HEALTH FOOD NAZIS IN OUR CHILDREN'S SCHOOLS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:33, those breakfast choices sound nourishing, not junky. What's wrong with that MoCo menu? I give my son french toast, eggs, pancakes, etc for breakfast pretty regularly.

I guess everyone is different. If I started three out of five days with something sweet like french toast, pancakes and cinnamon rolls, I wouldn't feel good. The other days are no better than McD's egg McMuffins. When we go on road trips we eat plenty of McDonald's food, including breakfast, and it doesn't take long for me to feel gross -- and to get used to it at the same time. I am always happy to get back to regular, more healthy food.

I'd be interested in finding out what you serve your kids for breakfast then. Other than the cinnamon roll (yes, bad), these all seem like pretty normal kid-friendly breakfast options, and not particularly unhealthy, especially the options that have eggs. For me, I try to load them at breakfast because I know they are hungry and will eat more than at lunch or dinner. I make my own egg sandwiches at home for them, and I think it's an excellent breakfast for kids -- good protein from the eggs and cheese, carbs in the English muffin, some fat in the bacon. My kids are not fat by any means, so they need the calories. A bowl of cereal or yogurt and fruit is just not going to cut it most days.

have you been to the schools to see for yourself what these foods look like? I'm 100 percent sure that egg sandwiches you make at home are way better than what they can get at school. Again, we at McD's a lot when we are on vacation and it is not healthy food and eating it is not the way to feel good or be healty. It's not healthy food, by anyone's standards. School lunches are exactly like eating McDonald's foods -- are you saying eating MdDonald's for breakfast and lunch five days a week is a smart, healthy way to feed your children?

Just go to the school and check out the food for yourself. Then you'll know what the fuss is about. It's gross and unhealthy.

[Anonymous]

Note to self: If you want to guarantee pages of responses to a post, include the word "nazi" in the title. Far more effective than any other "four-letter" word, it is practically the only word in the English language that still has some shock value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we were children, food allergies weren't so proliferant.

Predominant. Not prolific.

1. The use of the word "nazi" in this context is offensive.

2. Proliferant is not a word.

3. I don't believe food allergies are "predominant".

Common, perhaps?

Try prevalent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we went to school there were maybe 15 kids in a classroom not 25-30. The cupcakes we had back then were the small ones with one spreading of frosting. The cupcakes that most parents, including myself, grab at Giant or safeway are twice the size and have 10X the frosting that we had with homemade ones. In a class with 25-30 kids there will be a birthday cupcakes activity everyweek sometimes more than once. We go to a Montessori preschool with large classes and the teachers do allow cupcakes but request that they be the mini ones without the 4 inches of frosting or small mini muffins. Its reasonable and everyone complies but it is a smaller and closer community. Across the board in all public schools, it would be difficult to monitor whether people are ignoring the small treat compromise so no cupcakes makes more sense.

We also did not have chocolate milk in school when I was a kid. When you were in high school, did you ever hear about a McDonalds being in your school? McDonalds was a treat and back then the fries were half the size that they are now. There certainly were not any vending candy machines or soda machines in school. We also did not have chocolate milk as a milk option back then either. The school food may have tasted just as bad back then as it does now but the sugar and fat content significantly soared over the past few decades. Highly processed, poor quality foods are cheap and it is a crime that this is what we are giving our kids in school. Many of the "health food trends" actually are just trying to get back to what portions and food types were available when we were kids.


I completely agree with this!!! Times have changed. I used to joke with my husband..the skinnier the mom, the bigger her cupcakes. Parents will compete for who can bring in the biggest cupcakes with the most frosting. Some of those cupcakes are about 3 times the size of the ones we made growing up and the amount of frosting on those babies jacks up the sugar and fat content even more.

I was always a skinny kid. I ate healthy at home, but loved those teachers who gave out candy and I love cupcakes. just because I was skinny, doesn't mean I was healthy. It seems like over the half the woman I know have serious health issues like autoimmune disorders and yes, even cancer. I'm in my 30s. There are many factors that go into this, but this isn't just about fat/think, it's about optimal health. Also, there are much greater academic demands on our kids and it is a known fact that eating a healthy diet is better for concentration and optimal brain power.

Do what you want in your homes, but I don't want my tax money to go toward exposing my child to constant junk. I'm fine with mini-cupcakes and regular sized (not jumbo) for birthdays or holiday partties, but schools have turned into junk food festivals. Oh and WTF are people doing giving candy as reinforcement in school? What are you teaching with that? I am surprised by the number of teachers who give out candy for all sorts of things and I am sick of having to remind them not to do that for my child.

Yeah it's great that some of you want to teach junk is OK in moderation, but in some schools there is no moderation...junk food city!

Schools are larger and life threatening nut allergies are more common now. Nut allergies require very little exposure. The kid does not have to take a bite of your child's PB sandwich, he just needs to be in the vicinity so this ban is considered reasonable by most rationale people.

I completely agree about recess. My child is going to go insane next year with only 30 minutes of recess a day and PE once a week. We will be getting up an hour earlier next year so that my 1st grader can run around the backyard for an hour before school. When it stays light out until 7pm she can get a few hours outside but once it starts getting dark really early I'm not sure what else we will do.

[Anonymous]

With 30 kids per classroom (assuming they all have birthdays that fall within the school year), that's about 3 birthdays per month. Assuming one cupcake per kid means a maximum of 3 cupcakes per month. Three cupcakes a month is not making anyone fat, people. Banning classroom cupcakes is an empty gesture.

Restoring gym classes and recess would go a lot farther to keep kids trim and healthy.

[Anonymous]

Hurray for healthy food at school! Our DCPS school offers free breakfast. My kids rarely take the hot food offered, and instead take the cereal (Kashi brand), yogurt (nonfat), fruit, juice (no sugar added, 100? fruit and veggie juices) and milk (choose either fat free or 1%-- since my kids are skinny, I urge them to go with 1%). Why do we eat breakfast at school rather than at home? My kids love school and want to get there as soon as possible-- we love talking not only with each other, but also with our friends at school. (however, it is a bit awkward since I have to remember to bring in my own food to eat with them-- I would pay, but they aren't set up to handle money, just to provide free food to the kids.)

PS-- no chocolate milk offered at DCPS schools anymore. and our school has a salad bar at lunch time.

Glad for the no cupcakes rule-- even if evidence somehow showed that they are actually healthy, I would want them banned in the classroom because of the impossible mess they create! Frosting everywhere on kids clothes and in their hair and crumbs all over everything. Kids love fruit salad instead. Getting a kid to try a bite of kiwi for the first time is awesome!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With 30 kids per classroom (assuming they all have birthdays that fall within the school year), that's about 3 birthdays per month. Assuming one cupcake per kid means a maximum of 3 cupcakes per month. Three cupcakes a month is not making anyone fat, people. Banning classroom cupcakes is an empty gesture.

Restoring gym classes and recess would go a lot farther to keep kids trim and healthy.

I SO agree. DS' b-day is this month (he'll be 8) and any b-day treats are part of lunch time at his school. DS is making cupcakes and will be bringing them. FWIW, DS is skinny as can be, drinks chocolate milk, but is not sweets-obsessed. Our pantry has a good amount of junk, but DS eats very little of it, and is always willing to try new foods. Likes veggies like asparagus, loves yogurt with granola. I feel bad for kids whose parents are so controlling about this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Three cupcakes a month (plus halloween, and all the other things...) may not make for a fat child, but at least for my kid, it would make for three afternoons lost to study, and probably a few tantrums....

I really don't care what you feed your kid, but please stop trying to feed mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No.

I am pretty fed up with people throwing around a label that applies to people who systematically killed 12 million people though. Come back when the federal government has killed 12 million children via food restrictions in schools and then maybe I'll be more sympathetic to your gripes.

Thank you.

To the OP: Here you go, buddy. Hope you get the cupcake thing sorted:

[Anonymous]

have you been to the schools to see for yourself what these foods look like? I'm 100 percent sure that egg sandwiches you make at home are way better than what they can get at school.

I think this is a good point. I was really surprised at the differences in things like salt and sugar between what you make at home and something processed. I make my kids french toast, basic bette crocker recipe... nothing funky, and it just includes bread, milk, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla. One kid uses a little sugar free syrup and the other does not like syrup but likes sliced bananas with it. If I buy the processed french toast sticks or slices it has something like 20 grams of sugar in it. Both breakfasts are french toast but there is a big health difference. Pancakes are another good example. The Krusteez mix has half the sugar of the l-eggo pancakes. I have no idea how much sugar is in the McDonalds pancakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School lunches are sickening. I can't imagine what the kids who eat breakfast AND lunch at school must feel like. Yuck.

My daughter eats school breakfast every day. It is cereal and milk and a piece of fruit.

That's great for your DD but not all kids eat that. Here is the menu for mont. co. public schools breakfast:

Monday -- French Toast Sticks, OJ, Choice of Milk

Tuesday -- Egg and Cheese Wrap, Apple Juice, Choice of Milk

Wed. -- 3 Pancakes, OJ, Choice of Milk

Thursday -- Ham and Cheese Breakfast Sandwich, Apple Juice, Choice of Milk

Friday -- Cinnamon Roll, OJ, Choice of Milk

The "daily alternate selections" are cereal, bagel, 3 pancakes, yogurt and fruit of the day.

so what is the answer? Provide only the daily alternate selection to the kids? I would be OK with that. Not only are these more likley high in fat, at our DCPS school they are warmed up in plastic, which seems so unhealthy. Very few kids opt for the hot portion-- most just get the cereal, juice, fruit, and milk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hurray for healthy food at school! Our DCPS school offers free breakfast. My kids rarely take the hot food offered, and instead take the cereal (Kashi brand), yogurt (nonfat), fruit, juice (no sugar added, 100? fruit and veggie juices) and milk (choose either fat free or 1%-- since my kids are skinny, I urge them to go with 1%). Why do we eat breakfast at school rather than at home? My kids love school and want to get there as soon as possible-- we love talking not only with each other, but also with our friends at school. (however, it is a bit awkward since I have to remember to bring in my own food to eat with them-- I would pay, but they aren't set up to handle money, just to provide free food to the kids.)

PS-- no chocolate milk offered at DCPS schools anymore. and our school has a salad bar at lunch time.

Glad for the no cupcakes rule-- even if evidence somehow showed that they are actually healthy, I would want them banned in the classroom because of the impossible mess they create! Frosting everywhere on kids clothes and in their hair and crumbs all over everything. Kids love fruit salad instead. Getting a kid to try a bite of kiwi for the first time is awesome!

Which school is this? I'm not against cupcakes as a rule, but DD has a peanut allergy so we like to avoid baked goods if we can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Three cupcakes a month (plus halloween, and all the other things...) may not make for a fat child, but at least for my kid, it would make for three afternoons lost to study, and probably a few tantrums....

So let me get this straight, your kid has one cupcake and then his/her entire day is blown? The child is useless and having tantrums after one measly cupcake? Seriously, what kind of cupcakes is this child eating? Where can I get some?

Lighten up, Francis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hurray for healthy food at school! Our DCPS school offers free breakfast. My kids rarely take the hot food offered, and instead take the cereal (Kashi brand), yogurt (nonfat), fruit, juice (no sugar added, 100? fruit and veggie juices) and milk (choose either fat free or 1%-- since my kids are skinny, I urge them to go with 1%). Why do we eat breakfast at school rather than at home? My kids love school and want to get there as soon as possible-- we love talking not only with each other, but also with our friends at school. (however, it is a bit awkward since I have to remember to bring in my own food to eat with them-- I would pay, but they aren't set up to handle money, just to provide free food to the kids.)

PS-- no chocolate milk offered at DCPS schools anymore. and our school has a salad bar at lunch time.

Glad for the no cupcakes rule-- even if evidence somehow showed that they are actually healthy, I would want them banned in the classroom because of the impossible mess they create! Frosting everywhere on kids clothes and in their hair and crumbs all over everything. Kids love fruit salad instead. Getting a kid to try a bite of kiwi for the first time is awesome!

Which school is this? I'm not against cupcakes as a rule, but DD has a peanut allergy so we like to avoid baked goods if we can.

This is Brent on Capitol hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Three cupcakes a month (plus halloween, and all the other things...) may not make for a fat child, but at least for my kid, it would make for three afternoons lost to study, and probably a few tantrums....

So let me get this straight, your kid has one cupcake and then his/her entire day is blown? The child is useless and having tantrums after one measly cupcake? Seriously, what kind of cupcakes is this child eating? Where can I get some?

Lighten up, Francis.

What is causing so many defective children?