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School Lunch around the world
This made me think of a post [livejournal.com profile] emmabovary made awhile back discussing what children typically eat where she lives and it made me reflect a bit on school lunches I ate growing up and the poor attempts at nutrition.

I think one of the worst things my high school did was install the soda and vending machines. I recall kids having a coke for breakfast at a quarter to eight in the morning. I know a lot of schools give in to vending machines (specifically soda machines) because Pepsi and Coca Cola give money to those schools and when schools are on a tight budget they are willing to sacrifice a few things to have certain programs paid for. Most of the money went to sports programs. There were things like salads offered but most often it would be made up of ice-berg lettuce which isn't exactly a green bursting with nutrition and I have these memories of people drowning the lettuce salads in ranch dressing. There was plenty of pizza and burgers for kids to eat and I suppose it is kind of difficult to break the eating habits that have long been enabled since the first grade. Even the school store in high school sold candy bars, muffins high in fat, calories, and sugar and of course they also sold soda.

I remember reading awhile back that it takes six or seven attempts to get a child to eat something and too often parents give up after one or two attempts. I suppose it is even more difficult to support half-way decent nutrition when parents at home don't offer balanced meals. I am sure it is an equal battle for parents who have soda machines, burgers and fries at school to contend with while they attempt to get their kid to eat spinach.

To set the whole obesity discussion aside for a moment; there are other nutritional issues that are often ignored. Females in particular need a lot of calcium in their adolescent years to ward off osteoporosis in their later years.(it has been shown that you need to get the most calcium before you are thirty) Too many teenaged girls do not get enough calcium. Many skip meals, and drink too many drinks that are high in sugar and it also messes with their metabolism big time. Part of the metabolism being thrown off has a bit to do with the lack of information girls have about their own bodies. Many girls do not know that when they go through puberty that a female is expected to gain 15-30 pounds over a period of two or three years as she is physically turning into an adult. A lot of girls don't know this and all they are aware of is the fact that they are gaining weight without reason which can help kick-start things like eating disorders into gear.

I found it interesting that some schools teach nutrition as part of the national cirriculum. I suppose that might be a step in the right direction in terms of improving the state of health in the United States but if they don't have the support of parents it is kind of an up-hill battle.
The other issue is funding. To support the idea of good nutrition and well-balanced eating you have to throw money at it and at the moment it seems cheaper to some to just give children food that is high in sodium, sugar and fat and lacking in others. But it would be cheaper in the long-run if people invested in good food and good eating habits now instead of paying for poor-health issues later in life.
But people often aren't good at seeing the long-term.

Date: 2005-03-02 02:43 am (UTC)
cavalaxis: (Default)
From: [personal profile] cavalaxis
Rent Super Size Me. It has a great segment on school nutrition. And you'll never eat at McDonald's again.

My mom was really reasonable with me growing up. I didn't have to eat it if I didn't like it. But I had to at least taste it to determine that I didn't like it. Hence I was the strange kid that loved asparagus and artichokes and all sorts of gourmet things that kids normally don't get anywhere near.

Date: 2005-03-02 02:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
I haven't eaten in a McDonalds in years. I just can't stand the taste of a lot of fast food. I do have a weakness for Dick's the local burger place in Seattle but even then I allow myself to go there only once a year.

Date: 2005-03-04 05:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ekdogg.livejournal.com
weakness for Dick's

oh yea.

Date: 2005-03-04 11:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
I was waiting for someone to make that joke.

Date: 2005-03-02 03:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sarahparah.livejournal.com
For some strange reason Poopsie refuses to eat the cafeteria lunch. I thought she would think it was really cool and want it all the time, but she seems to prefer what I pack for her.

The school lunches around here are OK. The menus I've hread are miles healthier than what they gave us when I was a kid. Still, it's not as healthy as what I put in the lunchbox. :)

Date: 2005-03-02 06:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
I wonder if that has to do with the fact that you instilled really good eating habits early on.
Mind you she still has a weakness for chocolate pudding.

Date: 2005-03-02 02:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sarahparah.livejournal.com
Don't we all.

Hmmm.......

Date: 2005-03-02 04:39 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Tom should go to school in ukraine.

Re: Hmmm.......

Date: 2005-03-03 02:36 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
He would like it.

Date: 2005-03-02 06:48 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
"Irn Bru, Mars Bars, and chips...."
by gawd, them scots know how to eat!

Date: 2005-03-02 11:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
You liked hanging out with them too much.

Date: 2005-03-02 07:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] phunbee.livejournal.com
I had successfully removed the memory of the grease covered "pizza" etc from my mind. I do remember eating the chicken burgers and thinking that those were better. Little did I know....bastids.

Date: 2005-03-02 02:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] carrieann.livejournal.com
I recall taking a small stack of napkins, setting it upon the rectangular grease covered pizza with little pepperoni bits and removing the napkins absolutely soaked through with orange-tinted oils.

I also remember the cafeteria in Jr. High and High School being quite popular for their rolls and cookies. Kids would buy these massive, ooey-gooey potato rolls that were as large as a baby's head and slap them with a massive amount of butter. Or there were the dinner plate sized, under-baked chocolate chip and sugar cookies readily available, too. And yes, this all had to be washed down with a Coke or Mt. Dew, of course.

Date: 2005-03-02 08:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] phunbee.livejournal.com
I remember the napkin thing too...nasty ;(

Date: 2005-03-03 12:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
There is nothing more classic than grease-covered pizza.

Date: 2005-03-02 03:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] punch-drunk.livejournal.com
Our school cafeteria sold gnocchi (as well as the usual beef patties, fries, chicken burgers, etc.) I never had it, as I rarely ate lunch at school, but I heard it was good.

Date: 2005-03-03 12:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
gnocchi? Now that is classy.

Date: 2005-03-03 05:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] punch-drunk.livejournal.com
Well, the majority of the school population was Italian, so it was only natural.

Date: 2005-03-02 03:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kodyo.livejournal.com
My high school was under construction for two years while I was there, and we didn't even have a cafeteria. Instead, we had really cheap Coke products and Pizza Hut delivered every day. Classy!

I'm also one of your kids who drank a Coke at 7:30 every morning for breakfast. I bought into the whole idea that I need a drug-induces pick-me-up in the morning, and I can't stand coffee. I kind of regret that now, because my brain and body just kind of EXPECT it every day now. It doesn't help that my employer provides free fountain Coke :)

Date: 2005-03-02 08:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thiscantbesoy.livejournal.com
You like Frappuccinos.

Plus, your control your body. It wants a Coke? Deny it.

Date: 2005-03-02 08:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kodyo.livejournal.com
Frappuccinos are just glorified, jacked-up chocolate milk.

Date: 2005-03-02 08:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thiscantbesoy.livejournal.com
I care about your bone.s.

Date: 2005-03-03 12:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
damn straight!

Date: 2005-03-03 12:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
Wow...that is class.

Tsk, gotta lay off the soda. Soooooooooooo bad for you.

Date: 2005-03-02 06:05 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
i do appreciate the irony of this following the wine-and-brownies post....

(which reminds me of high school, when breakfast was a slice of toast and a glass of wine....ah, the olden days....)

Date: 2005-03-03 12:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
I like a little irony now and then.

You were always a bit over the top.

Date: 2005-03-03 12:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] starrynytes4me.livejournal.com
Why deprive the children at school considering that adults do it all of the time?

We are all fat for so many reasons, starting with the simplest, that we are drugging ourselves with it just to make up for the rushed and disconnected reality that has become a sad daily life for most people.

If having a coke is the only way you have a smile, I say go for it and die sooner.

Date: 2005-03-03 01:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
I think you have a point about how people are fat for a number of reasons and I think that people are "upset" about this "epidemic" in this country and yet they don't look at the broad picture.

Okay yeah some people are fat, but for some it is a side issue and really the bigger thing that should be concentrated on is general nutrition. There are plenty of people who are thin as anything are have the shittiest eating habits in the world. They aren't healthy. People and experts concentrate on the whole fat thing and don't look at the real issue and that drives me nuts.

Date: 2005-03-04 05:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ekdogg.livejournal.com
"I know a lot of schools give in to vending machines (specifically soda machines) because Pepsi and Coca Cola give money to those schools and when schools are on a tight budget they are willing to sacrifice a few things to have certain programs paid for. Most of the money went to sports programs."

As a money type of guy, I am always amazed at how little people will sell out for. I bet putting in vending machines ...if they paid at all, was pretty cheap. And then, the money goes to school sports...which is one of the big reasons why I think we fail in our schools...are sports are tied to them.

Date: 2005-03-04 11:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
It depresses me to see how often other programs are cut within schools but they never ever touch football.
Schools are such cheap whores.

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