Let them eat veggies, not cake

Score one for Michelle Obama.  Yesterday she addressed Parklawn Elementary School in Fairfax, VA.  The new guidelines are out for school breakfasts and lunch.  Even though they were not passed in the complete version submitted, positive change is afoot.  Beginning next fall, school meals will have to serve twice as many fruits and vegetables, more grains and less sodium and less fat.  This will revamp the federal school meal program for the first time in 15 years.  About time, don’t you think?  Knowing what we know today, this has been a long time coming.

Mrs. Obama said “When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home.”  Amen.  Although I have to say we have a long way to go to re-educate our parents on proper nutrition after being manipulated by the media, advertising and pharmaceutical industry for so long.

The one thing that still bothers me is how the lobbyists were able to take out the part that stipulates pizza is not a vegetable or to limit french fries.  Pizza as a vegetable, come on people.

The First Lady makes the connection that it’s not just about what the kids are eating, but also about academic performance. Teachers have long known that what the kids eat from breakfast and throughout the day, impacts their ability to focus on their studies.

She also thanks the parents for their efforts, recognizing the push from the parents as they stand up for this issue.    And finally, I want to thank all of the parents who are here today — because, I just want to be clear that we can’t make any mistake about it — this movement to improve the food in our schools is happening in large part because of all of you, the parents. It’s happening because you all stood up. It’s happening because you all spoke out and you asked for something better for our kids. 

Yes, we want something better for our kids. And while we do what we can at home, it’s very frustrating to have your schools undermine you.  I’ve mentioned this at our district’s health & wellness committees, to our school principals and to our superintendent that we have a disconnect between what is talked about in health and science classes and what we actually do in the lunchroom, classroom and even after school.  See I’m not just beating up on the lunch program.  There are other areas during the school day where our kids are “treated” to the kinds of things that I would rather they not have access to:  candy rewards for answering questions right,  slurpees because they completed their homework for a week (huh?  I thought you were supposed to do your homework because it’s expected, not because of some sugary reward.), cupcakes and cookies for every season, holiday and birthday.

Listen, I am not the food police.  Am I the only one that sees the big picture here? How the habits these children create now will dog them into adulthood.  How Type II diabetes is an epidemic and the leading risk factor is obesity?  No one cookie or cupcake is not a deal breaker. And we eat pizza once a week in my home.  But when you put it all together and really look at what your child consumed in a day – and look at it over a week and even a month – can you honestly say they are eating a balanced nutritious diet?

And that’s why so many of us try so very hard to prepare decent meals at home, and to limit how much junk food they get at home, and to ensure that they have a reasonably balanced diet. And when we’re putting forth this kind of effort at home — and many of us are, and it’s difficult to do every single day — it’s always a challenge, particularly with tough economic times and not enough time in the day — but when we’re putting forth these efforts, when we’re doing what we’re supposed to do at home, the last thing we want is to have all these hard efforts, all this hard work undone in the school cafeteria. 

Read her full address here.

On another note, what is the deal with Paula Deen and her secret diabetes? For three years she has known she had it and now is going public because of her sponsorship of a drug from Novo Nordisk?  Thank you Karen Stabiner for printing what most of us are thinking! Read Karen’s editorial.

This is what makes me go a little nuts.  This is the woman who has fried everything she could get her hands on and touted her “homey” southern cooking for the “regular folk”, even after being diagnosed with the inevitable diabetes. Only now that she is endorsing a $500 a month drug, has she gone public.  Can the “regular folks” afford this drug?  And can they sue her for creating the circumstances that now require them to take a drug and ask her to pay for it?

One of the interesting tidbits from Ms Stabiner, pharmaceutical companies spent $4.7 billion on direct to consumer advertising in 2008. (According to Martin Lindstrom’s Brandwashed, pharmaceutical companies spend twice as much on advertising as they do on research and development. Hmmm.)  And that the US has the dubious distinction of being only one of two countries in the world to allow such advertising. New Zealand being the other.

Yes, thumbs up for positive changes in the federal lunch program and thumbs down to Paula Deen, big pharma and shame on us for being sucked in.

If you were Paula Deen, what should you be doing right now?