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Study: School lunches need to go on a diet
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The Institute of Medicine (www.iom.edu) has just completed a study of the nation's school lunches and found that many are too high in calories.
The report, released Monday, recommends changes to the now 14-year old school lunch standards. Recommendations include offering children two to five servings of fruit, one to two servings of vegetables, and nine to 13 grams of grains per lunch. The report also recommended a calorie maximum of between 650 and 850 per lunch.
With typical school lunches often consisting of pizza, fried food, chips, burgers, and dessert, parents aren't surprised. Childhood obesity is on the rise and a good portion of a child's caloric intake can be consumed at lunch, and oftentimes it isn't even nutritious.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the Obama administration would review the report as it writes new rules for school meals. The federal government's prescribed dietary guidelines, which serve as the basis for the Food Pyramid, call for lots of fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains.
"Today, overweight children outnumber undernourished children, and childhood obesity is often referred to as an epidemic in both the medical and community settings," wrote Virginia Stallings, who chaired the Washington, D.C.-based institute's report committee.
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