Betina Thygesen

Today fifth grade students at my children’s school are having a pizza party in celebration of the end of the CMT testing. The students will enjoy pizza delivered from Dominos, frozen yoghurt Sundaes with whipped cream and sprinkles and drinks, presumably fruit juice.

As a participant of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) the schools in our district must serve lunches that are consistent with the applicable recommendations of the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans (the Food Pyramid) which includes:

• serving a variety of foods
• promoting a diet with plenty of grain products, vegetables and fruits
• serving diet moderate in sugars and salt
• serving a diet with 30% or less of calories from fat and less than 10% of calories from saturated fat.

For class parties however, one food item can be served that doesn’t comply with the guidelines – this all sounds very reasonable and means that today’s party menu is in compliance with the rules, or does it?

Some of the teachers and our principal seem to think that it does – after all pizza is served at the school cafeteria and we all know that yoghurt, full of calcium, is good for a growing child! However, as I am sure we all know when taking a few minutes to think about it, we do not even have to read the labels, to understand that this is not the case.

Whereas the pizzas served on a regular basis at the cafeteria might be in compliance with the guidelines, those delivered by Dominos are not! For a start, their products are too high in saturated fats, they are made with refined flour, and they are not moderate in sodium. One could argue that this is the nonconforming item allowed – the kids will get good nutrition from the yoghurt …

Typically store-bought frozen yoghurt contain:

Skim milk, Sugar, Polydextrose, corn syrup, cellulose gel, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, polysorbate 80, carrageenan, yogurt cultures, artificial flavors.

Even without the canned whipped cream and sprinkles, this is clearly not in compliance with the rules set by the NSLP and certainly not how I want to ensure that my children gets adequate calcium to support healthy bones, including teeth – how about you?

I am sure that many will agree that I am a killjoy, one of those, overzealous and obsessive moms, who with the best of intentions are creating an unhealthy aura around food as mentioned in an article in the New York Times a few weeks ago (to read this article click here).

But please take a minute to think about it.

Why is it that we want to teach the children that:

1. tests are so horrible that their ending must be celebrated?
2. every celebration must include something edible? (how about extra recess, playing a fun game, no homework at the week-end etc)
3. food delivered from a fast food chain is delicious and an extra treat? (do you think it is?)
4. it is acceptable to make artificially flavored and colored “kids foods” part of the everyday diet?

It is predicted that on third of all children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes II in their lifetime. Lifestyle related illnesses are the number one killer in America. How much clearer can it get that the personal responsibility for great health is 100%?

Many teachers in elementary schools drink sodas and eat candy from their personal candy jar during class. Some children are rewarded with candy for good behavior; the same children are disciplined by having time taken off recess. This to me makes very little sense. In a conversation with our principal, I was told that there aren’t any rules that can prevent the teachers from choosing what to eat and drink in the classroom. I think this is wrong.

From a very early age, we let our children spend more than half of their day at school, leaving a lot of responsibility for learning sensible life skills up to qualified teachers. These teachers work in a place where rules for nutritional values have been set to make sure that children get adequate nutrition for the development of good health and normal growth. Sodas are on the “bad food” list for a reason as they are either very high in sugar or high in artificial sweeteners, both addictive and not in compliance with the rules mentioned above.

With pizza and sundae parties, sodas and candy in the class rooms it is very difficult for us as parents to encourage, teach, and reinforce healthy eating habits. I wish the schools would consider this as important a subject as they do math, science and English even though it is not part of the CMT testing.