Texas School Nutrition Guidelines: Bizarre?

[Fat Guy]

Little Debbie’s snack cakes are acceptable in the school cafeteria this year, but most of the hard candy treats grandma stored in her purse are off limits.

Cakes have some nutritional value, but peppermints are filled with sugar, the experts said. To Rhonda Roark, a Gulf Coast Center counselor, the new child nutrition guidelines effective this school year for public schools are “bizarre.”

Full article: http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?wcd=9570

[Richard Kilgore]

The Dallas Morning News ran an article this week, too. I am not sure about the other major Texas papers, but I bet all are covering this issue. It appears to be an attempt to remove some of the sugar-loaded junk food from the schools, but with some odd inconsistencies. Not exactly an Alice Waters initiative, but....

Anyone with children effected by these changing regulations in Texas, or elsewhere?

I am sure all states have regulations about what foods schools offer to children. Are other states doing something similar?

Edited August 30, 2003 by Richard Kilgore (log)

[claire797]

The Fifth Food Group

[foodie52]

Sack lunches......

that's the only way to go. My kids bought school lunches probably.....a dozen times in as many years.

[hjshorter]

Here is a recent article in the Washington Post about how some schools in our area are working to improve school lunches.

[claire797]

Sack lunches......

that's the only way to go. My kids bought school lunches probably.....a dozen times in as many years.

Shocking revelation!

I was the opposite. I may have taken 5 sack lunches in my 5 years of elementary and I'm pretty sure they were just as unhealthy, probably worse, than the school lunches. Is a bologna sandwich, fritos, juice box and Hostess cupcake any worse than milk, a small hamburger, 12 crinkle fries and a peanut butter cookie? Back then, all of the lunches were pretty bad for us because there wasn't such a big emphasis on low-fat eating and nutrition in general. There were a few pale-looking kids whose mother's packed them carrot sticks and cheese, but my recollection of sack lunches (the ones I coveted) had white bread sandwiches, Little Debbies, and Frito-Lay chips.

Oddly enough, even back then things like the above-mentioned grandma candy, gum and soda were taboo. Twin pack of Twinkies? Sure. Lifesavers? No. So it sounds like the broad nutrition guidelines in Texas are still as bizarre as ever. As for Virginia, Wow! If that article Heather posted is true, they are making lots of headway. Small steps like baking all of the elementary level foods rather than frying and offering soy products are laudable. Still, I am not so sure Texas schools aren't doing the same thing. Again, the quote above Steven posted and the article suggest Texas is in a parallel universe re: nutrition, but I think in Texas it's more of a case by case situation. Last time I was in a Texas school lunch room visiting with third graders, the lunch line had plenty of healthy choices and flashy posters promoting healthy eating.