Y’all might drum me out of FR, but I’m with The Mooch on this. Kids eat junk, which impacts their health and costs the taxpayers billions down the line in healthcare costs.
But if they’re going to clean up the school lunch program, they’re going to have to forbid kids to watch TV, which blasts them 24/7 with appealing ads for sugar-and-fat laden cereal, candy, ice cream, cake, pie, donuts, jelly, , etc etc etc.
I managed to raise two kids without loading them up with garbage, but I was the TERRIBLE mother who would not have TV in the house.
If school lunches are going to appeal to today’s brainwashed kids, they’ll have to be seriously delicious….plus, perhaps, accompanied by classes in nutrition from the beginning. Ten minutes a day. Five.
Oh dear, a massive government program? Or just parents wising up?
Mothers like you and I are a rarity, I think. My kids were raised without TV for the most part, and they were raised rurally where we grew our own garden, processed the foods which came from it, raised our own small animals for meat, picked fruit from trees etc..
Any sweets that they consumed were for the most part, cookies or pies that I made for them, and I made them to be as healthy as I could. Healthy doesn’t mean tasteless, either.
I limited the amount of junk foods they could consume.
Diet is a habit. People enjoy and eat heartily, what they are accustomed to eating. My kids were accustomed to garden grown veggies, tree fresh/pesticide free fruits, nuts and berries. They loved a roast with potatoes and broccoli, gravy made from the roast, home made bisquits and a side salad, with a mixed fruit salad for desert.
Conversely, my sister’s kids were used to pizza and hotdogs, burgers and fries, boxed mac n cheese, stove top lasagna from the box etc. So, when they came to my house for Sunday dinner, they hardly ate at all! Over the years, they became more accustomed to our style of dinners, so by the time they were middle aged adults, they knew what a healthy diet was.
My kids were trained/raised on good food and that’s what they provided for their kids, too. To this day, all of them love healthy foods.
One year when they were little, I decided to drive home the point of eating good food before indulging in sweets. It was Christmas I think, and I didn’t insist on a good breakfast before diving into the candy in their stockings. I just let them have at it. It wasn’t long however before they all complained about feeling sick, and needing a decent meal lol!
As I said, I LIMITED the junk food, but you’ve GOT to allow a little for the head’s sake. Therefore, the junk didn’t settle well. From then on, when ever the school had parties loaded with junk foods, my kids made sure they filled up on a good lunch before eating the sweets. It was soo funny when they came home proudly announcing how they made sure to eat a good lunch so that they wouldn’t feel sick on junk foods.
Back in those days, their school made wonderful lunches and the kids could eat as much as they wanted. I don’t believe in limiting natural fats such as what comes on meats and eggs and dairy. I think kids need those extra calories if they’re active, and mine were. Kids who don’t like fats will cut it off the meat themselves.
Today, that same school won’t allow the kids to have a butter knife, and they have to eat with spoons. They can’t even butter their dinner roll, or have any salt/seasoning for their foods. They aren’t allowed seconds and portions are carefully controlled. The food still tastes very good, but it’s still a step down from what they used to produce.
Growing up, I was always amazed by what the other kids threw away. Our school made fantastic food, but I can’t believe what went into the trash cans.
Kids are kids meaning they are unique individuals from a variety of home styles and you are NOT going to please them all. But, there ARE some things that a large amount of the kids are going to like such as pizza and burgers. Those can be made to be healthy which doesn’t mean they have to be ‘weird’ or tasteless.
Portion control for children is stupid. They will eat as much or as little as they are comfortable with. Some kids are chow hounds, some kids aren’t. I knew one school which only allowed one tablespoon of food per year of age. That was IT! My 7 month old would eat a full cup and a half of food easily, and was a slender child! Others would eat half that and be rolly pollys.
One size doesn’t fit all. But I do believe the govt is training these kids for near starvation rations.
Thunder thighs wouldn’t eat the crap she has insisted the schools serve-to your point, the cafeteria meals are neither attractive nor tasty-what few veggies there are look overcooked/canned and bland-all the nutrients cooked out, and no seasonings.
The protein is mostly mystery meat-some chopped and processed garbage I would not feed to my pets, and there is too much starch on the menu-packaged potatoes, packaged bread, pasta, etc. Also, kids do not to be drinking milk all the time-it is not the best nutrition for an older child-natural cheese, yogurt and such are better. Most of the lunches are brought already prepared to the school from off-site now and just warmed in the microwave-I don’t think there are any more “real” kitchens where the cafeteria ladies cook...
I don’t eat processed food, never served it at home, and packed my kid’s lunch so she didn’t eat the stuff in the cafeteria-it was different from Michelle’s menu, but it was still processed garbage with little nutritional value. She learned to eat healthy food, and ignored the TV commercials-I never forbade her from seeing them-just made sure she knew that stuff was bad to eat, and didn’t keep it in the house.