Food, Inc. Inspires Moms to Cut the Crap

I know crap isn't a polite word but how else do you describe the stuff that is marketed and sold to kids as food? I'm not just referring to what they see in the supermarkets and on TV but also in school. You would expect schools to offer kids the most nutritious, healthy food choices possible, right?

No, instead they're being offered high-fat, low-nutrition foods that are helping to fuel an obesity epidemic amongst kids. And, to top it off, the "snacks" offered in school vending machines are primarily junk foods and soda that are high in fat, calories and sugar. Can you imagine trying to sit through an entire day of multiplication, division and cursive on a diet of candy bars and sodas (and your PE class has probably been canceled due to budget cuts)?

Some sobering statistics:

• 1 in 3 Americans and 1 in 2 African-Americans and Latinos born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes.
• Nearly one-third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese.

However, parents have had enough. They know their kids deserve and need nutritious, fresh ingredients that encourage healthy growth and fuel their minds. This means, out with the soda, junk foods and meals that are laden in salt, fats and sugars; in with more fresh produce and less salt, fat and sugar.

To achieve such not-so-lofty goals, moms and dads are supporting the efforts of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a national nutrition advocacy organization that has been fighting for years to remove soda and junk food from all federally-funded nutrition programs. If this sounds outlandish, wait. Don't be too cynical of our politicians yet because here in California, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, led successful efforts to ban soda and junk foods from public schools here.

The moms are part of the Healthy School Lunch Brigade, inspired by the film Food, Inc., that will be storming Capitol Hill tomorrow to demand healthy school lunches as part of the massive Child Nutrition Reauthorization that determines all federally-funded nutrition programs for the next five years. CSPI and Moms Rising are sending moms from across the country to join soap opera star Deidre Hall and her teenage son, along with Desperate Housewives star Andrea Bowen and her mom. These moms will be meeting with Congressional and White House staff to to tell them our schools need better nutrition standards now. And, they'll be lugging binders with signatures from over 50,000 concerned citizens nationwide.

If you can't be there in person, join the virtual Brigade. Whether or not you're a mom, tell Congress that you're concerned about our children's health and demand that soda and junk food be banned from all federally-funded nutrition programs. Let's cut the crap and bring healthy, real food back to schools today!

Sarah's Social Action Snapshot originally appeared on Takepart.com

Follow Sarah Newman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SarahNow

Comments

[bobreich]

Just to play Devil's Advocate for a second... maybe those kids need to be obese to fight the coming TB pandemic?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/health/research/24fat.html

[Leens]

thanks, sarah. schools should encourage healthy eating, not offer tempting junkfood.

[Sarah Newman - Huffpost Blogger]

exactly-it's pretty simple!

[Guitarsandmore]

I don't know where you live, Sarah Newman, but most schools in Southern California have already banned soda and candy from schools. Especially the soft drinks.

Allowing soda companies into schools is just one more example of how bad privatization can be.

[Sarah Newman - Huffpost Blogger]

Yes, I also live in California where soda and junk foods are banned. However, there are 49 other states in this country and millions of kids who have soda and junk food filled vending machines in their schools. We need to help them get it out!

[Jambutter]

Sarah, what really strikes me after reading your latest post is how little choice our children have in selecting what they eat during the school day. The reason this jumps out is because of the near-endless debate I have been having on my blog and via Twitter about how consumers have the freedom to eat whatever they want.

When you take kids in public schools, combined with urban food deserts, and throw $30 billion/year in food advertising, mostly of junk and fast foods, and often targeting our children, I have a difficult time understanding the basis for such arguments.

In order to truly have choice in what we eat, we must have equal access to a broad range of foods, which are priced based on a level playing field (i.e., no subsidized advantages), along with the necessary information to know where the food has come from and what is in it, e.g., GE ingredients.

Thanks for reminding me about food in our schools. It provides the most powerful example I can think of regarding how food choice is limited.

Cheers,

Rob Smart
a.k.a., Jambutter on Twitter
http://everytable.wordpress.com

[Sarah Newman - Huffpost Blogger]

all great points--limited food choices, bad food, food deserts. all of these are adding up to horrible food options for millions of kids and helping to fuel our obesity epidemic.

[toomuchtolose]

Well, it sounds good, but since the regulators aren't regulating, we (human beings) have had some fatalities from eating fresh fruit and vegetables laden with deadly bacteria. I don't know what to do with fresh fruit. If I peel the skin off of the fruit, I have just thrown out the most nutritious part. At least that it what we used to be told. I don't plan to put grapes and apples and pears in a pan of water and boil them for 15 minutes. If you can convince the schools to serve healthy lunches, how can you trust that the fresh fruit is even safe to eat?

[Guitarsandmore]

You can cook your fruit just like you cook vegetables.

[toomuchtolose]

But who wants to?

[Sarah Newman - Huffpost Blogger]

buy organic and wash thoroughly for safer, healthier foods. these food outbreaks and scares (such as the cookie dough or spinach) are from industrial food producers. buy local!

[Sarah Newman - Huffpost Blogger]

read this great post by Andrew Kimbrell of the Center for Food Safety about separating the Food and Drug Admin. it addresses your food safety concerns: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kimbrell/the-food-drug-administrat_b_219803.html

[cinder]

100% agree. But isn't it pathetic that to get attention we need celebrities. I know this is getting off topic, but it's one more sign of the corruption and inanity in our government. But back to your point, anything we can do to improve children's health is a necessity.

[Sarah Newman - Huffpost Blogger]

true but these celebrities really believe in this cause and they are helping to bring a lot more attention to this important issue.

[dayala]

I remember back in the '50's public schools gave students a morning snack consisting of an apple or banana and small carton of milk.

[Sarah Newman - Huffpost Blogger]

Exactly. Kids need organic apples and hormone-free milk served to them in school, not junk food and soda!