If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
There are 32 million reasons why the USDA's new school meal standards are good news. That's the number of children in the U.S. and who will soon be served far more nutritious, and hopefully delicious school meals.
We can't prevent every conceivable tragedy that might strike our kids at school. But in the case of a choking, physically demonstrating the Heimlich maneuver to school food service workers as part of their regular training hardly seems burdensome.
We're eating the same way an earlier, much healthier generation ate -- my grandmother's generation. They healthfully subsisted on a steady of diet of mostly home-cooked, real, whole foods (some of them grown in their own gardens) with periodic treats.
Should all school children, not just those who have diagnosed food allergies, have access to the emergency medication epinephrine and should more adults be ready to administer it?
This hasn't been a banner year for improving America's food system, food environment or food policies. A look back demonstrates that not only have we failed to make any new progress in food and nutrition policy, but we actually appear to be moving backwards.
Last month, when Congress declared pizza a vegetable, it was hard to believe things could get much worse. But never underestimate politicians' ability to put corporate interests ahead of children's health.
No one should have any Japanese food on December 7. For that matter, we shouldn't have any German or Italian food in addition to Japanese food, on Memorial Day or Veterans' Day.
If they weren't so damaging to children, congressional leaders' explanations for their policy decisions that cater to big money interests at those children's expense would be downright funny.
The real enemy of a parent's right to choose what their children eat is the scarcity of healthy food options in many American schools and neighborhoods -- not government public health interventions.
The Food Network's popular reality series Chopped departed from its standard lineup of contestants this past week to feature an unusual group of chefs: lunch ladies.
French fries and pizza don't make a healthy meal, especially not for America's school children. Yet Congress chose to save these junk foods on school lunch menus.
If there were any lingering doubts as to whom our elected representatives really work for, they were put to rest Tuesday when Congress announced that frozen pizza was a vegetable.
Ensuring that American students can attend school with full bellies seems like the most uncontroversial public policy of all time. Not so anymore, now that child nutrition has met the Tea Party.
Curtis separates a good Caesar salad from the bad by carefully blending up its signature creamy dressing, adding toasted crisp Parmesan cheese, croutons and prosciutto and topping the lot with a perfectly poached egg.
It is clear that our children need a radical change in their diets, and that change begins at home. But if we're serious about creating a truly lasting impact, we need to worry about what they are eating at school as well.
As parents, we know that good nutrition will help our children grow-up healthy, but what foods comprise a healthy meal? Here are some "good nutrition" guidelines for you to follow when your kids BYOL.
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