Today I was reading through the Thursday, January 13 issue of USA Today's newspaper and came across an article I found incredibly interesting and very exciting titled "A Big Step Toward Healthier School Food" (pg 3D). This article informs us of a new governmental move to improve the quality of school cafeteria foods. The government is calling for dramatic changes in school meals; "including limiting French fries, sodium and calories", while offering kids "more fruits and vegetables".
This proposed rule, released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is going to raise the nutrition standards for school meals for the first time in 15 years! According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, "This is the first major improvement in the standards that we've seen in a generation, and it reflects the seriousness of the issue of obesity." Today, about a third of children are obese or overweight, each pound increasing that child's risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and other health issues.
According to Nanci Hellmich (writer of the article), "kids consume about 30-50% of their daily calories while at school." This new regimen will help to better the health of over 32 million children who eat lunches at school and almost 11 million who eat breakfast at school.
Since kids learn by doing and seeing, serving them a healthy meal will help add to their education and make a big difference in teaching them good eating habits to last them the rest of their lifetime.
In order to meet these standards, schools are going to have to stretch their food-service dollars and make cuts in other areas. BUT it will be for the benefit of the consumer: the kids. Schools will receive $2.72 from the government for every child on the free-lunch program. When this regulation is final (after April 13th), schools will be required to meet the standers to get government reimbursements for meals. Until then, the proposal is open for public comments until April 13th at regulations.gov.
While this will be yet another stressor on schools in terms of budget, I do think it is well worth the dollars to teach kids how to better take care of themselves and to help them along the way.
Today's Workout: Today I was completely sick so I did not go out and do an exercise. If you are ever sick, the best thing you can possibly do is to get as much rest as possible. Wake up to do the necessities, but otherwise, just nap your day away.
Today's Food Tip: If you're ever feeling under the weather, a good bowl of hot soup can make you feel a lot better. My favorite is chicken noodle soup! Make up some homemade soup and make sure it's got some good veggies in it. Hopefully it will soothe all the aches and warm you up.
Today's Relaxation Activity: Today I spend the majority of the day sleeping. However, if you are not feeling well, another thing I like to do is to rent a feel-good movie, preferably a cartoon. Watch this to help you raise your spirits and get you smiling. (I rented "Despicable Me")
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