Healthy School Food: How one city does it
February 20, 2008
Thanks to Dana Woldow of the San Francisco Unified School District for sending this link to resources for making school meals healthier. Check out the salad bar video (way down at the bottom of the list of links). The city now has salad bars in 25 schools.
[…] Healthy School Food: How one city does it […]
Pingback by How to Treat the Symptoms of Colds and Flu by Health Tips — February 20, 2008 @ 6:02 pm
When I click the link to resources, it brings me back to the blog page, not to any new resources.
Comment by Sheila — February 20, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
Hmm. Not sure how that happened. It is now fixed. Thanks!
Comment by Marion — February 20, 2008 @ 9:52 pm
12 oz. maximum serving for juices?? 12 oz. of juice contains 40+ grams of naturally occurring sugars (depending on what fruit it’s made from)! That’s 10 teaspoons of sugar. This is healthy?
“Flavored milk may contain no more than 40 grams of sugar total per 12 oz. (27 grams of sugar total per 8 oz.)”!! That’s also 10 teaspoons of sugar. This is healthy?
Chips, crackers, cereal bars, cookies, bakery items, and ice cream still allowed? This is healthy?
Vending machines products may have “no more than 35% total sugar by weight”!! Maximum allowable weight for cookies is 2 oz, or 56 grams. 35% of that is just under 20 grams, or 5 teaspoons of sugars. For “bakery items,” whatever they are, it’s worse - the maximum weight is 3 oz, which means they could contain nearly 30 grams, or 7.5 teaspoons of sugar. This is healthy?
I figure a kid who decided to have the “healthy” chocolate milk and a “healthy” “bakery item” could be consuming nearly 18 teaspoons of sugar. This is exactly the same as a Snickers bar and a twelve ounce Coke.
This doesn’t even count starches, which break down into sugar in the body. (Presumably the “bakery item” has more starch than the Snickers bar.)
My eyes are bleeding just from reading this.
Here’s the direct link to the school district’s nutrition standards, which I found on the page Dr. Nestle posted:
http://www.sfusdfood.org/pdfs/SFUSDWellness.pdf.
Comment by Migraineur — February 21, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
Hmm…bagels and pizza sandwiches in the “healthy” vending machines? It seems that they are basing the “healthy” of the snacks not on calories but rather on vitamins and minerals.
I guess it’s a start, but with something like this I’m always curious as to how much of what products are purchased.
Comment by Travis — February 21, 2008 @ 9:49 pm