School Lunch?

[Glassunion]

53. It would appear as though daily kos did some selective editing.

The article they are referencing clearly points out that they were all made in the same place. What they had done was to give a single comparison of lunch offerings around the world. Basically a visual representation of what was on the menu.

In my opinion the photo of a lunch from the USA does seem pretty typical of the offering. In HS I was on the track and football teams. Coach had me on a great diet. When he sat me down to go over my diet, his first rule was not to eat in the cafeteria. The food was all processed, loaded full of salt, sugar, and carbs. So I packed my own lunches.

I've recently (last year) had the displeasure of enjoying a school lunch during a daytime pageant at my nephew's school. It was their graduation, so in order to embarrass the crap out of him, about 10 of us bought tickets and loaded up in 4 cars. Lunch was being provided after the event.

My review:
Now our meal was served in the typical buffet style, so I cannot give or remove points on service. However the buffet staff were quite pleasant and talkative. Choice was not much of an option, as you simply had 5 options (which amazingly coincided with the number of sections in the tray), an entree, two sides, a desert and a beverage.

I will start with the beverage option. Now you had the option of low-fat milk, or low-fat chocolate milk. Personally I am a fan of whole milk. Primarily due to how it will fill you up for longer, at the expense of only adding about 40 calories. Not to mention the sodium and carb content of low-fat milk is a bit higher. But no points off.

Now for the two sides, we had corn, along with a medley of peas and carrots. Although I cannot speak as to the exact volume of margarine, but I can say it was significant enough that my lips had a nice oily film on them for several hours following the meal. In the section where you picked up your utensils they did offer pepper. Salt was conspicuously missing. However upon tasting the corn and medley I became acutely aware as to why there was no salt. None was needed. In fact, I did not have to add salt to the next 3 meals I consumed.

Now for the entree. Your standard, rectangular pizza. I opted for the pepperoni. I will not speak badly of it. It was baked to perfection, to the point that the imitation cheeses were so beautifully not caramelized along the burnt outer crust. It was a tad salty, however it did hit the spot.

Now for the desert. Peach cobbler. Now, I am a sucker for a good peach cobbler. Hell, I'm a fan of anything that ends in cobbler. I've been known to hug a shoemaker from time to time. It was good. It was dessert, so it would explain the unearthly amounts of sugar in it. Because dessert needs to be sweet. Like so sweet, that you notice the conspicuous dust that once was your tooth enamel escaping from your mouth and nose with each breath.

Now not counting in the added butter and salt, a simple review would show that the lunch consisted of the following:
1000 - Calories
48 - g of Fat
16 - g of Saturated Fat
166 - g of Carbs.
6 - g of Dietary Fiber
44 - g of Sugar
33 - g of Protein
1965 - mg of Sodium
Total Glycemic Load = 78

The Good:
Plenty of Calcium in the meal. That meal made up about 60% of the RDV on calcium.
Plenty of Vitamin A. Worked out to about 140% of the RDV.
Nice amount of Protein. 65% of the RDV.
Iron works out to about 28% if the RDV.

The Bad:
That one meal makes up over half of the calories that my nephew should be eating in a given day. He is at the high end of what a 7 to 9 year old should eat. About 1900 calories a day.
Sodium - That one meal makes up about 80% of the entire RDV.
Dietary Fiber is almost non existent.
Sugar is also very high, at about 88% of what should be in a diet.

Childhood obesity is a big problem in the US. Almost 1 in 5 children struggle with it. From what I've observed from actually going to school, and from what I personally observed within the past year at a school, and what anyone with Twitter (#ThanksMichelleObama) can see from a quick search of actual school lunches, that Michelle Obama is 100% correct, our school lunches are crap (I'm paraphrasing).