Michelle Obama pushing healthier kids' meals prompts torrent of abuse

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

WASHINGTON Michelle Obama is getting a new ally in her campaign to get kids to eat more fruits and vegetables.

The first lady announced Thursday that the Subway sandwich chain will spend $41 million over three years to encourage finicky young eaters to eat more food that comes out of the ground or grows on trees. The announcement was made at a Subway shop near the White House.

Im excited about these initiatives not just as a First Lady, but also as a mom, Mrs. Obama said in a statement. Subway's kids' menu makes life easier for parents, because they know that no matter what their kids order, its going to be a healthy choice.

Subway will only offer a kids' menu that mirrors federal standards for school lunches. That includes offering apples on the side and low-fat or nonfat plain milk or water as a default beverage.

"It's a natural extension of what we do," Tony Pace, Subway's chief marketing officer, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. The chain offers a line of lean-meat and vegetable sandwiches that have been certified by the American Heart Association, as well as a trio of breakfast sandwiches each with less than 200 calories.

Pace said the public is becoming more aware of nutrition and the need to make healthier food choices.

Subway's commitment follows a summit on food marketing to children that Mrs. Obama held at the White House last September. At the meeting, she urged the private sector, from food and beverage makers to media and entertainment companies, to do more to promote healthier foods to children.

A month after the gathering, Mrs. Obama announced that the nonprofit organization that produces TV's "Sesame Street" had agreed to let the produce industry use Elmo, Big Bird and its other furry characters free of charge in advertising and promotions to help encourage children to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Sam Kass, a White House chef and executive director of the first lady's "Let's Move" campaign, told The AP that Subway was "raising the bar for what a responsible, quick-service restaurant can do to help support the health of the nation."

Subway will work with the Partnership for a Healthier America, a nonprofit organization that works with the private sector to help advance the goals of "Let's Move." Mrs. Obama launched "Let's Move," a nationwide campaign against childhood obesity, in 2010, a year after becoming first lady.

Dr. Farrah Lazare, director of nutrition, pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., said in a statement to CBS News that she applauded Mrs. Obamas announcement.

Fast foods are inexpensive and easier for those in low income households to buy for their families, she said. However, most of these foods are processed. ubway Sshould be commended as the first fast food chain to introduce more 'foods that come from the ground or grow on trees' specifically for children.

But, she added families should lead the charge to get their kids to healthier.

"It is our responsibility to deter children from eating processed foods and to instill healthier eating habits when they are young,"

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/michelle-obama-subway-partner-to-fight-childhood-obesity/

Meanwhile subway's Facebook page has been inundated with abusive comments:

http://aattp.org/watching-conservatives-freak-out-over-subway-partnership-with-michelle-obama-is-priceless/

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Move along, nothing new to see here.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Congratulations Mrs. Obama for caring about the U.S.'s children!

[JohnR! 5,495]

Congratulations Mrs. Obama for caring about the U.S.'s children!

I am sure someone will find an obscure angle to this story; one involving a kenyan, a vast, huge and incommensurable brobdingnagian conspiracy to limit the freedom of choice of Murkhans, which will result in the banishment of all guns and the repeal of our constitutional rights; the final objective of which is the utter destruction of the US of A.

[Pooky 3,840]

Subway is not somewhere that needs an initiative like this.

See how Jamie Oliver fared when he tried taking healthy to school here in the USA, and then you might understand where healthy eating needs the hard sell. And forget this "pizza counts as a vegetable" nonsense.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

This Jamie Oliver? He seems rather happy with the changes made in the school lunch program but is worried about those political forces that would rather undo them. Sure it could be better yet but there's improvement and one should acknowledge that. A step at a time is how one moves from here to there.

Fri 12 Oct 2012

Story by Food Revolution Team

Federal guidelines governing what and how much kids are served at school are being phased in gradually over 3 years, with the first changes taking place this fall. These updates, the first in fifteen years and based on strong recommendations from the Institute of Medicine - based on the best-known dietary science - include more fruits, more vegetables, more whole grains, low-fat and no-fat dairy and calorie limits.

Obesity is currently costing the American economy $190 billion per year and more than 23 million kids in the US are obese. These new school meal regulations, which were consulted widely with stakeholders across the country before being established and released, are aimed to help change these statistics and reverse these worrying trends.

While there is a lot of wonderful work going on in many schools across the country and creative efforts in place to meet these new guidelines there is also some kick back, especially with regards to the new calorie limits:

• Kindergarten to fifth-grade: 550-650 calories
• Six grade to eight grade: 600-700 calories
• Ninth grade to twelfth grade (high school): 750-800

While these limits ought to be plenty for most kids, there has already been an uproar from students saying that they are left hungry from not getting enough food, and a few congressmen wanting to prohibit the USDA from implementing these calorie limits in schools. Both of these actions run a risk of overshadowing some of the great work being done by schools across the country and will only fuel people who are already against the new and updated standards before giving them a chance.

It has only been a couple of months and we need to give the standards an opportunity to work and kids the time to adjust to eating more fresh fruits and vegetables and a little less sugar, salt, and fat.

The difference now is that this is an actual limit so kids can’t take as much pizza as they want, and what they are served (which may still be pizza) comes alongside salad, fruit and low-fat milk which kids aren’t used too.

It’s also been reported that 90% of parents think it’s important that school lunches meet nutrition standards, and we know that kids are inevitably always going to kick up a fuss at change, so perhaps the best thing we can do is take some time, communicate how important the changes are and through some trial and error, let the kids settle in and get used to the new meals.

Children that are starting school now will see this as the norm and as they move through schools, these new foods and school lunches will be what they are used to and we’ll be in a much better situation than we currently are. We just have to be patient, work together and support one another remembering that the childhood obesity crisis is serious and is not going away unless we implement these sorts of standards.

National School Lunch Week

Next week is National School Lunch Week, with National Take Your Parents to School Lunch on Wednesday, October 17th. It’s the perfect time to see what changes have been made to your kids’ school lunches since the new meal regulations came in, and to see how you can support your schools in implementing the new meal regulations smoothly and efficiently. So why not head down to your school next week, check out the lunch and take our first Food Revolution toolkit to get the facts on the food served.

Don’t forget to take some pictures of the school lunches served in the cafeteria to share with us by:

• Emailing us your photos to us at foodrevolution@jamieoliver.com
• Posting your photos on our Food Revolution Community facebook page
• Tweet your pictures to us at @foodrev using the hashtags #foodrevolution and #schoolfoodsrule
• Pins your pictures on Pinterest and G+ using the hashtags #foodrevolution and #schoolfoodsrule

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I am sure someone will find an obscure angle to this story; one involving a kenyan, a vast, huge and incommensurable brobdingnagian conspiracy to limit the freedom of choice of Murkhans, which will result in the banishment of all guns and the repeal of our constitutional rights; the final objective of which is the utter destruction of the US of A.

Bottom line, those on the right have collectively caught the worst case of ODS imaginable.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I saw the Jamie Oliver thing - as I remember he encountered a lot of problems in what he was allowed to be served to the kids since the nutritional guidelines for school meals were little different to what they were in the 1950s. You couldn't serve a meal unless it contained bread, for example.

It's true that Subway shouldn't be involved in something like this - school catering has typically always been associated with big processed food manufacturers. If anything, it needs to go the other way with local food producers and fresh produce.

[decocker 7,198]

in order to do this properly, mrs obama should be looking toward the french model, imo. and not fashion model - cafeteria model.

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1969729,00.html

subway isn't all that healthy.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

It's true that Subway shouldn't be involved in something like this - school catering has typically always been associated with big processed food manufacturers. If anything, it needs to go the other way with local food producers and fresh produce.

I don't see what the issue with Subway's involvement is. Fact is that too many kids consume too many fast food meals. Fact is that the overwhelming majority of these fast food meals are calorie, fat and sodium heavy and lack nutritional balance. Fact is that the trend of consuming fast food emals isn't going to reverse any time soon. And fact is that we have a severe childhood obesity problem in this country that must be addressed sooner rather than later. If a prominent fast food provider steps forward and makes positive changes to what constitutes a kids meal, then I say: Bravo! Is that going to solve the problem? No. But it's another step in the right direction.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

It can be healthy, depending on what you put in it. But no, Subway shouldn't be trusted to manage school meals any more than Nestle should.

[decocker 7,198]

subway is fast food.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

subway is fast food.

True. It's just not Anusburger or Kentucky Fried Pigeon.

Although the meat used in Subway sandwiches is most definitely processed.

[decocker 7,198]

Although the meat used in Subway sandwiches is most definitely processed.

not only is the meat unhealthy - the bread, all that bread.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

in order to do this properly, mrs obama should be looking toward the french model, imo. and not fashion model - cafeteria model.

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1969729,00.html

subway isn't all that healthy.

The French model? In this country?