You Are What You Eat!

In the past year, a new debate has risen in my house - about food. In elementary school, I packed my son's lunch every day, and so I knew exactly what he was eating. Now, being seen with a lunch kit is, according to my son, un-cool. So beginning last year, I gave him a weekly budget of $12.50 to purchase his lunch at school. It was not long before he was regaling me with stories of three candy bar lunches or chili cheese curly fries with a coke. Whoa, hold on a minute, they serve that stuff at school?    

Yes, and more. I went to my local school district's website, in the effort to see exactly what his offerings were. And, much to my dismay, the unhealthy to healthy choice ratio was about 5:1, and I am being generous by considering Salisbury steak as healthy - hey, I was desperate! There were corn dogs, and nachos, and Frito pies. The menu reads more like a fast food restaurant than that of a middle school cafeteria. And, while this delights my son, it worries me. According to recent studies, one child in five is overweight, and the number is steadily rising. In addition, the number of extremely obese children has nearly doubled in the last two decades (Archive of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 1995). According to the CDC, as a result, these children are at risk for developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other health problems. At a minimum, they are developing poor eating habits that will eventually catch up to them. In fact, the CDC labels the problem as epidemic. That being the case, what are our schools thinking? Unfortunately, the problem for me doesn't stop at the schoolyard. My son, who has now grown very accustomed to eating these types of foods, has become a picky eater in the worst way. He wants junk all day everyday, and he would rather shave 25 cents off of his lunch tab in order to have a doughnut at school, than eat eggs and toast at home. So that's two meals per day with little or no nutritional value at all.     

I feel for our kids who are placed in a situation where even an adult might crack. I mean, who of us hasn't had just one more bite at a holiday gathering? Only, for our children, it is five days a week, and up to two times a day during the school year. From the time these pre teens started elementary school, they have studied the food pyramid, and the difference between healthy and unhealthy food choices in their classrooms. Isn't it about time to practice what we teach in class in our school lunchrooms?