School Lunchs Really Do Suck

Most of you probably remember the good ol’ food pyramid of your youth. You know – the one that looked like this…














Well, nowadays we’ve got a whole new food pyramid. In fact, last year the government introduced a whole slew of new food pyramids based on your age, sex, and lifestyle. The new one looks like this….



The reason I bring all this up is there’s an article in the paper today on school lunches. Apparently some parents are concerned that their children are consuming too many trans fats. Next to the article in a little box it shows “A typical week of lunches in the Bakersfield City School District.” It looks like our school districts are still using the old food pyramid. Some of the items listed include Fritos corn chips, canned corn, canned pears, a chocolate chip cookie, and a hot dog. I wonder how these items fit into the new food pyramid. My favorite is the menu for Friday which consists of popcorn chicken, ketchup, potato wedges, fresh fruit, potato roll, and milk. Uh… can a I get a little fiber over here please? The meals they are serving these kids are total crap. It appears

It’s probably just because I’m getting older, but I’ve been spending more time thinking about eating right. I read labels now and avoid things with partially hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, and enriched flour. I’ve found that it’s not that hard, you just have to seek out the right stuff.

We all know that eating poorly affects our health, and that health is directly related to academic achievement. I can’t understand why our schools are still feeding our kids a bunch of crap.