If Only American Kids Could Eat School Lunches Like They Do in France [View all]

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http://www.alternet.org/food/french-kids-are-not-fat



The standard school lunch for an American child often contains dishes brimming with preservatives and sodium. While some schools have completely overhauled their school menus to contain fresh vegetables and grains, others still struggle with meeting nutritional guidelines. But for students in France, it appears that school lunches are the least of their concerns.

Rebecca Plantier moved to a town near Annecy, France to research why French children aren't as overweight as many American children are. The local city council offered Plantier a tour of her children's cafeteria, or cantine as it's known in France, and Plantier discovered early on that if America and France had a school lunch food fight, France would be the overwhelming victor.

In France, lunch menus are prepared two months in advance and sent away to a nutritionist who gives the menu final approval. The nutritionist can make adjustments to the meal, such as suggesting a dessert be swapped for fruit if "she thinks there's too much sugar that week," writes Plantier. Not only that, but lunches are prepared on site. There are no "ready made frozen" meals to speak of, no box-cutters excavating fish sticks or fries; instead, school cooks prepare everything by hand.

Another bigger contribution to French students' healthy disposition? Recess. Students have two 15-minute and one 60-minute recess every day, writes Plantier, and they also have the advantage of walking or biking to and from school, which students only attend four -- not five -- days out of the week.