaware of how quickly they added up. It's useful to search around for tools to help raise awareness; for example, we use lunchtaker.com to build a virtual lunch, seeing how the total calories come out after adding different items. I think educating parents and kids, coupled with providing a variety of healthy foods, is key to helping switch our perceptions of what constitutes a "healthy" lunch.
ReplyOne big change they could make for those kids getting breakfast at schools is to provide old-fashioned steel-cut oats instead of the sugar cereal garbage. That will provide them a good 4 hours of nutrition and fullness!
ReplyOur HS didn't even have cereal...all they served for breakfast were donuts, PopTarts, various flavors of Powerade, bottled OJ, and bananas if you were lucky. Even sugary cereals might have been an improvement on that garbage.
ReplySugar cereals are no an improvement! Might as well eat donuts! Steel cut oats or bust is my motto!
ReplyTo be fair some of the other ceareals aren't bad, I like shredded wheat and cheerios.
ReplyThose are the least harmful cereals, but you really should eat steel cut oats. Traditional or the quick variety it doesn't matter.
ReplyI eat Captain Crunch and Fruity Pebbles and get ripped.
ReplyWell, I feel pretty fortunate to live in a community that offers salad bars and freshly made meals in my kids' schools. They still get pizza Friday which is delivered, but I think that's reasonable. My older son gets to buy lunch on Thursday and Friday, my younger son on just Friday (still in preschool). The rest of the week I make lunches. I've also learned to make the lunches fun by adding stickers, or notes, or using sandwich picks or fun baggies, etc.
ReplyMy son bought lunches last year and I was not impressed at all. They served pizza, hamburgers,chicken nuggets, waffles, french toast, chocolate milk, salad, fruit packs, ice cream, and cookies. I did talk to my son and he said the salad was a good size. Did my son eat that. Of course he did not. He chose the unhealthy food. That is the reason we do not buy lunch anymore.
ReplyHere's a FACT. Kids don't eat the lunches they are given for free. My mom taught first grade in Huntington Park, CA from the 60's to the 90's.
I used to visit sometimes and watched as the kids picked up their FREE lunch and took it from the lunch line to the dumpster, then went home to eat tacos and burritos made by mom. This goes on day in and day out at schools across the country. Can you even imagine the waste? It boggles the mind. Cartons of milk, fresh fruit, etc etc all going into the dumpster.
Think I'm lying? It's the truth. The cold, hard truth.
ReplyOf course this is from the same leftie bureaucrats who keep bleating to the masses about "saving the environment". So much for that.
ReplyWhat we need to do is have families simply have a crock pot and cook 12-minute steel cut oats for their kids in the morning. Nothing fills you up better and it sticks to the ribs for hours! I usually make it with 2% or whole milk, adding a touch of honey and goat cheese, and sometimes add in a bit of protein. YMMV.
ReplyIf parents are unable to provide meals for their children it raises the obvious question: Should those parents be entrusted with the responsibility of raising and caring for those children?
The Government should not be supplying food for children. If parents cannot feed their own kids, then those kids, sadly and regrettably, need to be removed from the home and put into foster care.
ReplyOne of the huge problems with the federal school lunch program is that it's run by the USDA, and is used by them to help support farmers. The menus aren't designed based on what's healthiest, they're designed based on what crops have a surplus that farmers need to unload - this is why corn gets served more than any other vegetable.
What we feed our children shouldn't be dictated by politics, and until the two are separated there won't be any improvement.
Replyto arrowsmith......do you own stock in the steel cut oats company?
Replymy high school had a great salad bar that included fruits, nuts, and and whole wheat garlic rolls.