I’m passionate about the quality of the food my child consumes. It all started during pregnancy, when I made the correlation between food and the future development of my baby. No one was responsible for the incoming nutrients besides me. It’s easy when she’s eating baby food. The choices are right there: green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, blueberries, prunes, chicken and turkey. Fast forward to the school years. Now it seems running food defense is an added job. Kids are wooed by colorful cupcakes, crunchy little fish, pizza and corn dogs. Where did all the real food go?

Written by Joy Ashlock,
local mom and founder of
Green Parent Association, LLC

Lunch Cleanup

Lunch is getting cleaned up. It’s not perfect, but it is promising. Positive changes are happening. Let’s keep the momentum going with schools, elected officials and grocers, and, most importantly, keep up the good work at home. It will have a ripple effect within your immediate family and help bring the change we so desperately need to improve the health of America. And remember, supply and demand. You do have the power, purchase power. Every time you shop, you vote. Send messages by purchasing clean, healthy food produced in sustainable ways. If you want alternative lunch providers at your school, talk to the administration. If you don’t like the school lunch, send a packed lunch. Whatever your course of action, just don’t trade convenience for the health of your child.

The facts don’t lie. The World Health Organization ranked the United States the 37th “healthiest” country in the world at its last run of the list, in 2000. We all know obesity is an epidemic and the precursor of many diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular issues, some cancers and depression. The surgeon general’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation states that our obesity problem threatens our progress with quality of life and life expectancy. One in three children are overweight or obese, as are two-thirds of adults. The American Diabetes Association says that 22 percent of people under the age of 20 have diabetes.

It’s all about the money, honey. Some schools are relying on lunch programs to generate revenue. The problem becomes one of fundraising and not a concern for the “whole child,” as we keep hearing. Some area schools that had taken steps in the right direction with food or nutrition objectives by offering truly healthy lunches have reverted back to lunch providers that can offer them a higher ROI (return on investment). That’s not to mention, many food manufacturers are subsidized to make products so cheap, it’s hard for a struggling school district to serve healthy food. Many schools don’t harness the potential food offers to help children succeed academically.

What is the current situation?

A work in progress. The amount of money being spent on our children at lunch is roughly $1 per child. Our local school districts are working to do the best they can within the parameters required to function. The USDA’s guideline for school nutrition is so accommodating that a lunch of processed, preservative-, sugar- and sodium-filled foods meets the same guidelines as a lunch that includes a banana, low-fat white milk, and a black bean and cheese quesadilla with salsa. Chocolate doughnuts, Lucky Charms and chicken nuggets also are approved at various schools.

Additionally, when fresh produce is offered a la carte, many kids are not purchasing it. Produce is three times as expensive when presliced and popped on the trays with other meals. Sadly, a great deal of this food is thrown away. This is where home education and healthy habits come into play. Food in school is one of the most critical success factors to the academic education. Kids spend 180 days of the year at school. Learning what to eat is possibly the single most important life skill they can be taught. There are not many things you do every day of your life from birth until death besides eat. Teaching children all about food — where and how it’s grown, how it nourishes our body and brain, how it’s prepared, and what foods with empty calories and preservatives do to us now, and in the future — is vital. (Let’s add why they can’t concentrate or sit still in math after they’ve eaten foods with MSG and excitotoxins.)

Positive change

Best private school initiative. One of the most notable efforts toward truly educating the whole child by acknowledging the food situation seems to be from The Geneva School in Winter Park. Lou Jones, school nurse, recently wrote an article for the school newsletter, talking about the school’s focus on lifelong health habits. Healthy eating is so important to the educational philosophy that educational materials with tips on wellness and nutrition are sent home regularly. The Geneva School believes in setting strong, consistent examples at home and at school. The school’s quarterly newsletter shares ideas from families that bring in fun and healthy treats. Class parties have changed, and the school asks parents to bring nutrient-rich foods like fruits, veggies and whole grains into the classroom for birthday celebrations and history feasts in an attempt to avoid food with empty calories. All sodas and cookies have been removed from vending machines. The cookie from the hot lunch menu was replaced with fruit. Bake sales and doughnut sales are not permitted during the school day. Fruit and vegetable photos are displayed on posters around the school to make these foods more appealing and reinforce the long-term health message to the children. To top it off, quarterly the school holds a Tasty Friday event, where students sample wholesome foods like vegetables and fruits. Fliers are sent home to parents informing them about the food samples, health benefits of the food served, and easy ways to incorporate that food into their home, with recipe ideas. BRAVO!

Best public school initiative. Seminole County Schools also are heading in the right direction. The district will be incorporating “superfoods” into its program. Superfoods are believed to help protect against heart disease, cancer and high cholesterol. In the coming 2010-11 school year, profound changes are being made, such as offering only fresh broccoli for all of the district’s Value Meal menus and offering in-school “field trips,” where students can see broccoli growing and learn to prepare and eat it in many ways. Blueberries, more varieties of salad meals, including fresh spinach, turkey breast meat, walnuts, and yogurt and oatmeal for breakfast will be new options. Kitchen tours were so successful last spring that the district will expand this idea to incorporate “nutrition and healthy eating” kitchen tours while working with the teachers who are focusing lessons on nutrition, biology and horticulture. Seminole County is on a mission and will do its part, and hopes to have the support from home with exposure to and consumption of lots more vegetables and fruits and less fast food.

On the national front. Pioneers like Alice Waters with her concept of The Edible Schoolyard and, in more recent times, The Renegade Lunch Lady Chef Ann Cooper’s Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution are creating major awareness within the mainstream family. Campaigns like Slow Food USA’s Time for Lunch and Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move are other efforts creating awareness and gaining recognition.

What you can do

Lead by example.

• Eat more fresh produce. Make it the largest portion on your plate.
• Eat more bright colors and less white, beige and golden brown.
• Shop only the perimeter of the grocery store. All the fresh food is there.
• Read the ingredient list on your packaged food. If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it.
• Review with your children the information on Chef Ann’s website called “Chef Ann’s Healthy Kid’s Meal Wheel” so they can make wise choices. Whether they get their lunch at school or you pack it, encourage them to drink more plain water, increase their intake of produce, and eat lean protein.
• Buy organic, locally and at farmers markets whenever possible. Most produce is about a week old the day it goes in “fresh” at your grocery store. Buying local gets you fresher food and helps your personal bio-system function as it was designed.

Read labels. Avoid these other ingredients, and here’s why:

Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils (trans fat) These oils are one molecule away from being plastic and can damage your heart. Hydrogen is added to oil at a very high temperature which changes the molecular structure from a liquid at room temperature to either a semisolid or a solid. Found in crackers, chips, packaged foods and sauces.

High fructose corn syrup Blocks or inhibits leptin secretion and doesn’t allow ghrelin to shut off. Leptin tells your brain you are full, and ghrelin is secreted by the stomach and increases appetite. Found in salad dressing, ketchup, beverages, bread and syrup.

Excitotoxins / Monosodium glutamate (MSG) “A substance added to foods and beverages that literally stimulates neurons to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees,” as defined by Russell L. Blaylock, MD, author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills. MSG (monosodium glutamate) is probably the best known excitotoxin. Other examples include aspartame (NutraSweet®), cysteine, hydrolyzed protein and aspartic acid. Also found in Goldfish crackers, food coloring, chips, beverages, energy drinks and some restaurant food.

Nitrates and nitrites Preservatives known as nitrosamines; 90 percent have been shown to be carcinogens; can be found in processed meats like bacon, sausage, ham, hot dogs, lunch meat, pepperoni, smoked fish, canned meat and corned beef.

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