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Saoirse
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- #61
- Posted: 09/28/2012 18:50
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^ Please keep doing that Naples, you're proving everybody's point perfectly
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RFNAPLES
Level 8
Gender: Male
Age: 75
Location: Durham, NC, USA
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purple
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- #63
- Posted: 09/28/2012 20:54
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Naples flaming aside... I promised a rant.
So I find this video absolutely absurd. It identifies the correct effect of the horrendous American school lunch system (i.e. physical and mental fatigue do to malnutrition), but does not identify the correct cause of that effect.
American teenagers consume more than efficient quantities of calories, but the quality of those calories is poor.
First of all, mature professional athletes usually don't consume more than 5000 calories a day. Active teenagers usually are not professional athletes and don't need to consume as many calories. The majority of American teenagers in fact are incredibly inactive, which is why the US is pushing so many "play outside" and "be active/fit" programs towards schools. So the calorie estimate at the beginning of this video is ridiculous.
As far as the quality of the calories, the "hot" food American teenagers receive at school is characterized by low-grade fatty (saturated) meat (pink slime infested), simple starches, and high-saturated-fat processed cheese... and that's if they're not going to the C3 or whatever to buy candy bars. All of the vegetables are often poorly prepared (read: soggy as hell) and high in salt, because they are all canned vegetables; often the only fruit available is bananas and apples, and those are often available in limited quantity. So the American school system is encouraging the Standard American Diet (SAD; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_American_Diet), which is medically (and anecdotally) proven to be associated with obesity, low energy levels (physical and mental), and general poor health.
That being said, the DOE can't shove fruits, vegetables, and whole grains down kids throats. Kids have to be given a choice of foods. There are many people who consider it offensive to be offered only wheat bread when all they eat is white bread, for example; they consider it a badge of their class. To remedy this whole situation, school cafeterias simply need to offer both "healthful" and SAD choices to students. Of course, this takes money... from the taxpayers. However, having attended several government meetings for both FEMA and USACE, all of which have had a broad range of choice that included some excellent healthful foods, I can tell you that the government appears to have the available funds. And, since some kids will gravitate towards the more healthful choice, that means that less SAD foods need to be prepared, and funds normally allocated to those foods can go towards more healthful foods. Sure, kids can bring their own healthful lunches, but that just means their parents are throwing tax money at the school that's paying for other kids' lunches, and not their own kids'. I'm out of my zone of knowledge on this one, but I believe the American school system is the number one victim of the corporate practices in American agriculture described in the film Food, Inc.
Personally, if I ever make that dolla dolla bill y'all and feel like dabbling in philanthropy, my number one goal would be to change the American school lunch system (which, for many kids, also includes breakfast). As a former fatty (280 lbs @ 6'1") turned somewhat healthful guy (170 lbs and lean now), this topic is close to my heart.
Any discussion and/or criticism of this view is welcome, just be aware that I don't go near this forum often so response time may be slow.
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junodog4
Future Grumpy Old Man
Gender: Male
Location: Calgary
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- #64
- Posted: 09/28/2012 21:45
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| purple wrote: | Naples flaming aside... I promised a rant.
So I find this video absolutely absurd. It identifies the correct effect of the horrendous American school lunch system (i.e. physical and mental fatigue do to malnutrition), but does not identify the correct cause of that effect.
American teenagers consume more than efficient quantities of calories, but the quality of those calories is poor.
First of all, mature professional athletes usually don't consume more than 5000 calories a day. Active teenagers usually are not professional athletes and don't need to consume as many calories. The majority of American teenagers in fact are incredibly inactive, which is why the US is pushing so many "play outside" and "be active/fit" programs towards schools. So the calorie estimate at the beginning of this video is ridiculous.
As far as the quality of the calories, the "hot" food American teenagers receive at school is characterized by low-grade fatty (saturated) meat (pink slime infested), simple starches, and high-saturated-fat processed cheese... and that's if they're not going to the C3 or whatever to buy candy bars. All of the vegetables are often poorly prepared (read: soggy as hell) and high in salt, because they are all canned vegetables; often the only fruit available is bananas and apples, and those are often available in limited quantity. So the American school system is encouraging the Standard American Diet (SAD; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_American_Diet), which is medically (and anecdotally) proven to be associated with obesity, low energy levels (physical and mental), and general poor health.
That being said, the DOE can't shove fruits, vegetables, and whole grains down kids throats. Kids have to be given a choice of foods. There are many people who consider it offensive to be offered only wheat bread when all they eat is white bread, for example; they consider it a badge of their class. To remedy this whole situation, school cafeterias simply need to offer both "healthful" and SAD choices to students. Of course, this takes money... from the taxpayers. However, having attended several government meetings for both FEMA and USACE, all of which have had a broad range of choice that included some excellent healthful foods, I can tell you that the government appears to have the available funds. And, since some kids will gravitate towards the more healthful choice, that means that less SAD foods need to be prepared, and funds normally allocated to those foods can go towards more healthful foods. Sure, kids can bring their own healthful lunches, but that just means their parents are throwing tax money at the school that's paying for other kids' lunches, and not their own kids'. I'm out of my zone of knowledge on this one, but I believe the American school system is the number one victim of the corporate practices in American agriculture described in the film Food, Inc.
Personally, if I ever make that dolla dolla bill y'all and feel like dabbling in philanthropy, my number one goal would be to change the American school lunch system (which, for many kids, also includes breakfast). As a former fatty (280 lbs @ 6'1") turned somewhat healthful guy (170 lbs and lean now), this topic is close to my heart.
Any discussion and/or criticism of this view is welcome, just be aware that I don't go near this forum often so response time may be slow. |
Bang on...
On a side note - the high school where I work has a 'culinary arts' program, where the students work on earning introductory credit towards a journeyman's ticket in cooking. They are taught by a chef, and they run the cafeteria. The food the kids produce is healthy, fresh, varied, delicious, and cheap (and as a result - popular). No more cooked-from-frozen pizza, fries with gravy, grilled cheese, and corn dogs. What's better - because the labour is student earning credit, the overhead is low, so the cafeteria makes money. It works like a charm - I don't see how this couldn't be replicated elsewhere.
A non-subsidized school lunch program that makes money. In Canada, a haven of 'queen curtseys' and 'socialism'. Go figure.
_________________
Finnegan was super bad-ass.
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RFNAPLES
Level 8
Gender: Male
Age: 75
Location: Durham, NC, USA
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