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San Antonio schools will be counting calories[Calorie Cameras]
AP ^ | 11 May 2011 | AP

Posted on 05/11/2011 3:06:56 PM PDT by Palter

Smile, Texas schoolchildren. You’re on calorie camera.

That’s the idea behind a $2 million project being unveiled Wednesday in the lunchroom of a San Antonio elementary school, where high-tech cameras installed in the cafeteria will begin photographing what foods children pile onto their trays — and later capture what they don’t finish eating.

Digital imaging analysis of the snapshots will then calculate how many calories each student scarfed down. Local health officials said the program, funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, is the first of its kind in a U.S. school, and will be so precise that the technology can identify a half-eaten pear left on a lunch tray.

“This is very sophisticated,” said Dr. Roberto Trevino, director of the San Antonio-based Social & Health Research Center, which will oversee the program.

Parents will be required to give consent for their children to participate, and receive regular reports showing what foods their kids are filling up on at lunch. Trevino said only the trays, and not students, will be photographed.

Here’s how it works: students are assigned lunch trays with a unique bar code. After the children load up their plates down the line — mashed potatoes or green beans? french fries or fruit? — a camera above the cashier takes a picture of each tray.

When lunch is over and the kids return their plates to the kitchen, another camera takes a snapshot of what’s left on the tray. Software then analyzes the before and after photos to calculate calories consumed and, according to Trevino, a report of nutrients in the foods.

Researchers hope parents will change eating habits at home once they see what their kids are choosing in schools.

(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: bigbrother; children; diet; health; sanantonio; school; texas; yum; yumfatladenfood

1 posted on 05/11/2011 3:06:59 PM PDT by Palter
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To: Palter

So I take mashed potatoes to trade with my buddy for something else. Who will know?


2 posted on 05/11/2011 3:09:16 PM PDT by NEMDF
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To: Palter

Just another reason I am glad my children do not go to government schools.


3 posted on 05/11/2011 3:10:26 PM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: Palter

What a way to spend $2M.


4 posted on 05/11/2011 3:16:52 PM PDT by the anti-liberal
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To: Palter
Parents will be required to give consent for their children to participate

Say what now?

5 posted on 05/11/2011 3:17:54 PM PDT by LongElegantLegs (Use it up, wear it out, make it over or do without.)
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To: Palter

Good to know they are raking in the dough in San Antonio. Obviously, money is no object.


6 posted on 05/11/2011 3:23:31 PM PDT by beaversmom
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To: Palter
as long as they also video tape the fat arse principals and the teachers......we want to see what they are doing...

schools all across the country are crying poverty and yet we get these kind of stinking "studies" that will lead nowhere.....

private/religious/home school people ...your children are worth it....

7 posted on 05/11/2011 3:32:44 PM PDT by cherry
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To: Palter

So schools are broke and they spend money on this Barbra Streisand........

They are creating a generation of paranoid stress eaters....


8 posted on 05/11/2011 3:33:14 PM PDT by Kimmers (Tell a lie often enough it becomes political........)
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To: beaversmom

If it were me and my parents opted in, I would ensure that the barcode is covered or put other people’s leftovers on the tray so that more calories were not eaten than the first photo showed on the tray.


9 posted on 05/11/2011 3:33:51 PM PDT by Ingtar (Together we go broke (from a Pookie18 post))
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To: Palter

“Local health officials said the program... is the first of its kind in a U.S. school”

First? I certainly hope it’s the last. Why don’t these health officials use their own money and set up this stupid program in their own homes and leave our kids alone? Utter foolishness.


10 posted on 05/11/2011 3:34:21 PM PDT by paint_your_wagon
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To: Palter

To quote Any Rand: “By what right, by what code, by what standard?”


11 posted on 05/11/2011 3:35:09 PM PDT by albionin
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To: Palter
The education establishment in Texas has been screaming, yelling, and jumping up and down this entire legislative session over cuts to the state budget for education.

Yet the San Antonio schools can get 2 million from the feds for this nonsense? Why aren't they asking for money to support the things they claim are necessary?

If I were a student in the school, I'd be organizing daily sabotage efforts to ensure that the "results" were meaningless. Like the previous poster, switch leftovers with other folks so that some trays have none and some have more than they started with. Keep a list, so that the results can vary on a daily basis. Even better, make sure that the skinniest kids are consuming the most calories and the heaviest kids next to none.

Mess with their minds, and see how long it took them to catch on. When the teachers started having to do "tray duty" the school would decide the nonsense needed to stop!

12 posted on 05/11/2011 3:55:06 PM PDT by susannah59
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To: Palter

“the program, funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant”

We are paying for this boondoggle.


13 posted on 05/11/2011 4:12:02 PM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: Palter

Does this mean you can’t bring your own lunch to school?

The Food Fascist Feds are out of control!


14 posted on 05/11/2011 4:21:52 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: All

What I am wondering is why the cafeteria is providing “unhealthy” food from which the kids can choose. Also, are they filming what kids bring in their lunch boxes?


15 posted on 05/11/2011 4:32:16 PM PDT by basil (It's time to rid the country of "gun free zones" aka "Killing Fields")
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To: Palter

Is there nothing the damned Department of Agriculture doesn’t have it’s bureaucratic fingers in?


16 posted on 05/11/2011 4:45:26 PM PDT by squarebarb
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To: Palter

“Researchers hope parents will change eating habits at home once they see what their kids are choosing in schools.”

Well, what if parents are absolutely thrilled with their children’s choices — fat-laden hamburgers, fries, pudding, soda, cookies, cake, potato chips, whatever?

What a stupid program.

On the other hand, they just might go down to the school and shoot the cafeteria staff and head dietician.


17 posted on 05/11/2011 6:12:24 PM PDT by goldi (')
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To: Palter

“Researchers hope parents will change eating habits at home once they see what their kids are choosing in schools.”

Well, what if parents are absolutely thrilled with their children’s choices — fat-laden hamburgers, fries, pudding, soda, cookies, cake, potato chips, whatever?

What a stupid program.

On the other hand, they just might go down to the school and shoot the cafeteria staff and head dietician.


18 posted on 05/11/2011 6:12:35 PM PDT by goldi (')
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