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Anybody watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution? It’s an amazing show in that all the resentment he’s coming up against. And his accusations are spot on. I’m mortified at what our kids are eating in school. I was aware of the high schools but, geeze, the little ones do NOT need to have pizza for breakfast!!! And french fries count as a vegetable? GMAB!
pizza for breakfast and when they do have pizza, it’s whole wheat with low fat cheese. The food is still a little fattier and saltier than I would want to eat though. I know it is healthier than in previous years – lots of whole wheats, grains, veggies, etc. The sad part is that some kids won’t eat the healthy food.
packed by either their moms or by me (since moms work and I take them to school anyway). They do not care for the school lunches and claim they are "gross" (their word). We try to pack lunches that are high in nutrition, with not too many calories. Childhood obesity is definitely on the rise, and the children in this country are becoming its latest victims. I see some of these kids at their schools, and it’s tough to realize that they are definitely headed for some major health problems down the road. I’ve watched Jamie Oliver’s show and think it’s wonderful what he is trying to do, but he is facing a generation of people set in their ways; and, consequently, we are all products of our environment. It is up to the adults in a child’s life to care for their health and welfare, and proper diet is a major factor in leading them in the right direction; so, I give him all the credit in the world for bringing awareness into peoples’ lives. I hope he succeeds.
that it is the parents/grandparents/caregivers responsiblity in the children’s lives to make sure that their children are eating properly and nutritiously.
This is ten years into the 21st century, for at least the last fifty years people in the USA, have known what proper nutrition is, (unless they weren’t paying attention). Who, (I’m talking adults), doesn’t know that an apple is better for your body than a Big Mac?
It is the parents/grandparents/caregivers role to make sure that the child has a roof over their head, a warm and safe bed to sleep in, goes to church or temple (or whereever), sees that the child attends school each day (to receive a good education so this cycle doesn’t repeat itself), gets outside for play and fresh air and most of all makes sure the child knows that he/she is loved and cared for.
The sad thing is that the role of teaching children what is proper and good for them has been abdicated by letting the television, the streets, the schools and now, the state raise children.
I also believe this is another reason why childhood obesity is so prevalent, a lot of parents/(etc.) would rather plunk their children down in front of a t.v., give the children $300 Xbox’s or the like, so they can relax and have a martini. Children don’t know what we (an older generation) knew when we were growing up – you do your homework after school, you go outside to play with your friends, you respect your elders and you eat what you have placed in front of you.
If the parents/(etc.) do not feed the children properly or in essence feed the children’s souls, children (and adults also) will look for a replacement such as food or drugs to find the love that they are missing in their lives. It doesn’t take a village to raise a child even though they are trying.
his hands full trying to convince kids that have eaten ‘cr*p’ for years along with the adults that have been giving it to them. I have to say that fresh veggies are so much better tasting than what you get in cans. I have always had a garden during the summer and notice the difference between lettuce grown in the garden and that coming from the stores or worse, at a restaurant that isn’t using local produce! I also was a ‘raw’ person way before it became Hollywood chic! My favorite thing to do in the summer is to ‘graze’ the garden rather than eating full meals.
a vegetable garden is part of the backyard. I remember when our son was just a toddler and I was out picking the sugar snap peas, putting them in the bowl. Our little guy was pulling them out of the bowl and getting the peas out of the pod eating them while sitting on the ground next to me! Great memory that I hadn’t thought about until I read this post. I also wish Jamie a lot of luck. This country has some horrible eating habits that need to be broken!
the junk food is now here and it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to get the kids to give it up for healthy, nutritious food. They have developed a taste for it and short of banning it completely, I don’t know how we will get them to give it up long enough to appreciate the good stuff. Let’s face it, sugar, salt and fat are all very palatible and even animals will prefer it to other, natural food if given the choice.
I think we need to get the kids exercising more to fight obesity. Kids just don’t walk home from school anymore or play much outside. There are too many options available to let them sit and become the vegetables we wish they were eating. I don’t know what the solution is but I fear for our future. I think the situation of the human race in Wall-E is not too far off.
But back to Jamie, I was really shocked at the opposition he has run into. And I can’t believe the crabby lady in the elementary school lunch room would even allow herself to be shown. They must have paid her extra.
is how much food is being thrown away. Years ago, my SIL helped out in the lunchroom in middle school and she said those kids threw enough food away to feed many families three meals a day. It’s too bad something can’t be done about that too. I’m a child of the "there are starving kids in Europ" generation and it’s extremely difficult for me to throw food away to this day, many, many years later.
My g.kids are told to bring food they don’t eat home again if it’s something that can still be used like fruit, yogurt, juice boxes, etc. instead of throwing it away. Who knows if they actually do but at least they have been given the directions.
of how bad school lunches are. If children are hungry, they want to eat, but if they don’t like the food being offered, then it goes into the trash and the kids are starving when they get home from school. Another thing I’ve noticed is the "treats" trucks allowed to park close to schools when the children are getting out for the day. There are ice cream trucks, candy, snowballs, anything and everything that will tempt kids, especially if they have not eaten their lunches. I see kids in lines that go practically around the school to get their daily fixes of sugar. These junk trucks should be banned from school areas. Neighborhoods are tormented enough with them from 3:30 until well into the night hours every day throughout the summer and well into fall. Sometimes they come through out neighborhoods 4 or 5 times a day.
unfortunately, it is not safe for children to walk home from school or to a friends house to play. Just look at the news.
In our area, the schools no longer have a recess time for the kids; there might be a PE time, but it is often spent just hanging around the gym goofing off.
Quite a few kids eat both breakfast and lunch at school, paid for by the government. Healthy food, they toss in the garbage. The food they like and eat is not the healthiest. I think the schools sometimes think that any kind of food is better than the kids doing without.
The kids that actually pay for their lunches get the same thing as the free lunches. My granddaughter does not eat at school; she says it is nasty. I doubt it is nasty, but it probably is not very tasty.
Goody
is only use the outside isles of the supermarket. Most stores have as you enter, fruits and vegtables on one side of the store, as you turn the corner, (always in the back of the store) is the milk, OJ, yogart, and other dairy products, then as you turn the next corner, there are the fish and poultry. If you stay away from the inside isles as much as possible – you can purchase healthy foods.
Another easy tip is only eat foods that are recognizable. If the food doesn’t look like your great grandmother made it, don’t eat it. I doubt grandma would recognize bright day-glo cheese powder and mac out of a blue box! Avoid processed and pre-packaged foods. I haven’t watched this show you folks are talking about but I’ll bet he’s saying the same thing we’ve all been chatting about.
It’s just as easy to cook or make fresh vegtables or a green salad, and other good tasting foods as it is to buy prepackaged foods. Before I retired I worked ten hour days, not including commute time, I would as a time saver pre-cook a lot of the main dishes one day – flashfreeze and then come home place in oven, make a veggie and salad and dinner is just as quick as drive-thru and so much better for us.
on the fact that kids can’t play outside, or walk home from school anymore because of safety concerns…I have always found this horrendous in our country. I have a simple solution – (many will not agree with me and I don’t want to get on another subject other than the one we are on about healthy nutrition for children and adults too), but if we hired (and jobs are needed) more police, and the criminals, once they are caught, (especially one who hurts or harms a child), are immdiatley, after a fair trial and if found guilty, are "taken care of" rather than ever being let out to see the light of day again. Too bad if the prisions are overcrowded – they shouldn’t have harmed a child. The child has rights the way I see it, not the criminal molester monster.
These criminals are allowed, due to their so-called civil rights, to live in our neighborhoods where our children are playing at the parks, schools and playgrounds. These ‘people’ are never "cured", the repeat offenders percentage is 80 or 90% – so why do our children have to suffer by not being able to play outside or go for a walk?
It’s up to us to change our society for the better, for the children. Otherwise, right now, I don’t, (and I think many of us don’t), recognize the world where I/we grew up in. In a few years, it will only get worse – we as adults, parents and taxpayers have to demand that the children of our nation are safe, well fed and grow up in a decent and caring country. Jumping off my soap-box now…
to Jamie’s success. There are strict minimums that must be met that have been established by whichever federal agency oversees the reimbursible school lunch programs. This is the program that has determined that potatos are a vegetable. During the Reagan administration they tried to qualify ketchup as a vegetable, too. Happily that one didn’t pass.
The other major roadblock is budget. That’s the really big one that he simply can’t overcome without parental assistance. There is a strict budget for each lunch sold. There is a specific amount the feds reimburse the schools for each (free) lunch served. In order the make the lunches cheap enough they have to serve the prepared foods that are "fortified" with the ingrediants required to meet the federal minimum standards. Don’t forget – the school lunch program is basically a non-profit restaurant. Food is not the only cost involved. Starting with the cost of the kitchen equipment, utilities, labor, napkins and water to wash the used trays, every penny has to be included.
Are school lunches nasty? Yes, most of them are. I’m sure there are schools around the country that serve good tasting, nutritious lunches. But they are few and far between.
Most kids eat five meals a week at school, 9 months a year. The responsibility of the rest of their meals, and their daily exercise, rests with their parents. School lunches should not take the entire blame for the overweight children in our country.
Jamie’s revolution is to start at a young age to educate the next generation how to keep their bodies fit. Revamping the school lunch program is only one small part of the that revolution.
(Silicon Valley) and where I live now in Florida, both communities have banned those trucks completely. The "garbage trucks" (what DH always called them) can get special permits to go into large constructions areas (like commercial buildings or residential communities being built) but that’s all. I’m surprised to hear they are still operating out there as I thought most cities in the USA have also outlawed them. If they haven’t yet, they should.
Believe me, I’m not preaching to anybody because I love (and eat) junk food as much as the next guy but if we’re ever going to get back to nutritious and health eating, we have to start the kids out early.
I have to give kudos to my DIL who started the twins out eating good food without any junk at all. They are now 22 years old and eat very little of it. They don’t like much in the way of candy or soft drinks and eat mostly fruit when they want a snack. (They ARE addicted to popcorn though but that runs in the family!) So, it goes to show you, it CAN be done.
BUT I don’t want the government telling me what I can eat or not eat…..- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.