Every five years, parts of the Child Nutrition Act must be reauthorized. This year, like perfectly cooked (whole grain) pasta sticking to the wall, there is a critical mass of interest that might actually result in meaningful reform.
A House bill (HR 1324) and a Senate bill (S 934) are gaining steam, while parents, educators and students are cooking up nutrition awareness around the country. Slow Food is organizing a National Day of Action Eat-in on September 7, petitions to get more money for school nutrition are circulating, and health-conscious students are taking over vending machines to stock them with healthier foods.
The “radical” idea is to make nutrition policy uniform for all schools, consistent throughout each school (instead of one standard for cafeteria food and another for vending machines), and not based on old nutrition science.
Curious about the current criteria (last updated in 1970s) for “competitive” foods – those offered in schools, but separate from the subsidized meal programs? CSPI’s eye-popping quiz illustrates the “nutritional value” of breath mints versus candy bars and other snack options.
Fresh fruit and 100% fruit snacks meet existing and proposed standards for snacks consumed in and after school, as long as the serving size (number of calories) isn’t too high. Other snacks need to meet fat, sugar and other nutrition criteria, but those criteria currently vary from state to state, county to county.
Eat healthy… Eat in!
PS: To read and ask Q&As about nutrition and healthy snacking, sign up for our newsletter at www.morfoods.com
the best thing about organic foods is that they are free from hazardous chemicals that are present in non-organic foods’:.