Despite some positive steps toward creating healthier subsidized school lunches, a loophole in U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations helped to get pizza classified as a serving of vegetables earlier this year. In the same spirit that made ketchup a vegetable for school lunches back in the 1980s, apparently a schmeer of tomato paste does the trick this time around.
Public outcry over “pink slime” has borne results. This ground-beef filler made from cow connective tissue and low-grade meat scraps that is treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill E. coli, is found in 70% of supermarket ground beef and is served to kids in the National School Lunch Program. In late March the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that beginning in 2013 it will offer school districts a choice of beef with or without the filler. Which would you vote for?
Amid all of these potential inflammatory agents to kids’ bodies, it may be prudent to incorporate a serving or two of gold kiwifruit for balance. New Zealand researchers recently reported in the British Journal of Nutrition that subjects who ate four gold kiwifruit daily reported less-severe cold symptoms than subjects who ate two bananas per day.
Sandy Todd Webster
For 22 years, Sandy Todd Webster was the chief architect of IDEA's content program - including the award-winning IDEA FITNESS JOURNAL and IDEA FOOD & NUTRITION TIPS - the industry's leading resources for fitness, wellness and nutrition professionals worldwide. She created, launched and nurtured these brands and many others during her productive and purposeful IDEA tenure. Sandy is a Rouxbe-certified professional plant-based cook and a Precision Nutrition Level 1 Coach who is pursuing a Master's degree in Sustainable Food Systems through The Culinary Institute of America (expected August 2024). She plans to combine these passions with her content expertise to continue inspiring others to make the world a more just, healthy and regenerative place.
