Head of Harvard Nutrition Unit Says No to Chocolate Milk

Too much sugar in school food?

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

The dairy industry would like to see Americans everywhere lift a glass for chocolate milk—and pour one for their kids while they’re at it. Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, sees that as a recipe for a health disaster.

Willett says the nation’s schools should not be serving sugary chocolate milk to children, adding that too many refined, starchy foods in the federally-subsidized school meals program pose a risk of obesity and other weight-related illness.

“These highly sugared milks make absolutely no sense whatsoever,” Willet said in an interview. “The use of sugar as an important part of the diet makes absolutely no sense nutritionally, especially when obesity is the number one health problem facing our nation.”

Willett and Harvard colleagues recently went public with findings exonerating fat and blaming sugar and too many starchy carbohydrates--such as those found in bread, pasta and potatoes--for many of the nation’s health problems, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.

“People are getting 50 percent of their calories from carbs, and 80 percent of those calories are from refined starch and sugar,” Willett said. “Kids in school are getting the full brunt of that diet.”

Willett, who had not spoken out publicly on the school food issue previously, thus adds Harvard’s prestige to a growing chorus of critics questioning the routine use of flavored milks and other sugary products in school meals.

Meanwhile, an Emory University study described as the first of its kind finds that children who eat lots of sugar are at greater risk for heart disease. Released this week, the study found that sugar accounted for more than 21 percent of the calories in the diets of average teenagers, resulting in lowered levels of “good cholesterol” (HDL) and elevated levels of fat in the blood (triglycerides), both key markers of heart disease.

In examining dietary survey results compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control from 2,157 teenagers across the country, the study found that some teens got an astonishing 30 percent of their calories from sugar. Overweight children with the highest level of sugar consumption also showed increased signs of insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.

Most of that sugar is believed to come from sodas and other sugary beverages. Sugar, while delivering calories, has no nutritional value, and some have called it an “anti-nutrient” because of the health problems it can cause. Yet it has become a regular stand-in for real food in school meals because it delivers lots of calories at little cost.

Greg Miller, a nutritionist and executive vice-president of research , regulatory and scientific affairs at the National Dairy Council, defended flavored milk in school meals, saying he routinely feeds his own children chocolate milk because of the many nutrients it contains—calcium, vitamin D, potassium, riboflavin, to name a few—and because his children won’t drink plain milk.

Miller said studies indicate that kids offered chocolate and other milk products with added sugar get equally good nutrition as drinkers of plain milk and do not show signs of being any heavier. “Certainly we want to be concerned about sugar,” Miller said. “But I look at other places to cut sugar—less nutrient-dense foods, like cookies.”

The National Dairy Council vigorously promotes flavored milk in school through the industry’s “Raise Your Hand for Chocolate Milk!” campaign. Miller noted that companies such as milk giant Dean Foods are looking for ways to reduce the sugar content of flavored milk. “We want to be a responsible industry,” he said.

Likewise, the School Nutrition Association, which is partially funded by the dairy industry, and where dairy interests have a seat on an “industry advisory committee,” also continues to promote flavored milk in schools despite its sugar content.

The SNA represents some 50,000 of the country’s school food service workers, giving it broad influence over the kinds of foods served in school cafeterias.

SNA spokeswoman Diane Pratt-Heavner pointed to proposed nutrition guidelines for school meals, published in October 2009 by the Institute of Medicine, that set no limit for sugar in school meals and make specific allowances for including sugary flavored milk on cafeteria menus.

Saying they were “concerned that eliminating all flavored milk would result in a substantial decrease in milk intake,” committee members cited a 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association that found that children who prefer flavored milk drink just as much milk as kids who prefer plain, and get just as much nutrition without adverse weight gain.

That study was funded by dairy interests and written by nutritionists with longstanding ties to the industry.

The IOM committee also said it expected that reducing calorie requirements for school meals, increasing the amount of fat permitted, and requiring bigger portions of vegetables and whole grains would tend to squeeze sugar-laden foods such as desserts off school menus.

The recommendations, written at the behest of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, have not yet been formally adopted, but are expected to be released today for public comment.

The USDA requires that schools offer milk with breakfast and lunch. Kids overwhelmingly prefer chocolate milk over plain. Estimates indicate that between 60 and 70 percent of the milk consumed in the school meals program is flavored.

Many children start their day with a government-sponsored breakfast consisting of strawberry-flavored milk containing nearly as much sugar as Mountain Dew, ounce-for-ounce, poured over a bowl of Apple Jacks or other sugar-enhanced cereal. Until recently, kids as young as five here in the District of Columbia routinely were being served the equivalent of 15 teaspoons of sugar before classes even started, and experts say that’s not at all uncommon in school districts around the country. Some are even worse.

What's for Lunch: Taco Salad

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

I bicycled the 3.25 miles to my daughter's elementary school yesterday. The thermometer read 35 degrees. Most of that trip is uphill getting to the school from our house. So I was a bit ravenous by the time I arrived in the cafeteria.

This "taco salad" looked awfully good to me. Tasted good, too.

Okay, so the meat is highly processed turkey, probably with some soy protein mixed in. It arrived frozen. And the "baked whole grain tortilla shells" Chartwells advertised on its menu site are nothing more than those "scoops" you see in the corn chip aisle in the supermarket.

But I liked some of the touches. For instance, the lettuce confetti at the bottom of the heap, though it is already prepared and bagged for convenience, got a splash of lemon juice from our lunch ladies to boost the flavor. Underneath the shredded cheese is a "southwest peach salsa" that was pretty tasty also.

And in the upper-left hand corner is something I have not seen before: a dessert crumble made with canned pear and peaches and frozen blueberries also made in the local kitchen. It wasn't terribly sugary. I think it hit a lot of positive notes.

Is this a good way to deliver those anti-oxidants in the blueberries? Or should the schools not be tempting kids at all with dessert?

The plastic cup contains ranch dressing, to be drizzled over the taco salad. I spent my lunch hour
spooning the salad into the corn scoops individually, adding a little dollop of dressing. I noticed some of the kids doing the same. What fun.

New Report Challenges Dairy Campaign Promoting Chocolate Milk in Schools

A little sugar with that calcium?

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

A landmark study on calcium and vitamin D nutrition recently published by the Institute of Medicine poses a serious challenge to a dairy industry campaign to sell chocolate milk to the nation’s school children, finding that only girls aged 9 to 18 might need more calcium and only by an amount contained in a half-serving of calcium-fortified cereal .

In setting new dietary standards, the IOM found claims that Americans are deficient in calcium and vitamin D to be greatly exaggerated. But the dairy industry has spent millions of dollars promoting sugary flavored milk in schools based on the idea that children are threatened with a “calcium crisis.” The industry is fighting efforts to remove flavored milk from school menus, saying kids will be in danger of not getting the calcium they need to build strong bones.

Meanwhile, a growing body of scientific evidence links sugar with an epidemic of childhood obesity as well as a host of related health problems: diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and even an unprecedented outbreak of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children.

According to the IOM, girls leading up to and during puberty typically consume around 823 milligrams of calcium daily. Because they experience a growth spurt during this period, they should aim to get about 200 milligrams more calcium, or “between 1,000 and 1,100”milligrams, said Dr. Steven A. Abrams, a professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine who specializes in the calcium intake of children and was one of the panelists who wrote the IOM report.

By comparison, a one-cup serving of Total cereal contains 1,000 milligrams of calcium, a cup of low-fat milk around 300, and a half-cup of cooked collard greens 200, about the same as in a single serving of string cheese.

“I’ve never been a fan of the term ‘calcium crisis.’ I’m much more in favor of policies that ensure we meet that 1,000 milligrams,” said Abrams. “What we need to do is make sure that we have a lot of different ways for kids to get to it.”

Sources of calcium besides milk, cheese and yogurt include fortified cereal and fruit juice, as well as certain green vegetables, such as bok choy, broccoli and collard greens. Dairy products contain more calcium, but the calcium in vegetables is more readily absorbed.

Abrams declined to address the question of using sugar and flavorings to entice children to drink milk at school, saying “people have different perspectives,” and noting that he sits on a board that advises MilkPEP, the dairy group responsible for the “Got Milk?” and “Raise Your Hand for Chocolate Milk!” campaigns.

But a leading medical voice on the dangers of sugar, Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco specializing in endocrinology and obesity, said schools should not be offering flavored milk to children. “But it won’t get fixed any time soon,” Lustig said. “The dairy industry is very tight with the USDA.”

The IOM report created a sensation when it was released in November because it debunked rampant promotion of vitamin D supplements as a treatment for everything from cancer to arthritis to diabetes. The IOM panel said there was no scientific basis for those claims and found that calcium supplements also are not necessary. Their report, based on a review of more than 1,000 studies and testimony from medical professionals, constitutes the most authoritative dietary recommendations on calcium and vitamin D to date.

Calcium and vitamin D working in tandem are essential to skeletal health throughout life. Vitamin D actually acts as a hormone, enabling calcium in its job of building and “remodeling” bones, as well as performing vital functions elsewhere in the body. In fact, there is very little study of how much calcium and vitamin D are needed independent of each other. Complicating the task of setting dietary requirements , the IOM panel said, is the fact that as well as being contained in some foods, such as oily fish and egg yolks, vitamin D is synthesized by the skin from sunlight.

Most Americans don’t consume enough vitamin D in theory, but measurements of the hormone in their blood consistently show they have more than enough, indicating they get at least some from sunshine, the panel reported.

Also unknown is the minimum amount of calcium needed for healthy bone growth. Abrams said some experts put the number as low as 600 milligrams in pubescent girls. But he said the IOM panel “chose not to set a minimum number.”

The committee took a more cautious route, adopting 1,100 milligrams of calcium daily as the “estimated average requirement” for all children aged nine to 18, meaning the amount that would ensure that at least half the children in that age group get the calcium they require. But because genetic differences can affect how well some people’s bodies utilize calcium, Abrams said the committee went a step further and established 1,300 milligrams as a “recommended dietary allowance” that would cover 97 percent of all children in the group.

Well-designed studies of children’s calcium intake and its effect on bone health are scarce. One study cited by the panel found that while children who were given extra calcium did show increased bone growth, it did not last after the supplementation ended.

The IOM report makes no mention of bone impairment being suffered by children not getting enough calcium or vitamin D outside the rare cases of rickets experienced by infants, typically those with dark skin who are breastfed. Breast milk contains less vitamin D than infant formula and dark pigment inhibits the skin’s ability to synthesize sunlight.

Milk sold commercially is fortified with vitamin D. Exactly how much calcium children consume or where they get it isn’t known, although some surveys have attempted to establish a rough idea. For many children, the federally-subsidized meals program, where milk is a required element at breakfast and at lunch, is an important source of calcium and vitamin D—at least when school is in session.

The 2007 School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study published by the USDA found that the mean 24-hour calcium intake among middle-school students was 1,137 milligrams—or well within the acceptable range—for those who participated in the meals program, but 906 milligrams—less than the amount recommended—for children who ate outside the subsidized lunch line.

The USDA reports that children who participate in the federally-subsidized lunch program are four times as likely to drink milk at school than other children.

A “study” commissioned last year by the dairy industry, and performed by a company that conducts marketing research for corporate food clients, suggested that 35 percent fewer elementary school students drank milk when flavored milk was removed from the cafeteria. But the dairy industry has refused to release the full study, and some experts have dismissed it as inherently biased.

Estimates indicate that anywhere from 60 to 70 percent of all milk consumed in schools is chocolate or another flavor with added sugar. An eight-ounce serving of chocolate milk, for instance, typically contains about 14 grams of high-fructose corn syrup, the equivalent of three and a half teaspoons.

According to Lustig and other anti-sugar activists, the dangers of sugar in the form of fructose outweigh any calcium or vitamin D benefits children might get from drinking flavored milk.

Beginning in fall 2010, schools in the District of Columbia ceased serving flavored milk, following districts such as Berkeley, Calif., and Boulder, Co. The state board of education in Florida also has been considering such a move, but recently was asked by the state’s newly appointed agriculture secretary to put that decision on hold pending further study.

Potpourri: School Food News Roundup

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

How do you make school food healthier without spending more money?

A great place to is just taking sugary, starchy foods off the menu. That's exactly what schools in St. Paul, Minn., have in mind. They plan to become "sweet-free zones" by the end of the current school year.

That means "sweet, sticky, fat-laden [and] salty treats" aren't allowed during the school day, said Jean Ronnei, the district's director of nutrition services.

The new policy comes four years after the idea was conceived in a new St. Paul schools wellness policy, passed at the recommendation of a panel of parents, teachers, school nurses and administrators.

Superintendent Valeria Silva, who was hired a year ago, decided to take action after a study determined 40 percent of St. Paul's fourth-graders, most of whom are poor and minority, are obese. That's 11 percent higher than the national rate.

In prior years, though the policy existed, it was rarely enforced because of other academic and leadership changes the schools were going through, said Ann Hoxie, the district's assistant director for student health and wellness.

The policy is seen as a blow to booster clubs and parent organizations, too, which won't be able to sell hot chocolate, doughnuts, candy bars and cookies at school events, often used as fundraisers.

Teachers also will have to find new ways to reward students, and children will have to come up with new ways to celebrate classroom birthdays and, well, almost every occasion.

And of course food manufacturers who specialize in sugar, such as the beverage industry, don't see much good coming of it.

"I think it's counter-productive," said Joan Archer, president of the Minnesota's Beverage Association, which negotiated with the district when schools eliminated soda from vending machines. "Kids aren't much different than adults. When they're mandated to do something, it can backfire."

Meanwhile, a study from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, find that banning junk food from a la carte lines during school lunch hours would result in an 18 percent reduction in overweight or obese students.

Researchers examined survey responses from seventh- and 12th-graders and their parents at eight Midwestern schools, then combined them with those of school administrators and considered a range of other factors to precisely gauge the effect of school food policies on students’ weight.

The study suggests expanding the USDA’s current ban on selling so-called Foods of Limited Nutritional Value during school meal times to include all junk food a la carte selections.

*****

The things children eat these days are far different than what their parents ate and much less healthy. And despite what they may think, parents don't have very much influence over what their kids eat, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Researchers looked at 30 years worth of studies on eating habits and found that outside forces-- friends, schools, area stores and advertisers-- have more sway than parents, particularly over older kids who eat out more.

"The parents' influence was weak," said May A. Beydoun, a former postdoctoral fellow at the Bloomberg School and a co-author of the study. "Parents can have an influence, but there needs to be a concerted effort outside the home."

*****

The mainstream media spends little time getting inside school kitchens to see how they really work. So this long report from the San Diego Reader is unusual and informative. Listen to how the food service workers talk about the waste in school cafeterias:

"Baker, who worked with Food Services for 18 years, has the opportunity to visit all 200 kitchens as part of his job. Food Services buys 23,000 pounds of chopped Romaine lettuce, 1200 cases of oranges, 34,900 cases of frozen food products, and 1,182,500½ pints of milk every month. Too much of it, he says, gets thrown away at the end of each day.

" 'I’d say we could feed all the homeless downtown probably with all the food we waste in these kitchens per day,' he says. 'Management doesn’t listen to the workers, and we’re the ones feeding these children and we know what’s going on. But the people in the ivory tower are throwing these projections out, and it’s just a big waste.' "

"He estimates that they waste 'hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, easily' and says that if the members of what he calls the 'good old girls’ club' would take the advice of the front-line workers, they might be able to work together to save that money."

On a brighter side, salad bars in San Diego school appear to be a huge hit.

*****

In Denver, some 81 schools have started serving free lunch to all students regardless of income because some low-income children apparently weren't eating because they didn't want friends to know they were poor.

Making meals universally free helps remove the stigma from eating in the federally-subsidized meal line. By making lunch free for every student, district leaders hope more students will go through the lunch line, especially students who qualify for the federal free and reduced lunch program. If they do, the district will actually make money by giving away lunch for free, officials said.

That would be because of the payments the federal government gives schools for each meal served--$2.72 for every fully-subsidized meal that goes to a low-income child. Of course, that would be offset by any money the kids who don't qualify would otherwise pay for the food.

Schools in districts with high populations of low-income students have already shown that they can generate money to pay for better lunch food by serving free breakfast in the classroom.

Said one parent: "Regardless of what's being served, if it's free for everybody, the kids are going to want to eat."

*****

Junk food has spread everywhere and food that's really bad for you is cheap. What's more, food manufacturers encourage people to overeat, then tell them they are responsible for eating too much.

It seems the current environment is designed to make people fat--and corporate food interests rich. That's the take of Kelly Bromwell, a professor of epidemiology and public health at Yale University and director of Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

Bromwell's laser-sharp views on what's ailing our food system are contained in an interview titled, "How the Food Industry Drives Us to Eat," published in the November 2010 edition of San Francisco Medicine, the journal of the San Francisco Medical Society.

The newsletter is in PDF format. Scroll to page 17 for the interview.

*****

Every child is entitled to lunch at school, right? Well, maybe not in some charter schools in California, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Mealtime is more complicated at the more than 900 publicly financed charter schools in California. Unlike traditional campuses that must follow state nutrition regulations for schools, charters can make independent decisions about what's for lunch. Some charter school officials decide not to serve it at all, even if that might mean that the nutrition needs of some of the state's poorest children are not being met.

"Charter schools are about family choice," said Phyllis Bramson-Paul, director of nutrition services for the state Department of Education. "On the other hand, there is a lot of hunger in California, and we know children who are hungry don't learn as well."

Many public schools are expanding meal programs in the belief that children who are well fed learn better. But advocates for low-income families worry that those struggling to put food on the table can be left to decide between a traditional public school that offers their children adequate nutrition and a charter that may have smaller classes or more enrichment programs.

Lunchtime on some charter campuses "indulges the students' worst impulses and obligates the parents to pay for meals that USDA is willing to fund," said Matthew Sharp, a senior advocate at California Food Policy Advocates.

*****

In international news, warfare has erupted over a free school lunch proposal in Korea.

Legislators in Seoul have voted to provide free lunches to school children there, but the mayor says the proposal is illegal and that he'll refuse to spend money on it.

Money was approved for for free lunches for students in two grades at primary schools in Seoul. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and each ward office cover the money needed to feed students in four other grades.

Legislators have promoted the free meal program, which will start next year, and will include middle schools from 2012. But Mayor Oh Se-hoon made it clear that the city government will not execute the budget.

"I have no other choice but to fight with stern determination, as the passage was a clear violation of the law,” Oh told reporters. “We will take a firm stand against illegality. We will not spend the illegally-increased budget,” he added.

Oh has vehemently opposed the plan, claiming the program is based on a populist campaign and the money should be spent on other projects with a higher priority.

In India, meanwhile, a judge put schools on notice that junk food could be on its way out, following a petition from a children's welfare group that wants the courts to direct the local government to develop better nutrition policies.

"At what cost is it okay for junk food to be available to them at school," asked advocate Rakesh Prabhakar, representing the Uday Foundation. "On the one hand, children are taught about good nutrition and the value of a healthy lifestyle inside classrooms; yet on the other hand we continue to make junk food available to them."

The court directed he government to file a written reply by February 9. It also asked the NGO to define " junk food" in its petition before the next hearing.

"When you have a sumptuous junk meal rich in oil, you feel drowsy and fail to concentrate," according to the foundation's petition. "Over sustained periods of junk food eating, blood circulation drops because of fat accumulation. Lack of vital oxygen, nutrients and proteins particularly can stale your grey ( brain) cells temporarily."

*****

Outside Philadelphia is the poorest community in Pennsylvania and the second-hungriest in the U.S. Kids grow up in a food dessert where grocery stores have disappeared. A non-profit group hopes to help fill the gap by starting a food pantry that charges only modest amounts for the food.

They would give the food away, except there aren't enough donations. Read about it here.

*****

Finally, in the wake of hurricane Katrina, a group of middle-school students calling them the Rethinkers formed to re-imagine schools in New Orleans. The group has now turned its attention to school food and is working on ways to bring local produce--even local shrimp--to school cafeterias.

To the students, the issues were clear and visible: the food tasted terrible and the cafeteria conditions were pathetic. Long lines and short lunch periods made it nearly impossible for students to wash their hands, eat, and digest the food. And the list went on, all symptoms of a broken school food operation.

The group brought in Johanna Gilligan of the New Orleans Food and Farm Network, a local alternative food policy and advocacy group, as a resource person to work with them.

For more about the Rethinkers and a long takeout on food justice issues, read this piece in Dissent Magazine.

Kids Bake Souffled Corn Bread

Who doesn't like a slice of warm corn bread?

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

The baking lessons in our food appreciation classes turn to making quick breads and teaching kids the difference between yeasted breads and those made with a chemical rise. Not everyone has time to wait for yeast to work its magic on bread. Hence bakers turn to a chemical reaction between a dry ingredient such as baking soda and a wet ingredient such as buttermilk. The baking soda, which is alkaline, reacts with the acid content of the buttermilk to create a kind of frothiness to the batter. Think of what happens when you drop an Alka Seltzer tablet in a glass of water.

Another common rising agent is baking powder, consisting of baking soda and an acid salt such as cream of tartar already mixed in. For our lesson this week, I chose to make a corn bread that happens to use both baking soda and baking powder. This is a classic corn bread recipe with an upscale twist: beaten egg whites are folded into the batter to give the bread even more lightness, although this is nothing like the cakey, sweet "corn bread" you might be used to.

This is the kind of corn bread you might serve for a special Sunday supper. We served it a choice of all-fruit strawberry or blueberry jam.

A heavy iron skillet really works best as the baking vessel. In some Southern households, it was customary to have at least one heavy iron skillet on hand devoted to making corn bread. From frequent use, the skillet would become well-seasoned and non-stick. You may not have an iron skillet devoted to making corn bread. If you don’t have an iron skillet at all, can I suggest getting one? It is a great kitchen tool, something we use all the time.

1 1/2 cup white cornmeal (or substitute yellow cornmeal)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, separated
3/4 cup (or 1/2 14-ounce can) creamed-style canned corn
3 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. In a large measuring cup or bowl, mix buttermilk, egg yolks, creamed corn and melted butter. (I melt the butter in the iron skillet in the oven, which has the added virtue of greasing the skillet. Simply pour the butter, once melted, into the measuring cup with the other wet ingredients, then put the skillet back in the oven to heat up again.)

In a separate mixing bowl, beat eggs whites to stiff peaks.

Meanwhile, pour wet ingredients from measuring cup into dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Then fold in the beaten egg whites. Pour the mixture into the hot skillet. If the batter bubbles around the edges, you know you are on the right track. Place the skillet in the oven and bake until the top of the corn bread is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

What's for Breakfast: Turkey Sausage Muffin

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

Since my daughter transferred to a different elementary school this year, I've had a much tougher time getting my hands on ingredient information for the meals. Typically they're pasted onto the shipping boxes that the frozen meal components arrive in. It was pretty easy to dive into the dumpster outside the school and retrieve them. I saved a whole box full at home, giving me a reference to use in these posts.

Under the "Healthy Schools Act" approved last spring by the D.C. Council, the public schools were required to post meal ingredients where the public could easily see them. School officials said the ingredients would be part of a new website. When the website did not appear for the beginning of school in the fall, school officials said it would be ready sometime in November. Now it's January, a new year is upon us, and still no website, still no ingredient information.

Thus, I regret I cannot tell you what is in this turkey sausage. Presumably its turkey and a number of additives to make it taste like sausage, processed in some distant food factory and shipped to the District of Columbia to be re-heated in the school's steamer or convection oven.

The most unfortunate part is the cheese, which is sprinkled onto the muffin than melted. It doesn't look especially appetizing, does it?

What's for Breakfast: Bagel & Egg

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

A growing scientific consensus finds that the real culprit behind our modern dietary problems is not fat, but carbohydrates. Americans eat way to many of them, especially sugar, refined grains and potatoes.

Of course, those just happen to be the things kids like most to eat, which helps explain why we find ourselves in the middle of a childhood obesity epidemic. So where does that leave a breakfast bagel like this one, chock full of carbs, or even the fruit juice? Guidelines for the national school meal program require lots of grains, just like the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

It seems our guidelines are years behind the current science. They haven't even caught up to where the science was years ago. And here's another problem: carbs are cheap, making them a much easier fit in school meals. Healthy proteins and fats are more expensive. But then, healthier food in general is more expensive.

Does that mean school food has to be unhealthy?

I've tried this bagel and egg sandwich. It's actually not bad. These days the eggs are scrambled from liquid eggs, rather than buying pre-made, frozen egg patties. And the oranges, conveniently cut into wedges, are fresh. The string cheese is a nice add this year.