Health & Fitness
USDA Restrictions on School Lunches to Combat Childhood Obesity
Michael Omidi looks at new restrictions regarding nutritional content for snacks available in schools and how these federal guidelines may help combat childhood obesity.
The federal government has taken an aggressive step towards preventing childhood obesity by outlawing processed, nutritionally void snack foods in public schools.
A new set of guidelines issued by the United States Department of Agriculture outlined a set of standards for snack foods that are allowed for sale in public schools. According to the new rules, any vending machine snack that doesn’t have a protein, vegetable, fruit or dairy product listed as its first ingredient is now banned. This means that processed snack chips, cookies and crackers are no longer allowed, but many granola bars, baked potato chips and trail mixes now are.
The rules also apply to beverages and high calorie sodas, which are no longer allowed. Drinks sold at schools must be low calorie (no full sugar sodas; diet drinks are allowable) or be 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. Low or no calorie flavored waters are permissible and bottled water must be available for free at lunch times.
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Kids are allowed to bring whatever snacks they want from home, and the guidelines do not apply for events like bake sales. Public schools have until July 1, 2014 to be in full compliance with the new restrictions on snack foods and beverages.
Fully one third of American citizens are classified as overweight or obese, and that number, according to a new study published in the journal PloS One, might be even higher than we think. In order to combat childhood obesity effectively, our schools must abide by some nutritional restrictions.
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Families might serve healthy meals and snacks at home, but if a child (particularly a grade school child) has access to the candies, cookies, and chips that aren’t available at home, then the child will unthinkingly eat them, and healthy nutritional choices at home might be compromised. Schools have a responsibility to maintain the health and safety of their children; young minds are meant to be fortified in school, why not young bodies?
Share how you feel about these new restrictions in the comments section.
