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Report
offers roadmap to better school meals
October 28, 2009
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
Our nation’s school breakfasts
and lunches will graduate to a higher level of quality if
government officials act on recommendations issued last week
by the Institute of Medicine.
The IOM report was drafted at the request of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, the agency that administers the national school
lunch and breakfast programs. The report recommends substantial
changes that build on improvements made in the mid-1990s when
legislation was passed requiring school meals to comply with
the USDA’s own Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Since then, many schools have made progress in cutting the
sodium, saturated fat and cholesterol in meals. Improvements
have been inconsistent across the nation’s schools,
however.
If the USDA adopts the IOM recommendations and integrates
them into school meals regulations, the nutritional quality
of school meals should improve, helping to ensure that the
meals kids eat at school are good models for lifelong eating
habits.
Highlights of the recommendations include:
* Reducing sodium to less than half the amount currently served.
The report suggests this could be accomplished gradually over
a ten-year period, allowing food preparers to adapt recipes
over time.
People are less likely to notice small, incremental decreases
in the sodium content of foods in contrast to big changes
that happen more quickly.
* Menus should focus on the amounts and types of whole foods
served rather than on nutrient targets. In other words, super-fortified
donuts shouldn’t be used to meet nutritional goals.
Instead, schools should increase the portion sizes and varieties
of fruits and vegetables served, including fewer potatoes
and starchy vegetables and more leafy greens, orange vegetables
and legumes. Schools should serve less fruit juice and more
whole fruits.
Refined grains should be replaced by whole grains in at least
half the grain products served.
* Whole milk and 2 percent milk should be replaced with 1
percent or skim milk. This will cut the saturated fat content
of school meals.
In addition, schools should get trans fat to minimal amounts.
The recommendations include some practical considerations
to simplify menu planning, as well as more nutrition education
for students and technical assistance to support school food
service personnel.
The federal government will also need to increase the reimbursement
rates for school meals, since higher amounts of fruits, vegetables
and whole grains will raise the cost of meals. That’s
where Congress will have to come through with more funding
to help make the suggested changes a reality.
The full IOM report is available online at http://www.iom.edu/en/Reports/2009/School-Meals-Building-Blocks-for-Healthy-Children.aspx.
It will no doubt take some time for the USDA to integrate
the IOM recommendations into the nation’s school meals.
The rest of us don’t have to wait, however.
Take the IOM’s lead and look for ways to make the same
recommended changes in the meals you serve in your own home.
Model as close to an ideal diet as you can.
Help your children and others you love establish health-supporting
eating habits they’ll carry with them all their long
lives.
Suzanne
Havala Hobbs is a licensed, registered dietitian and clinical
associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and
Management and the Department of Nutrition in the UNC Gillings
School of Global Public Health. Send questions and comments
to suzanne@onthetable.net.
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