School lunch = National security issue

[croixbum]

Apparently if you serve our nation's youth bad food the terrorists win!

".....school lunches have helped make the nation's young people so fat that fewer of them can meet the military's physical fitness standards, and recruitment is in jeopardy.

A new report being released Tuesday says more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. Now, the officers are advocating for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier.

"When over a quarter of young adults are too fat to fight, we need to take notice," Barnett said. He noted that national security in the year 2030 is "absolutely dependent" on reversing child obesity rates.

Recruitment isn't the only problem posed by obesity. According to the report, the government spends tens of millions of dollars every year to train replacements for service members discharged because of weight problems.

School lunches called a national security threat - Diet and nutrition- msnbc.com

I have worked in a school district for over 40 years and I dont see how a school lunch one time a day for 180 days a year can make people fat. We have discontinued all frying and meet guidlines on nutrition, like most things, the schools get blamed for many things. We dont allow snack machines, coke machines and all other non nutritional foods. In most cases with a high free lunch count, the lunch is the only meal that they get that even comes close to nutritional.

 

[Kayak Fish]

Maybe we should all get fat so that we are forced to stop wasting so much money policing the world.

 

[Bob]

Maybe we should all get fat so that we are forced to stop wasting so much money policing the world.

that would not make the retired military officials who pointed this out happy. they want our youth lean and mean for the next mi complex foray.

 

[DuneAHH]

Maybe we should all get fat so that we are forced to stop wasting so much money policing the world.

I AM THERE!!
Doin' my part for World Peas... Publix / Publix liquor store thanks me!!

 

[Miss Critter]

I have worked in a school district for over 40 years and I dont see how a school lunch one time a day for 180 days a year can make people fat. We have discontinued all frying and meet guidlines on nutrition, like most things, the schools get blamed for many things. We dont allow snack machines, coke machines and all other non nutritional foods. In most cases with a high free lunch count, the lunch is the only meal that they get that even comes close to nutritional.

According to the nutrition guidelines in the West Virginia school district on the television show Food Revolution, french fries are a vegetable. Not sure those guidelines are setting the bar real high. Don't get me wrong; I don't blame those who serve our children lunch every day one bit. But there's no doubt that the system needs a complete overhaul, unfortunately because it so accurately reflects the Standard American Diet (SAD, how appropriate).

 

[scooterbug44]

I have worked in a school district for over 40 years and I dont see how a school lunch one time a day for 180 days a year can make people fat. We have discontinued all frying and meet guidlines on nutrition, like most things, the schools get blamed for many things. We dont allow snack machines, coke machines and all other non nutritional foods. In most cases with a high free lunch count, the lunch is the only meal that they get that even comes close to nutritional.

1/4 to 1/3 of your diet during the years when your eating habits are formed has a big impact.

I can't think of a single vegetable besides corn and the carrot/bean/corn veggie mix that my school cafeteria served that I would eat because it was so different from my ideas of what they were supposed to taste like (fresh, not mushy and overcooked, etc.)

Our lunches were typically carbs with some meat, dessert, and a milk carton.

I realize that most school lunches are driven by budget, time/labor constraints, and government regulations for reimbursement (where a potato is a vegetable), but in many cases they are
unpalatable and not very nutritious when you actually look at what the kids are eating.

Those would be the kids who are getting fatter, sicker, and more sedentary every day BTW, so IMO changes are needed.

 

[30ashopper]

According to the nutrition guidelines in the West Virginia school district on the television show Food Revolution, french fries are a vegetable. Not sure those guidelines are setting the bar real high. Don't get me wrong; I don't blame those who serve our children lunch every day one bit. But there's no doubt that the system needs a complete overhaul, unfortunately because it so accurately reflects the Standard American Diet (SAD, how appropriate).

Is it really all that different from 30 years ago? I grew up on public school lunches - pizza, straw hats, fries, canned fruit, spagetti (food fight!) .. I'm not over weight today. I'm guessing these kids are putting on a majority of calories at home vs at school.

 

[Miss Critter]

Is it really all that different from 30 years ago? I grew up on public school lunches - pizza, straw hats, fries, canned fruit, spagetti (food fight!) .. I'm not over weight today. I'm guessing these kids are putting on a majority of calories at home vs at school.

No, it's not that different. Most school lunches were crap then, too. But 30 years ago, we also had recess and PE, which have been eliminated by many schools. Throw two working parents, fast food dinners, video games and computers into the mix and you've got the perfect storm for obesity and its related health and economic problems.

Those 10-year-olds are now 40-somethings with cancer, diabetes and heart disease. I'm not saying that school lunches are the sole reason, but they seem to be a good place to begin. Feeding our kids healthfully should be a priority, but it's just another thing politicians give lip service to, like teacher pay. If you want to know what a society values, notice what it spends its public money on. And in our case, it ain't education <yeah, I know I said "ain't">.

 

[Bob]

we will crush our enemies