2:57 PM
samavadey
The USDA claims it is seeking to reduce the amount of starch children receive in their daily diet intake in an effort to help fight childhood obesity. Students would be limited to one cup a of potatoes a week under the proposed guidelines. Other vegetables such as corn, lima beans, and peas would also be limited in public school cafeterias.
I can see it all coming now. Thousands of school kids reprimanded for smuggling potatoes into their schools and parents arrested for providing the potatoes to them. Mr. Potato Head will be banned from toy shelves. SWAT teams will descend upon farmers caught illegally supplying potatoes to schools. Congress will pass a law forbidding McDonald's from frying french fries (and will not allow any salt to be added).
Everyone in Washington will pat themselves on the back for a job well done--just as they did with shower heads and light bulbs. All of this will of course add to the deficit, but that's the price we have to pay to protect the American people from themselves. Meanwhile, illegal drugs will continue to stream across the Mexican border and will be freely dispensed to our school kids, so they'll be too stoned to even care.
Humans have been eating carbs like bread and potatoes since the beginning of time. Most of us stopped hunting, gathering and farming our own food a long time ago, yet obesity is a relatively new problem. It is a problem that also seems to get worse, despite all of the nutritional education we receive on a daily basis and the banning of foods that are not good for us.
Soda and candy have already been banned from most public schools, yet kids keep getting fatter. The one variable that seems to be overlooked is physical activity. Perhaps we should stop worrying so much about bumps, bruises, and skinned knees and let kids play dodge ball, climb trees, etc.
Potatoes, chocolate milk, sloppy joes, pizza, etc have been staples in school lunches long before child obesity was ever an issue. In my opinion the problem isn't the food served in the cafeterias, but the sedentary life styles children lead. It seems to me that in the last 20 years when video games, TV, Internet, etc have become more prevalent, America has gotten fatter. Perhaps more emphasis should be put on play, which not only has the benefit of exercise, but also teaches team work, as well as other life skills.
I am diametrically opposed to the Federal government forcing a certain set of food standards on the public (especially based on studies that seem to change those recommendations periodically). That said, as long as the USDA administers the taxpayer funded program of school lunches, they certainly have the right to dictate the foods they will provide.
This spat over spuds is silly. They are cheap, filling, and many love them in their various prepared incarnations. The issue isn't what kids eat, the issue is what kids do. At a time when tag, dodgeball, kickball, etc. are being banned on the playground, is it any wonder why kids lead relatively sedentary lives?
We were raised on meat and potatoes and the incidence of obesity was nowhere near what it is today. The primary difference is the level of exercise that kids get today.
Of course, if schools prohibit active sports that kids actually enjoy that means that parents actually must spend time with their children outside playing. Attempting to control the diet of children as a guard against obesity is dumb. Feed 'em and let 'em go outside and run like the dickens while kicking a ball, dodging a ball, or whatever else is good wholesome fun.
Furthermore, it is very troublesome when the government tells us what is good and what isn't; I seem to recall that eggs were good for you, then they weren't, and now they are again (I think). I'm waiting for the government to simply come out with the "eat in moderation and get plenty of exercise" mantra which is what us older people were taught back in the day.
Posted in: US
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