Empty Calories on a Full Tray.

Unless a child is home schooled, odds are they eat lunch at a public school. Some parents, generally ones that are more concerned with their children’s diets, get up early every morning in order to pack a lunch that is, hopefully, a better choice nutritionally for their children, although this is not necessarily the case. In speaking to one mother who makes her son his lunch everyday I learned that she uses only whole wheat bread (with no high fructose corn syrup), natural peanut butter (with no hydrogenated oils), and always includes fruits and veggies. For his desert, instead of a Little Debbie brownie, she will often include chocolate chips so she can satisfy his sweet tooth without feeling guilty for pumping him full of sugar, HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup), and preservatives.

This boy, although he may not realize it, is very lucky. So many parents don’t have time to pack school lunches and, instead, depend on the school’s cafeteria to provide their children with the nutrients they need during their day. Unfortunately so many school cafeterias across our country are falling short. According to this article, one lunch option at a Poughkeepsie, NY grammar school consisted of 1117 calories as well as 72.2 grams of sugar. That one meal is filling those kids with half of their daily-recommended calorie intake. Not to mention the fact that over 40% of those calories, according to this article, are coming from fat. It should also be noted that this meal contained only five grams of dietary fiber. I think parents need to examine the kinds of lunches their children are eating.

I am left wondering how a child can then focus on his or her classes after eating so much sugar and so many empty calories. This cannot lead to healthy brain function and certainly could explain hyperactivity as well as lack of ability to focus. Our children do not need to take in that much sugar and fat in one meal. According to another article I found, the recommended daily intake of sugar for children in a day is only 12 grams. Shouldn’t it be that a school cafeteria provides our children with delicious, healthy foods and not foods packed with fat and sugar?

Now obviously not every school cafeteria is making bad choices, nutritionally. In fact there are more and more forward thinking school cafeterias every day. According to this website, roughly 400 school districts in 32 states are participating in the USDA’s Small Farms/School Meals program, which provides school children with healthier, locally grown ingredients in their lunches. And many savvy parents are doing research on their children’s school lunch menus and deciding what their kids can and cannot eat in the cafeteria.

While no changes will take place overnight, we can rest assured that positive steps are being taken. These kids are our future and childhood obesity is running rampant in the United States. We should be very concerned with what our government-funded schools are putting in our children’s bodies. It’s time to take charge, to take note, and to realize that we cannot depend on schools to teach our children to make healthy decisions about the foods they eat.