can be sold as competitive foods in their public schools. Competitive
food sales include snack bars and kiosks, a la carte cafeteria
purchases, and vending machines.
The restrictions deal with lowering added sugars andfat contents and
even excluding artificial sweeteners. The calorie amounts are limited
while nutritional values are required to meet federal guidelines. For
example, fruit juices are required to contain 50% natural nectarwhile
restricting added sugar contents.
A recent study shows California teens are consuming 158 less calories
per day than teens in 14 other states since thevending machine mandate
was put into effect in California a few years ago.
One-hundred California teens were compared to 560 kids in other states
in early 2010. The study was published in the Archives ofPediatrics
and Adolescent Medicine , May 2012. Healthconditions were not
considered with any of the subjects studied, only calorie content that
could influence obesity. Less obesity is good, as obesity alone can
promote a plethora of negative healthconditions. But there was no hint
of teens switching to healthier diets as a result of placing
relatively decent snack food options in the California schools.
MSG and GMOs are probably in some of those calorie-restricted snack
items since all of them are either processed or derivedfrom Big Ag and
Big Dairy farming methods. Those shiny apples are heavily sprayed with
chemicals, unless they're organic. Throw in even a small amount of
HFCS, colorings, flavorings and preservatives, and the toxicloads are
dramatically increased. In other words, calorie restrictions alone
don't guarantee good health.
Daniel Taber, University of Illinois-Chicago professor and the
California study's lead author stated, "They should definitely be
applauded for their actions.All states could focus on providing more
healthy foods in schools, in addition to banning high-fat, high-sugar,
high-calorie foods and beverages. But I think the lesson is that even
their laws were only a starting point."
Although the nutritional standards applied help somewhat, they are
federalgovernment standards set by dieticians from the old-school. You
know, the type who prepares hospitalmenus. So there is much more to do
before completely healthy foods can be provided by school cafeterias
and competitive food vendors.
Private, underfunded and under-reported groups are promoting
farm-fresh foods for school cafeterias Meanwhile, NGOs (non-government
organizations) are hard at work trying to get organic fresh foods from
area farms into school lunch programs. Vermont and Oregon have taken
the lead in the United States. California has also made inroads in the
effort to feed kids better schools and encourage small organic farming
with increased profits to family run organic farms.
There has been a massive UN study and additional regional studies that
have concluded the best way to feed the world would be from small
scale regional organic farming.
Each region would becomeself-sufficient with less large scale
distributors, such as Cargill, brokering foods to chain retailers
everywhere, and less commodity brokers gambling futures and affecting
food prices because the food growingand distribution would be greatly
decentralized.
Farm to school efforts could be a first step towardthis planetary
downsized sustainable end. Rome, Italy provides a successful example.
Seventy percent of the foods in their schools are organic.
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