Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) - Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools. For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful. Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama has a new look, both in person and online, and with the president's re-election, she has four more years as first lady, too. That's got many people wondering: What will she do with them? Take on a new cause? Travel more? Trace the path of another first lady and keep the Obama political brand alive by running for office? The answers are to be determined. The first lady is trying to figure out what comes next for this self-described "mom in chief" who also is a champion of healthier eating, an advocate for military families,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Faced with the high cost of caring for smokers and overeaters, experts say society must grapple with a blunt question: Instead of trying to penalize them and change their ways, why not just let these health sinners die?

Opponents of the city's limit on the size of sugary drinks are raising questions of racial fairness alongside other complaints as the novel restriction faces a court test. The NAACP's New York state branch and the Hispanic Federation have joined beverage makers and sellers in trying to stop the rule from taking effect March 12. With a hearing set Wednesday, critics are attacking what they call an inconsistent and undemocratic regulation, while city officials and health experts defend it as a pioneering and proper move to fight obesity.

Do as we say, not as we do. Unlike some others, I have no problem with the First Lady’s efforts to push for awareness of the health choices of our food — as long as the “awareness” doesn’t turn into mandates and legislation, or in edicts like the Big Apple’s Big Gulp ban. But if one wants to impress upon others the need to watch caloric and fat intake, shouldn’t that mean a personal demonstration of restraint? Apparently not: "Monday’s inauguration of President Barack Obama will be filled with pomp, circumstance, and a jam-packed schedule of invite-only events where the...

SALTY PEANUTS! I, like millions of other people enjoy snacking on peanuts from time to time. Blanched nuts,Glazed Almonds, Shelled Sunflower, Pumpkin, Walnut, and of course, the big mac, Macadamia too! Peanuts are cheap, nutritious, crunchy, noisy, aromatic and an overall addictively FUN type of food, don't you agree? Well, don't look now, but somebody (uninvited) just walked in on our party, and they show no sign of leaving. For the last year or two it has become very difficult to find a bag of SALTED peanuts that tastes good, meaning that has enough salt to make it worth eating....

(CNSNews.com) - The Los Angeles City Council is urging all residents to observe "meatless Mondays" from now on. A resolution adopted on Oct. 24 reads: "Be it resolved, that the Council of the City of Los Angeles hereby declares all Mondays as 'Meatless Mondays' in support of comprehensive sustainability efforts as well as to further encourage residents to eat a more varied plant-based diet to protect their health and protect animals." Councilwoman Jan Perry, who introduced the resolution, also wants to ban new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles. "While this is a symbolic gesture, it is asking people to...

Students boycotting school lunchesPublished: Oct. 6, 2012 at 4:46 PM NEW YORK, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Many U.S. high school students are protesting new, healthier school lunches, and a professor says it may take a while for students to accept healthier food. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required public schools to follow new nutritional guidelines this academic year, providing fruits and vegetables and limiting fat, sodium, and calories, The New York Times reported Friday. "Before, there was no taste and no flavor," said Malik Barrows, a senior at Automotive High School in Brooklyn. "Now there's no taste, no...

PARSIPPANY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Students at Parsippany Hills High School held a strategy session on Thursday to discuss a potential lunch strike, on Friday, over what they have called inadequately sized meals. “This year you’re eating lunch and you’re like ‘Did I even eat?’ You’re not even full,” senior Brandon Faris told CBS 2′s Derricke Dennis. New federal guidelines stemming from first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign have resulted in limits on protein and bread, and an increase in vegetables and fruits. The changes have also come at an increased cost. All of it has also sparked a student...

It would be laughable -- if our school kids weren't hungry! By now, most everyone who pays attention, is aware of how our government, Big Nanny, has screwed-up school lunches so badly that our kids either won't eat the stuff or, they DO eat it and -- remain hungry. This is just more evidence of what happens when the government takes an active hand in "helping" Americans. Once again, I repeat my plea to the UIS government: "For God's sake -- stop helping us!" ABC News reports the following: "School lunch trays are a bit lighter this year after Congress-approved...

Once again the Nanny State backfires. Just when you thought it was safe to consume a big mac, along comes America’s First Nanny Michelle Obama. Mind you her favorite food is a cheeseburger and fries. But that’s not good enough for Johnny. You see while Johnny maybe a functional illiterate because he’s been deliberately dumbed down in a government indoctrination center, also known as a public school, Ms. Obama is insistent that this programmed failure is going to eat healthy, the way she doesn’t and how do we do this? By fiat or decree the same way her husband does...

Children and parents across the country are fed up with the restrictive new school meal regulations implemented by the Department of Agriculture under the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” which has long been touted by first lady Michelle Obama. The standards — which cap meal calories at 650 for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, at 700 calories for middle school students and 850 for high school students — also dictate the number of breads, proteins, vegetables and fruits children are allowed per meal. A spokeswoman for Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, who earlier this month introduced legislation to...

Are kids' school lunches safe? A new report from the advocacy group Mercury Policy Project finds tuna served as school lunches in some states may contain levels of mercury that the organization deems toxic. Mercury is a naturally occurring neurotoxin in the environment that can be released into the air through industrial pollution. It builds up in water and streams and turns into methylmercury, a compound which is then absorbed by fish as they feed. The report, called "Tuna Surprise" is the first to test canned tuna sold to schools, according to its authors. "Most children are already consuming only...

As one of the country’s largest health-insurance companies, Humana regularly has a say in where its members seek care. Now it wants sway over what groceries they buy. Humana announced a new partnership with Wal-Mart on Wednesday that will give the more than 1 million members of its wellness program, HumanaVitality, a 5 percent discount on healthy groceries. The program, which will launch Oct. 15, is meant to steer customers toward healthier food choices and potentially push down health-care costs — while driving people into Wal-Mart stores. The unusual partnership between a major insurer and major retailer speaks to insurers’...

Legal challenges to New York City's ban on sodas larger than 16 ounces are unlikely to be successful, and the ban could spark similar moves in other cities around the country, according to experts. Thursday, after the city's board of health formally prohibited restaurants from selling sodas larger than 16 ounces after March 12, 2013, organizations around New York City said they would consider suing the city to get the ban overturned. Laura Palantone, a spokesperson for New York City Beverage Choices, a group against the ban, says the organization will "carefully review the regulation and explore our options now...

ROTTERDAM, N.Y. (AP) — One student complains because his cafeteria no longer serves chicken nuggets. Another gripes that her school lunch just isn't filling. A third student says he's happy to eat an extra apple with his lunch, even as he's noshing on his own sub. Leaner, greener school lunches served under new federal standards are getting mixed grades from students piling more carrots, more apples and fewer fatty foods on their trays.

Sodas are about to get a lot smaller in New York City as Bloomberg's soda ban was officially approved. Several businesses will not be allowed to sell sugary beverages over 16 oz soon. On Thursday,New York City's Board of Health approved Mayor Michael Bloomber's plan to ban large sugary drinks. The proposal was approved in a 8-0 vote. One member, Dr. Sixto Caro abstained from voting. The unprecedented regulation, which was proposed in the spring, will apply to all restaurants, fast-food joints, delis, movie theaters, Broadway theaters, workplace cafeterias, sports stadium and food carts. All of these businesses will not...

In his gut, Kurt Myers knows when a student arrives at school on an empty stomach. He can see it on a cold Monday morning in the coat that remains zipped and the hat that stays pulled down, in the rush to eat school breakfast as if it's the student's first meal in days. And in the Reading School District, where 92 percent of students received free or reduced-price meals in 2011-12, Myers knows it doesn't take a food services director such as himself to realize that "when a student looks like he hasn't eaten all weekend, he probably hasn't...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Obama just said somewhere that he's going to get all misty watching Mrs. Obama tonight and that he doesn't want his daughters to see him cry. He's going to get all misty, which reminds me of a Clint Eastwood movie "Play Misty for Me." It was about the killer groupie. Eastwood was a disk jockey in Carmel, California. Jessica Walter played the groupie who tried to kill Eastwood. And Obama now says he's going to get all misty watching Mrs. Obama speak tonight. I wonder if she'll ask us: "Are you eating better today than you were...

So, what I’m hearing is, it’s pretty much the same as the old agenda, except perhaps ramped up another nanny-state notch. In a yet another classic case of an inefficient, meddlesome bureaucracy attacking the symptoms instead of the disease (and causing a whole host of costs, inefficiencies, and waste in the process), the federal government via First Lady Michelle Obama has made it their business to “solve the problem of obesity within a generation.” In an audacious display of utter disdain for free-market signals, part of this effort includes nineteen separate government programs that aim to eliminate “food deserts” —...