My school lunches were always pretty disgusting from what I remember. My 6 year old loves buying school lunch though. Luckily, he only likes a few things: chicken nuggets/tenders and grilled cheese sandwich. Last year he liked the cheesy cheese pizza, but this year he said it has too much sauce and won't buy it. They serve it EVERY Friday, so I'm very glad he doesn't want to buy it. Based on my high blood sugar, high cholesterol diagnosis 2 years ago, which you can read about at my healthy living naturally blog, I've learned a lot about nutrition. I'm not a nutrition expert, but my doctor said I know more than the average person, so based on what I know, let's dissect one of my son's school lunches: the cheesy cheese pizza, and find out all the crap that these kids are eating, EVERY Friday.
The crust: most likely bleached, white flour. What does white flour do? It causes a rapid, high surge in blood sugar and then a crash. Ever notice how irritable or tired you get after eating a bunch of pizza? That's your blood sugar crash. The pancreas releases insulin to counteract all the sugar in the blood. Over time, the pancreas wears out and is unable to counteract all of the sugar in the blood, leading to diabetes. Improvement: make a THIN crust out of 100% whole grains. Whole grains slowly release sugar into the blood. There's no spike and crash like with white flour. A slow release keeps the blood sugar level steady and doesn't overwhelm the pancreas.
Sauce: Tomato/spaghetti sauce is very healthy. Tomatoes are full of lycopene, which helps in cancer prevention. Sauce is also a great way to hide pureed vegetables. The majority of sauces are full of sugar though. If the kids are really lucky, the sauce might even contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). If you don't know what HFCS is, I suggest you watch Food Inc.
. It's manufactured in a laboratory from corn using anitbiotics and bacteria. Sounds yummy huh. The corn is also genetically modified.
I buy Classico sauce since it is sugar free. The only drawback is it is not organic, so it's full of pesticides. Improvement: Use an organic, sugar free sauce full of several pureed vegetables, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, peppers, onions, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.
Cheese/Milk served with the meal: Eaten in moderation, cheese is fairly good for you as it contains calcium and protein. Mozzarella cheese is low fat, but the milk it comes from is a problem. A lot of milk contains antibiotics, growth hormones and pesticides. The best bet is unpasteurized, raw milk from your local farmer. Of course, the FDA has problems with raw milk, so organic milk is a good choice. Improvement: Use cheese which comes from organic milk, such as Organic Valley.
Today, my son's school lunch was chicken tenders. The chicken most likely came from chickens who have been fed genetically modified corn (GMO) and antibiotics. For dessert, he said they served a pudding/whipped cream/oreo dish. Sounds good if you use healthy ingredients: Make your own pudding with organic milk. Make your own whipped cream with organic milk and buy organic oreos. Yes they make organic oreos. They are really good and can be found at a health food store or amazon.com. Still not exactly the healthiest dish, but an improvement over the original version.
My son's school lunch is also the same foods over and over and over: pizza, tacos, chicken nuggets/tenders, grilled cheese sandwich/deli sandwich, roast turkey and chili. Surprisingly enough, I haven't seen spaghetti or macaroni and cheese on the menu yet. This month does have baked ziti, probably with high carbohydrate white flour pasta though.
It doesn't take much to make a healther version of a meal. You just have to swap different types of ingredients and add in a few fruits/vegetables. It might cost a little more, but I'd rather spend money on healthier food versions with the added bonus of feeling better, than spend money on unhealthy versions, eventually medication and have the added bonus of feeling like crap.
A lot of sugar, starchy carbohydrates, chemicals in food: they all affect a child's behavior too. I can definitely tell when my boys have eaten too much unhealthy food, especially the oldest. He becomes loud, refuses to listen, cries when he doesn't get his way, etc. He's almost 7, but starts acting like he's 2. The behavior change is really something.
There was a teacher in Chicago who ended up eating school lunch one day because she had forgotten her lunch. She couldn't believe what kids were eating. She blogged about it, "The fed up with lunch blog", and wrote a book, Fed Up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project: How One Anonymous Teacher Survived a Year of School Lunches
, about it.
It is pretty amazing how few people really care what's being served in schools.
There are so many adults/kids who are overweight, have diabetes and other worse illnesses, and it's pretty much all due to the food they eat. Why they don't make nutrition/meal preparation courses mandatory in school and college is beyond me. Oh yeah I remember why: Eat organic fruits/vegetables, a few whole grains, healthy fats, lean meats & dairy and you are less sick and feel better which leads to less medication which means less dollars for the pharmaceutical industry which the medical world revolves around.
Nutrition Info
The crust: most likely bleached, white flour. What does white flour do? It causes a rapid, high surge in blood sugar and then a crash. Ever notice how irritable or tired you get after eating a bunch of pizza? That's your blood sugar crash. The pancreas releases insulin to counteract all the sugar in the blood. Over time, the pancreas wears out and is unable to counteract all of the sugar in the blood, leading to diabetes. Improvement: make a THIN crust out of 100% whole grains. Whole grains slowly release sugar into the blood. There's no spike and crash like with white flour. A slow release keeps the blood sugar level steady and doesn't overwhelm the pancreas.
Sauce: Tomato/spaghetti sauce is very healthy. Tomatoes are full of lycopene, which helps in cancer prevention. Sauce is also a great way to hide pureed vegetables. The majority of sauces are full of sugar though. If the kids are really lucky, the sauce might even contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). If you don't know what HFCS is, I suggest you watch Food Inc.
. It's manufactured in a laboratory from corn using anitbiotics and bacteria. Sounds yummy huh. The corn is also genetically modified.I buy Classico sauce since it is sugar free. The only drawback is it is not organic, so it's full of pesticides. Improvement: Use an organic, sugar free sauce full of several pureed vegetables, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, peppers, onions, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.
Cheese/Milk served with the meal: Eaten in moderation, cheese is fairly good for you as it contains calcium and protein. Mozzarella cheese is low fat, but the milk it comes from is a problem. A lot of milk contains antibiotics, growth hormones and pesticides. The best bet is unpasteurized, raw milk from your local farmer. Of course, the FDA has problems with raw milk, so organic milk is a good choice. Improvement: Use cheese which comes from organic milk, such as Organic Valley
.Today, my son's school lunch was chicken tenders. The chicken most likely came from chickens who have been fed genetically modified corn (GMO) and antibiotics. For dessert, he said they served a pudding/whipped cream/oreo dish. Sounds good if you use healthy ingredients: Make your own pudding with organic milk. Make your own whipped cream with organic milk and buy organic oreos. Yes they make organic oreos
. They are really good and can be found at a health food store or amazon.com. Still not exactly the healthiest dish, but an improvement over the original version. My son's school lunch is also the same foods over and over and over: pizza, tacos, chicken nuggets/tenders, grilled cheese sandwich/deli sandwich, roast turkey and chili. Surprisingly enough, I haven't seen spaghetti or macaroni and cheese on the menu yet. This month does have baked ziti, probably with high carbohydrate white flour pasta though.
It doesn't take much to make a healther version of a meal. You just have to swap different types of ingredients and add in a few fruits/vegetables. It might cost a little more, but I'd rather spend money on healthier food versions with the added bonus of feeling better, than spend money on unhealthy versions, eventually medication and have the added bonus of feeling like crap.
A lot of sugar, starchy carbohydrates, chemicals in food: they all affect a child's behavior too. I can definitely tell when my boys have eaten too much unhealthy food, especially the oldest. He becomes loud, refuses to listen, cries when he doesn't get his way, etc. He's almost 7, but starts acting like he's 2. The behavior change is really something.
There was a teacher in Chicago who ended up eating school lunch one day because she had forgotten her lunch. She couldn't believe what kids were eating. She blogged about it, "The fed up with lunch blog", and wrote a book, Fed Up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project: How One Anonymous Teacher Survived a Year of School Lunches
, about it. It is pretty amazing how few people really care what's being served in schools.
There are so many adults/kids who are overweight, have diabetes and other worse illnesses, and it's pretty much all due to the food they eat. Why they don't make nutrition/meal preparation courses mandatory in school and college is beyond me. Oh yeah I remember why: Eat organic fruits/vegetables, a few whole grains, healthy fats, lean meats & dairy and you are less sick and feel better which leads to less medication which means less dollars for the pharmaceutical industry which the medical world revolves around.
Nutrition Info
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