This man is a lunatic. It is so plain to see that his entire tenure as president is driven by his sick envy of Barack Obama. Trump cannot stand how brilliant, disciplined, and lets be honest - handsome - Barack was, and still is.
This man makes me sick to my stomach.
4
There is something perverse about our first morbidly obese president, a president who demands fitness from his wife, daughters and employees eliminating choices for a healthier lifestyle.
3
Perfect example of 'cutting the nose to spite the face' ...poor Trump supporters cheering this on as their fat kids end up having to sign up for local, state or federal assistance for diabetes care.
2
If we want America’s children to do better in school then we the people must accept the proof that nutritious lunches improve learning. On the other hand if the goal is to leave some children behind then just feed them potato chip and chocolate sandwiches washed down with a sugary soda.
A Brookings Institute study on school lunches concluded:
“The value of providing healthier public school lunches is true even without accounting for the potential short- and long-term health benefits, such as a reduction in childhood obesity and the development of healthier lifelong eating habits. Our results cast doubt on the wisdom of the recently announced proposal by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to roll back some of the school lunch health requirements implemented as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.”
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/05/03/how-the-quality-of-school-lunch-affects-students-academic-performance/
1
what a petty, petty man he is.
37
Trump's sick obsession with the Obamas continues...
34
By trying to reverse everything good and decent enacted by the Obama administration, this mafia gang running the country shows us how vile and indecent and immoral characters they are.
It's not just a matter of going high when they go low--we have to make sure they go the heck away in November.
33
I remember the outcry from conservatives, “How dare Michelle Obama tell us what to feed our children!” But I guess it’s ok for Trump to feed garbage to the children of those very same parents.
30
All you have to do is look at Trump`s regular "fast food diet" to understand if it`s good for him, got to be good for the school kids too...
10
A continuation of Trump’s War on Children.
18
What do they serve for school lunches at Andover, Exeter, St. Paul's and Choate?
16
Bring your own lunch!
4
Just another example of the Trump obsession with Obama’s legacy.
13
Does this man's vindictive hatred of all things Obama know no bounds? Can anyone ever reverse the damage he has done to the environment, health care, social justice, racial equality, immigration, foreign policy, national security, and now, nutrition for kids? He is beyond contempt.
16
Do we even have a First Lady now? Where is she? What does she do?
21
What a petty man he is and to boot cares nothing about nutrition
7
"Mrs. Obama pressed to update federal nutrition standards and to bring healthier foods to schools."
Trump: Hamberders and fries, yeah!
Melania: Be best!
Our kids will have the bigliest bay windows in the world. Too bad that isn't an Olympic event.
6
let them eat cake....
4
This guy who has to flush 15 times thinks he can provide better guidance on nutrition?
I don't think so.
8
Uh-oh. People are starting to think en masse about getting me out. Quick: what would stir up chaos and distract the libs?
5
An Obama created the guidelines. Therefore they must be trashed. Big Macs for everybody! The Presidential Diet!
6
Trump is methodically destroying our country from within. Now he is working to destroy children’s health by making sure that they are consuming a diet like his which has resulted in a fat, bloated mentally challenged person running our country. That is not the future we want for our children.
12
Healthy eating begins at home. Exclude all the evil foods from EBT card spending. Oh, right. That's "mean-spirited."
2
Trump's new election slogan, "Let make America fat again".
11
Anyone know the status of Michelle Obama's vegetable garden? Last I heard, the White House kitchen was still making use of its crops, but I expect any day it could be the latest victim of DJT's fateful whims and fancies.
8
Give 'em more hamberders! 45 is systematically undoing everything the Obama administration put in place. Why? Because he can. So there. It is pure impudence. A less healthy diet>obesity>díabetes>insulin dependence, and the high cost of insulin is way out of reach for some>death. So, 45, with your new school food rollbacks, your climate denial, your EPA rollbacks, your continual stirring the middle East pot; the USA is doomed.
I will do my best to vote you and your administration out this year.
10
This article and thousands of others over the past four years makes it immensely clear that the Presidency is pretty important after all. That one election every four years is no time to waver, no time to be lazy, and certainly no time to get on a high horse. Let's make sure to vote properly this time - choose the best candidate with an actual chance to win. No third parties - no staying home. Red or Blue - this is your only choice.
6
What a travesty that nutrition in our schools as well as anywhere else in our country is about politics and money. Trump can only think about what Obama did and try to negate it and apparently Sonny Purdue can't think at all. Apparently they love bid ag/big food who write big checks to PACs.
There is a reason that the American people have declining health with rampant increases in chronic illnesses and obesity - which has a direct correlation to poor nutrition. Most Americans eat highly processed food that contain toxins, antibiotics and hormones. Americans eat an exorbitant amount of debilitating sugar and simple carbohydrates.
And our federal government subsidizes this process.
Contrary to their historical actions, our Congress should be doing everything possible to enhance the physical and mental health of our citizens by inventing nutritious food, protecting us from poor food, drugs and toxic environment while promoting/incenting excellent health. If we can get our Congress to take this kind of progressive/common sensical thinking, "healthcare" costs would decline rapidly, we would all feel better, make better decisions, and our children would be better students - healthy bodies and clear minds do EVERYTHING better!
The LAST thing anyone would do, if they cared about our citizens, is do anything to decrease nutritional food to any of our citizens, but especially our children.
By the way, if you want a nutritious meal, don't go to a hospital or a "healthcare" facility.
2
Kids will try new things, including vegetables, if they're available. The typical lunch offerings of hamburgers with ketchup, french fries, hotdogs in white bread buns, pizza, chicken nuggets, hamburger helper, macaroni and cheese, tacos with cheese and hamburger in orange sauce, are all popular with American children. Children who get breakfast school can additionally get french toast sticks with fake maple syrup, sugar coated cereal, or mini danish with chocolate milk. It is true that children like these foods. They are salty, sweet, bready, filling, fattening, cheap, defrosted, and fast. It's no mystery why children eating these foods become obese. Once you're fat as a child, you can count on struggling with your weight for the rest of your life.You have a much higher likelihood of getting cancer, diabetes, heart disease, preeclampsia when pregnant, and of course, early death. If you are the child of a poor or overworked parent, or if you live in a neighborhood known as a "food desert", you may rarely encounter any vegetables. But Trump doesn't care. He despises the poor, and is beholden to corporations. He is openly corrupt across policy decisions. To improve the health of Americans and the climate, get rid of Republicans.
10
Good! Tons of this food is wasted every year in our schools and the districts are forced to pay for it. The kids are not eating it. Have you all actually SEEN what the Obama school menu is about, how much for a serving and actually tasted it? Go to school and see for yourself. Three major school districts in our county and they all are saying the same thing. Being forced to serve the cardboard to students is so gross. More and more students are packing lunches than ever before and eating a lot better.
The brookings institution studied the impact of healthier school lunches. They did not impact obesity rates yet but learning improved. Isn’t this the main reason for schools - to teach children who are more able to learn.
“increasing the nutritional quality of school meals appears to be a promising, cost-effective way to improve student learning. The value of providing healthier public school lunches is true even without accounting for the potential short- and long-term health benefits, such as a reduction in childhood obesity and the development of healthier lifelong eating habits. Our results cast doubt on the wisdom of the recently announced proposal by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to roll back some of the school lunch health requirements implemented as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.”
Trump is proof positive that a diet of hamberders might make you president but not one who reads or learns.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/05/03/how-the-quality-of-school-lunch-affects-students-academic-performance/
7
"“We listened and now we’re getting to work.” Sonny Perdue, another excuse maker for the GOP. Do Trump voters really think he is on their side? Or, should we say, their children's side?
3
On her BIRTHDAY??? This ranks up (down) there with is like firing Andy McCabe the day before his pension vested. The only word for it, and the only purpose of Trump's doing so, is cruelty.
11
It seems that the goal of the Heritage Foundation, and others who supply the President with his "To-Do" list, have, as one of their primary intentions, the ultimate demise (and, let's face it, the deaths) of those people they consider to be "of no use to society."
It works like this: make these undesirables sick by making sure they can only afford to eat food that provides little or no nutrition (and oh, yes, take away food stamps, too); then, when they get ill, take away health care, by making it unaffordable, so, if they don't die outright, they'll turn to drugs and/or crime to survive, both physically and emotionally.
Also, make sure they can't afford any kind of higher education, and (while we're at it) make high schools into armed camps where they spend their time in fear of being shot by a disaffected fellow student.
It's all part of the plan of the 1% and their cult hero. Yep, making America great again.
5
Knowing how trump is all about taking revenge and getting back at anyone who is not his loyal toady, you can be 100% sure that he’s been planning this little birthday surprise for Mrs Obama for the past year. This man has no decency.
6
Well, of course he rolled back her plan. He must have an entire department that only looks at ways to change President and Mrs. Obama's laws and guidelines. Who are these people that support Trump? Where are their brains and where is their common sense and compassion?
4
When he is no longer president, we will put everything back to the way it was before.
6
The anti-nanny-State libertarians love to preach personal responsibility and the freedom to choose. They hate that their tax dollars are misspent by nameless, faceless , confiscatory bureaucrats. They provide perfect cover in protecting the interests of corporations ever eager for more and more profits.
They are no different than 17th century members of the English upper classes blaming the poor for their laziness and clapping them into debtor's prisons and arresting people who were unemployed.
Today's punctilious prigs would celebrate our "freedom" to choose --except that,in the end, we aren't going to turn away a parent whose kid is in a diabetic coma from the emergency room. Sorry--those are my tax dollars used to fund the treatment of the obese and the diabetic. Short of having the police tase people who show up at emergency rooms for having "chosen" diabetes, or the Swiftian solution for the sufferers of famine--adults choose to look for other solutions. Eventually, even the English got a clue.
If we were left alone by the Republicans to educate our school children and feed them properly it would take about 12 years to cycle through this generation of obese, sugar addicted kids until kids grew up without even giving a thought to dining on poison anymore than they would to chewing tobacco or using steroids.
1
Can anybody except Mr Trump remember anything positive, generous or encouraging ever been objectively published about him? It’s always knock,knock, knock. He is incapable of seeing the good in anybody unless it benefits his own selfish needs. Even his slogan "make America great again" is a blatant falsehood and a mockery of reality
4
Evil as a person. Point me to a moment of compassion from the Donald. I’ll wait. Judgement day will be quite a reckoning for him.
5
It seems that Trump really wants to destroy everything sensible when it originates in science and/or the Obamas, and that his main goal is to support those who financially profit. Since he is not a smart man, he probably thinks hamberders are the perfect food for children. Poor USA. I hope this nightmare is over soon.
3
I laughed when I read the headline. On her birthday...of course he did. What a baby.
3
Well, really now....since, despite all efforts, we've only got 1 in 5 kids obese, and only 1 in 3 headed for diabetes, I'd say we have room to improve! Come on! In the true spirit of MAGA, let's ramp up the taters and sweets! Come on! I know we can reach 5 out of 5 for obesity and 3 out of 3 for diabetes! We just have to try a little harder!
4
This continual and childish need to erase the work the Obama’s did will backfire when he’s out of office and his name, as well as his administration and all their mistakes, will be associated with the word buffoon.
4
This is just one more petty undoing of the Obama legacy. It should embarrass the nation but we are so used to pettiness that nothing could move us anymore.
1
Remember when Reagan declared that ketchup is a vegetable?
4
Another typical Trump maneuver.
He will face the repercussions of it down the road in a way the will catch him blind.
1
We cannot have our kids on the same diet as the super rich industrialist foreign kids whose families own most of America .Because that would not be fair for the rich kids. You know because well fed American kids like their Grand fathers help build the world and all its inventions !
What do you/we expect from someone who is found repeatedly in the sub-basement of ethics, morals and decency? We are all shamed if he keeps his job.
3
Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary is probably thinking - lets make the kids eat more fried chicken, it will be great for business. One more Obama era rule reversed by our cruel, disdainful, vengeful President and his loyal appointees.
2
Looks like a very good healthy lunch at St. Andrews Episcopal School in Potomac, MD.
Come Jan 22, I'm wondering if Barron Trump will prefer the Crisp House-Roasted Turkey Cubano or the Vegetarian Southwest Black Bean Wrap? Maybe he'll just go for Build-Your-Own Garden Salad. Bon appetit!
5
Why does the present POTUSA have such distain for the Obama's.
What's he afraid of? Could it be he knows he will never be a popular person or President?
Obama, Clinton and Bush are old news,
As far as the stock market is concerned it would be great even if "Mutt and Jeff" were President.
1
Once again we have to simply ask - What is wrong with this man?
2
They have these policies in some NZ schools and businesses also donate food. It hasn't affected our governments surplus. Trump is penny wise and pound foolish. There is a great article in this link and maybe you can ask your readers the same question.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118289697/where-should-the-government-spend-our-pot-of-gold-in-2020
2
I am convinced that Donald Trump and his republican stooges are pure evil. How anyone can vote, support and praise him baffles me. How terribly sad for our country.
3
Make America great again with more meat, more cheese, more oil, more gas.
1
Just when you thought it wasn’t possible for Americans to get any fatter.
3
Big Farm Business wants to dump more of its hormone-laden chicken and beef into our children at a high cost to the school systems that must pay for that swill under government regulation and contracts.
If anything the incompetent administration of Trump has done that smacks of swampy crony capitalism, it's this issue.
Why should our children suffer a lifetime of bad health through the ingestion of transfats and poor quality food they are fed during their school years for the simple reason of supporting corrupt Agri-Business? It is completely contrary to good sense, sound governance, and any notion of progress to improve the lives of people in this country.
The rationales offered by government administrators are moronic. Big Farm Business wants to dump more of its hormone-laden chicken and beef into our children at a high cost to the school systems that must pay for that swill under government regulation and contracts.
If anything the incompetent administration of Trump has done that smacks of swampy crony capitalism, it's this issue.
Why should our children suffer a lifetime of bad health through the ingestion of transfats and poor quality food they are fed during their school years for the simple reason of supporting corrupt Agri-Business? It is completely contrary to good sense, sound governance, and any notion of progress to improve the lives of people in this country.
The rationales offered by government administrators are moronic.
2
Is there no end to the calculated hate Trump unleashes on this fine land?
3
President Donald J Trump famously skips breakfast, and eats 2 Big Macs for dinner along with large fries, ice cream, and more ice cream. In his banal, vindictive and greedy mind, he thus accomplishes three goals with this policy revision: He continues desecrating the best initiatives of the Obama administration; he yields to special big money interests; and he promotes his own self-destructive and ignorant dietary habits.
3
As I recall, many kids would not eat the so-called "healthy" Obama food.
1
This is a proposed rule. Those who oppose it should comment on it at the Dept. of Agriculture website or wherever comments are permitted. It's unfortunate that the author did not include that link in the article, but here it is, I think: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FNS-2019-0056-0001
1
Remember, the Republicans are the ones who gave us Ketchup as a vegetable.
3
Quick, tell Trump that Obama refused to give every household in the US $100,000.
6
Perfectly understandable, coming from an administration lead by a President who serves fast food at official events at the White House.
2
When statues are raised to praise and celebrate the Obama's there will be none for the ogre that followed 44 . . . and that is how it should be
Of course, Trump would love nothing better than to give students fast food for lunch. Well, maybe unless it is to undo anything the Obamas did?
3
It is clear this administration hates regulations whether they are about protecting the environment or our health. Everything Obama must go so Donald will feel good about himself.
I love how the Republicans hate big government except when controlling my womb.
3
Snippet from this article:
"A spokeswoman for the department said that it had not intended to roll out the proposed rule on Mrs. Obama’s birthday, although some Democratic aides on Capitol Hill had their doubts." (end snippet)
Yeah, right. This is just one more attempt to overturn, rescind and cancel every aspect of the Obama legacy. Trump's visceral hatred for the black president, his family and his
accomplishments is irrational and obsessive.
That hate is the glue that binds Trump's followers together. The white backlash to the black POTUS is showing no signs of abating.
3
Who cares that it is her birthday? What does that have to do with anything?
Try to focus on the big picture.
1
It has become apparent that the only reason why Trump does anything he does is because he is jealous of President Obama and his lovely, smart wife. Whatever Obama had put in place, Trump wants to now destroy. Trump -- who I will never call "President" is such an insecure little boy.
3
This is sickening. The health of our children doesn’t matter to Trump and his supporters. Subsidizing a food industry making us sick and obese for profit? That’s what counts. Erasing the Obama legacy, no matter what the harm? That is their priority.
1
The Trump administration will now be contributing to creating more obese children, especially amongst the poor, than before. Because he eats so much junk food himself, he probably sees nothing wrong with it. And, of course, he has to pander to BigAg and others like them. Shameful.
1
Just because Trump prefers to eat garbage junk fast food does not mean that our kids should follow suit. He is the lowest bar, and out kids need real food all the time. More cruelty and child abuse from this illegitimate Trump administration that cares nothing for kids.
1
As a parent with a child in public school (and have personally seen the lunches), I have to agree with Trump on this one. No kid likes the lunches. None. I pack a lunch for my child and so do many other parents (who can). Otherwise they go hungry. Any parent knows that kids will not just eat anything because they’re famished. They just get crabby and it’s hard to learn when you’re crabby. I understand the nutritional benefits of having fresh fruits and vegetables, but especially for the younger crowd, it is difficult to make it appealing. It’s lunch, the most important thing is calories. They barely have any time to eat as is. Provide bananas and apples, for those who want it (not many). Hamburgers and French fries are fine. Pizza is great. Full milk. Make water readily available. Try to get better quality meat and organic bread. Always offer plain pasta. Cookies for dessert.
91
@NYC
"No kid likes the lunches"? Is this based on a survey, or research? Maybe just hyperbole.
261
@NYC "It’s lunch, the most important thing is calories."
Have you looked at child obesity rates in this country lately? Have you looked at the decrease in average age of onset of diabetes, high blood pressure? I'm no MD, but those numbers suggest the "calories are the most important thing" type of thinking is very wrong.
317
@NYC , As a parent, this is the first time I have heard or read a parent say pizza is great for school lunch. My experience as a parent has always been, they will eat anything you give them if they are famished so give them nutritious food, teach them the health benefits of healthy diet. Most kids play sports in school and you will hear from the coaches junk food will make than lethargic and bloated. Moderation is the key. In a country where most children go hungry during school breaks return to school only to be fed junk food no wonder the obesity rate and type 2 diabetes among children is on the rise in the country.
302
As Michelle Obama says “When they go low, we go high!”
Donald Trump will never affect Michelle Obama. She did her job, she made things better for kids and the country. She continues to work to enlighten and heighten people’s lives.
She can’t help it the only way Donald Trump goes is low. That is his own doing.
Happy Birthday, Michelle! And by the way, your book was indeed Beloved! Good for you.
349
@MIMA I agree with you Having the Obama's in Office were the best years they where for the people and Trump just want a check.
13
@MIMA I look forward to the day when all these great programs will be reborn and even higher levels of nutrition will be instituted. That day will come sooner or later when all the cruel policies of Trump will be consigned to the dust bin of history.
25
@MIMA
What ever Trump accomplishes (such as being impeached), he will never life up to the Obama's legacy.
He is incapable of it because of his background.
13
What kind of government sets out policy to make school lunch more UNHEALTHY? Every time I open up the news there's a new low for the Trump administration....Our kids will suffer for the political swipe at Michelle Obama.
321
@Pal
Ronald Regan made ketchup a vegetable. It's always war on the poor for Republicans.
15
@Pal What kind of government? A government that is at the service of industry. Any industry. This is the legacy of Citizens United.....and an obese president who sees nothing wrong with an obese population deprived of health care.
17
@Pal That is not what's happening; not what's proposed.
Let's be clear on this:
The school lunch changes did not come about because...
- Parents complained (even if they did complain)
- Kids doing sit-ins
- Teachers leading a letter-writing campaign
- Other tax-paying citizens complaining
No, it came about because BIG BUSINESS (which often pays $0 in taxes) complained.
I think it's well and good to take a balanced approach to regulations, hearing both sides - and that includes citizens and business. But that's not what this is about - at all.
This is yet another case of the know-nothing, anti-science (and yes, I think that is a safe characterization) Trump administration doing whatever big business wants - at the expense of the rest of us.
It's disgusting, it's greedy, and it's destructive.
So next time you go to the polls, consider who this administration is looking out for. If you're not in the 1% or the top 1% of the top 1%, if you're not a big business that pays $0 in taxes, I can assure you that they are not looking out for you.
2233
@Steve I thought this decision came about because Trump can't stand that the Obamas were productive, respectful of the public offices they held and liked.
254
@Steve Yes, the Hamiltonian approach. Why should they look out for you when the monied elites advance the country so much further? Because it would cost them elections? Isn't that cynical then?
25
Spot on!
38
Why do we express surprise at anything this administration does? The health of our planet and our children means nothing to the Republicans. I would have believed that there would be voices of dissent in the party for all that ugliness that has transpired but sadlyI was wrong.
582
Anything done by the Obamas is immediately dismissed by the Trump crowd as wrong. But let's consider the following:
1. The United States has an enormous problem with obesity and with secondary problems, such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension, which is also associated with high sodium intake.
2.Schools are supposed to be sites of education, which includes how to have a healthier and longer life.
3. High sodium, high saturated fat and high carbohydrate diets are associated with more coronary heart disease and strokes. These are bad not only for the individual, but increase the costs of Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance premiums.
If we are to perpetuate obesity and ignorance about how to avoid health problems by diet and exercise, the Trump approach is right on target, Personally I prefer good health for myself and all people, and education at an early age is a good place to start. We can teach about the diseases we are trying to avoid and how we do our best to have a healthy lifestyle. Right on , Michelle Obama, and leave the greasy sugary stuff to Mr. Trump.
25
@Sarah. In 45’s own words, his is a “pro-life administration.” Go figure.
15
@Sarah
Regarding the near unanimous lack of dissent from elected Republicans: Imagine you woke up one November to discover that hoodwinked and frustrated voters had installed Trump as the final fruit of the Reagan Revolution. You might assume a fetal crouch, too.
Monday will be the 19th anniversary of The Gipper’s famous reading of a eulogy for the upward trajectory of average Americans’ lives. Government, he said, is the problem. To each his own. Not much we can do for each except pull our own weight.
Keep the Medicaid for the poor and sick. Call off the experts. To each his own facts. Turn up the fryolator, and please pass the ketchup. It’s my favorite fruit.
5
Ahhh... so now the feeding of our children has been abdicated to the state we will complain about how the state choose to feed the masses.... how about packing your child's lunch instead of having the state responsible for the feeding of your child (according to the masses nutritional mandates).
115
@Mystery Lits In my school district, every child is given breakfast and an afternoon snack, in addition to whatever arrangements were made for lunch. Breakfast last week was pop tarts one day. Cinnamon toast, muffins.. the food is not very healthy, and it is frustrating.
My point is: even though we pack lunch, the kids constantly encounter junk food at school. I think you are mistaken about how things work. Parents can't just 'opt out' of school food. (And this is even more true for young kids, where it is unreasonable to tell them not to eat the available muffins when all their friends are setting down, during dedicated class time, to have breakfast.)
70
@Mystery Lits
I wonder how that comment got a Times Pick.
No, the "feeding of our children" hasn't been "abdicated".
For some students, school is the only place they can land a reliable, healthy meal. That is the truth, and leaving them behind will not change it. Where is the reason in taking away from already underwhelming cafeteria food? Don't we teach kids to eat their veggies?
Why is the government openly TRYING to betray its youth?
168
@Mystery Lits We’ve been doing this forever. Trump is public health enemy #1.
80
The school lunches were terrible. My child had whole wheat pizza (sodium sauce), glazed in sugar carb carrots, and a fruit cup of honeydew, grapes and cantaloupe...she'd eat the cheese and throw the rest away. The alternative was peanutbutter and jelly, she hates jelly (which is sugar) so there went that. She had bowl problems and stayed away from white and wheat breads, and ate oatmeal bread which wasn't offered. Then whole wheat pasta with sauce (more carbs and sodium), but wouldn't eat it because wheat pasta has a texture...and as a child with ASD, texture was big. It had a side of whole wheat roll (more starches and carbs on an already carb loaded plate), with a side of butter drenched green beans, and a slightly warm yogurt. For those complaining, it is ridiculous to assume the lunches were healthy because of a fruit cup and some vegetables. It's even more presumptuous to assume everyone will eat that, what about the dietary restrictions of some kiddos? What about the kiddos like mine with ASD that are incredibly aware of texture? The free lunch program wasn't free for us! I'd end up sending her with something healthy she could actually eat, 2 slices of cheese, a small container of tuna, pineapple and strawberries, and a Graham cracker dessert, or we'd substitute for tomato and cucumber slices. It's incredible the amount of people commenting that hear the healthy lunches, but don't see it in action, and want to make assumptions.
1
This was a flawed program with good intentions.
Limiting calories and adding whole grains while reducing saturated fats will only add to the obesity epidemic. Credible and recent studies prove that saturated fats are a healthy part of our diet and whole grains will only spike insulin levels, which is a direct contributor to childhood and adult obesity alike.
The national obesity epidemic only started with the introduction of low fat, high whole grains introduced in 1977. 3 meal plus 3 snack guidelines will only make our kids fatter. Until the practical consequences of the low fat high carb diet is realized, the country will only get fatter. Michelle Obama had great intentions but has the obesity rate decreased since her programs were enacted?
1
Ok see I'm a mixed review on this. I have been to my child's school for lunch and I can tell you a lot of it goes to waste not based on what it is per ssy but on how limited the time is they have. These kids want to play for the younger group and they know they have more time to play the faster they eat. I have watched my child destroy the tacos at school or the chicken,pizza or things she does like but want to take packed lunch when they serve something she doesn't. I personally feel a good chunk of the waste has always been from the taste and texture or what's in it. Those with serious food allergies cant eat everything (speaking from personal experience here) and when things change last minute and the only offering is something you cant eat your stuck. My school started having a second option when I was in high school that anyone could pick (salad bar) made days alot better and with having at least one kid allergic to dairy and another who was vegetarian they offered the meat and cheese on the side I steadvof premixed in. If more school had a second option that was also healthy or gave more than one veg or fruit option I think we'd see less waste.
Also if they allowed the kids more time to eat and play it would go better to for younger kids as most are so tired of being stuck in classes going through everything towards testing setups it makes what little recess they get more valuable.
1
As an educator for 16 years I saw the amount of food being wasted... our school took it so far they removed the chicken and beef options as well as things like mozzarella sticks. These poor kids were literally served beans meals 3-4 days a week and 3-4 days a week entire trays were being thrown out and children were leaving lunch hungry. There has to be a happy medium. Right now it has not be found unfortunately
It is clear, Republicans are profit motivated and Democrats are health motivated. Republicans are most concerned for themselves and Democrats are more concerned for others.
2
Meanwhile back at the ranch in the US the EPA is being gutted (already air quality is plummeting), the CFPB is being dismantled, Dodd–Frank is being compromised, the deficit is going through the roof, the wholesale sell off of huge swaths of public lands, world free trade seriously assailed and markets for farm produce gutted, the justice department is being revamped with a slew of GOP biased judicial appointees, and all while the nation’s intelligence agencies and the FBI are being disemboweled.
I remember being served meatloaf with mashed potatoes or spaghetti and meatballs fir lunch in elementary school in the 60s. Hot, filling and nutritious food. What happened.
At first blush, this made me angry at the potential evil that was intended. Then i realized kids do not eat what they do not want when the grown up is not watching!
Instead of requiring more or less veg and fruits, think of reauiring the meat used to be hormone free and fat at less than 20%. Less salt and sugar in the meals served. Use whole grains.
I know a kid whose snack consists of milano cookies and brownies every other day, packed by a loving relative. And another kid who eats chocolate muffin tooped with extra nutella.
Go figure.
1
I work at a school and what I see served is mostly unhealthy processed food ("chicken" nuggets, dry burgers, boiled string beans, etc). I suspect a huge chunk of the budget goes into the tons of plastic containers everything is served in. This "food" is all precooked or comes from a can and is woefully inadequate in terms of quality and quantity, especially considering how well students in other developed countries eat. It's yet another example of American exceptionalism.
2
RIDICULOUS to not require the highest standards of nutrition in school lunches to children in their formative years, when healthy eating habits are formed. It is a critical step in long term well-being and reducing rising health-care costs in this country due in large part to unhealthy diets.
1
What is the basis for the statement that “one in three ... are on track to have diabetes” ? I was shocked and went to get more information. According to the American Diabetes Association approximately 0.24% of Americans under 20 are estimated to have diagnosed diabetes.
1
Trump does not care about the children, their nutrition or the families. His main focus from day one has been overturning all the good the Obama's accomplished in office. Ego reigns supreme.
1
“Clearly, no one wants kids to be served unhealthy foods,” he added, but if nutrition requirements lead to children throwing away the food offered, the standards are pointless.”
What kind of logic is this?
If children don’t want to study, what not stop teaching them?
1
Nutritious food costs more than empty calories. It's a fact. And it's an investment into the brains and bodies of young children. Our (overweight and out of shape) president has shown that he doesn't care about giving our children the best chance in life.
1
I'm trying to follow Michelle Obama's advice that we should go high when they go low. However, that notorious picture of Trump playing tennis looms LARGE in my mind.
3
I have spent much of the past 20 years teaching in elementary schools, often eating
lunch with my kids. The school lunch program
is controlled by big food industry players. Your children are offered horrible piles of low quality cheese covered pasta and bread. Educate yourself and go have lunch with your kids at school. Review the monthly menu that is sent home. Don’t pretend you can’t imagine why
20% of kids are now obese.
3
Whenever Trump is in trouble, he goes after poor children since they are the weakest and most vulnerable members of society and they can't fight back. He's not content to lock up immigrant children in cages without their parents and cause them irreparable psychological, emotional and physical harm for his (and Stephen Miller's) amusement. Now, he's targeting American school children--primarily those who get their daily nutrition from school lunches. Well-off parents can send their children to school with healthy lunches, while poor children have to eat what they're served at school just to survive. And Trump wants to make that meal as unhealthy as he can.
Trump's already cut food assistance to the poor, an apparent effort to make sure poor children have no food at home, while he's giving farmers who are letting food rot in their fields because of his tariffs (who he hopes will vote for him) generous handouts of taxpayer dollars.
2
Where are his family psychologists? This is plural as he obviously needs more than one and based on what I have observed over the past three years it may be time for his family to take him home (not the White House) before more damage is done not only to him but more importantly to our nation.
2
Letting Trump go after school lunches is just another form of Darwinism. His supporters are most likely to be adversely impacted by a reduction in their gene pool by denying science and reality.
1
I have witnessed school food from 1954 to 2008, as a student, a teacher and administrator. When schools have real kitchens, professionally managed and staffed, they are capable of producing affordable, nutritious, and even delicious meals. But somewhere along the way school districts quit building real kitchens and turned to private contractors for ready-to-eat foods. Those contractors extract a profit from our tax dollars for this convenience. Any conversation about school food that leaves out the source of the food and how it is funded is missing an important piece.
14
Trump finding new ways to play out his obsession with all things Obama. And, in addition, serve corporate interests. While compromising the health of American public school students. Students the elitist run government under Trump compartmentalizes as a disadvantaged population whose families can’t afford private school tuition.
6
“Clearly, no one wants kids to be served unhealthy foods,” he added, but if nutrition requirements lead to children throwing away the food offered, the standards are pointless.
Hogwash. When I was a kid, I'd have eaten a lunch of pizza, french fries, and chocolate milk every day. Trump won't be happy until school lunches look like his "fancy" white house luncheons: piles of big macs, KFC, and Wendy's and tankards of Coca Cola.
2
The media has exposed our president's diet that would have sidelined many of us by age 73. Luck or genetics.
It's time for Melania to step up. She knows better. It doesn't matter that it's a continuation of Michelle Obama's work. She already admitted that she admired the former first lady when she was caught lifting major segments of her speech.
6
"Be Best"
Someone else has been using that phrase for some reason, but it actually suits Michelle perfectly in everything she has done. I'm sure she is not surprised by these turns of events, but has to be saddened by the undermining of all the good and valuable things she and Barry have done.
Happy Birthday Michelle, and keep on Being Best.
9
Just take a look at the obese White House occupant we currently are suffering through. He’s the prime example of the benefits resulting from a diet high in meat and starches.
11
so much for lowering health care costs. This administration measures the megaphones to which it listens by the dollars spewing forth from them. Promote the general welfare? hardly.
4
Of course they would "redefine hamburgers as a snack." The fish rots from the head down.
5
I know first hand how school food service works and the changes that have come from Washington have been horrible. The intentions were outstanding but the net impact atrocious. Tons of wasted food that no one eats. Kids bringing three bags of potato chips for lunch. A hand full of national food companies getting rich offering "compliant" food programs. Think about this, I live close to the school board office for my Parish (LA has parishes not counties). If I complain they send me to our State Office of School Food Service (in the State Dept of Education) who then tells me to talk to my congressman. NUTS. These decisions, like almost all education decisions, need to be local. Why do we have so many layers of bureaucracy. Eliminate the bureaucracy and get more money into the classrooms. Maybe now I will walk into the cafeteria one day and find an apple. You find them everywhere, except in the school cafeteria. Too expensive for a national vendor to provide and still make money. Plenty of soy based pink nasty fake hot dogs in the trash, though, with accompanying dark brown whole grain bun each individually wrapped in plastic headed for the landfill or ocean near you.
2
Obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, antibiotic immunity, sweets dependence, soda addiction, artificial sweetner and vitamin deficiencies, malnutrition, add, are just a few consequences of bad diets. Protien can come from many cheap sources, pasta,peanut butter, add tomatoes and a veg to pasta and a basic green salad and thats a goid dinner.On my corner in my former upper Manhattan area, in a not so affluent part there was a 24 hour fruit market,one of 4 or 5 in a 6 block area, and a supermarket,and another 1 block away and a 24 hour McDonalds.
The idea that good food is not available in the socalled inner city is only laziness or ignorance.
There is always a choice
Fat children will become morbidly obese adults and the good friends of this administration who own big pharma will make huge profits.
3
And the obesity epidemic will continue...
4
In the 70's when I taught in the high school there was a barrel where the kids put all their uneaten food and was taken to a pig farmer. The barrel filled up every day. So, I doubt there was more waste with the veggies than the fries and burgers.
2
Pretty much everything that needs to be said has been said in these comments, but Sarah Palin showing up to events promoting healthier school lunches carrying cookies is the real story.
The line between good and evil becomes more sharply focused every day.
6
Another needless, short sighted slap at the Obamas while against the best interests of our children. What kind of person doesn't want kids to have good nutrition? We have children who do not get sufficient food and rely on schools. We have obese children who do not have adequate diets out of financial problems and / or poor choices who are already headed to serious health problems. Why on earth would the administration go out of its way to make things worse?
Trump is hardly the poster boy for healthy eating.
3
I can understand Trump's own particular pettiness regarding the Obamas. But why are others making the good health of children a partisan issue? Because it's not. Healthy and well educated kids are necessary for the well being of our country. A 30% obesity rate is not the marker for a Great America!
4
These people are "worried" about "plate waste" when obesity is a leading, if not the leading, cause of death in a nutritionally uninformed population?
If family poverty and the legacy of dietary habits (stretching all the way back to Jim Crow and slave times) leaves many children with the french fry and potato chip diet where's a better place to rectify that than the school lunchroom? It may be tough sledding but it's the obvious choice.
I had a close African-American associate who came north as a child from Plains, Georgia. He actually worked in the fields picking cotton as a child. He was a gifted athlete, well read, and an intelligent and charismatic speaker. He could not stand the sight of onions or other vegetables on his plate during a meal. He came from a large and very poor family and their dietary habits were formed by the absence of choice. Guess what? He died of a stroke playing basketball at the age of 55.
Some people like Sonny Perdue have no shame. None, zero, zilch, nada. No shame at all.
3
Maybe it’s not the vegetable, but raw vegetable that’s the problem. If this picture is representative of a school lunch, no wonder the students don’t want it. Cold pale tomato and lettuce or greasy French fries, I’ll take the Fries.
Check out what the school lunch in France looks like,and you would understand. Kids don’t like raw food!
2
That is totally ridicules.......kids grow up liking the food they are given. They eat what their parents eat....that is how it starts. Deserts are given only when the child has eaten an adequate amount of the healthy food served. I understand fresh food is more expensive than boxed food but a large pot of vegetable soup can fill a belly and is healthy. Stop making excuses for the obese, embarrassment of a man in the White House.
1
Serving fruit and vegetables every day is important. But so is making sure children get enough to eat. For. some children meals in school are their major caloric intake. The caloric restrictions in these lunches provide inadequate food for high school athletes. This discriminates against the poor. This is one of the reasons inner city high schools no longer can compete with suburban schools. Hard to play and practice when you are hungry.
1
As time goes by, the evidence accumulating reveals two of the very most important things we can teach children is nutrition and exercise. It is a vital role of government to support this as much as possible. It should be an area of bipartisan agreement and support. To do otherwise is not only mean spirited but round counter to our nations best interests
3
I look at this a bit differently then some. It is not just for the health of these children but our nation. How much does poor health cost us? What does it cost in lost man hours, medical bills, some of which we as tax payers cover. How many young people do not qualify for the military, police, fire department, etc. because they can not past the physical. What happens when a young father or mother dies prematurely due to one of these largely preventable illnesses leaving behind a young family. What is the cost to that family and to our society that must deal with the fallout. Like a stone thrown into a pond the ripples extend far.
One of the classes that was mandatory when I was in school was home ec. You learned nutrition. Was what we learned wrong? Perhaps. But we were taught about starches(corn, potatoes,rice) meat (all kinds), vegetables and the difference between them, dairy,(those were the days of full fat milk) and portions. We were taught to cook not heat something in a microwave. My sons were raised eating bean and lentil soup, and I worked full time. Maybe what we need to do is teach those things again, with the instantpots and crockpot it is not that hard to do.
3
Children used to throw away food back in the 1970s when I was a public school student in Brooklyn, NY. Nothing new here. I used to forego the lunch. I still got my high school lunch tickets as souvenirs. Rather than throw away the lunch I just never got on line for it. Looking back no wonder I was so skinny!
4
The article never talks about sugar - the worst villain of American foods. We should of course try to get leafy, and colorful foods on our school lunch plates but while we reduce the amount of sugar we offer.
Basically, less processed foods should be our goal, which seems what our former First Lady set out to set as our school standard. We should abide that standard, and tweak our execution of it if there is plate waste or it costs too much.
2
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I imagine Trump, whose favorite food is MacDonalds quarter-pounders insists that the nation's children grow up to be like him- I'll leave off the punchline. The real tell is Trump's pushing red state grown meat and potatoes. Trump does nothing that doesn't personally benefit him. Also noted: Ronald Reagan's forcing schools to accept ketchup as a vegetable to meet nutrition rules.
3
As a nutrition professional (RD) I see a great deal of human suffering caused by poor nutritional habits daily, and many of these habits started in childhood. Once established, it is very difficult for people to change their eating preferences as adults. When kids are habitually exposed to high sugar, high fat foods, they become addicted and the damage and suffering begin. Big Ag and medical professionals like me stand to gain. This move by the ocupant is beyond reprehensible.
3
I've said it before - who do Republicans represent and in this case care for, our children or corporate profit? The Trump voters are again voting against their own children's health.
Like others here, I give praise for Mrs. Obama's autobiography. We'll never see anything like, something so well written and positive, from the current First Lady. Hopefully only the meat and potato red states will pay any attention to this.
2
As a retired teacher and parent of three grown sons, I have to report that Michelle Obama's guidelines were kind of a disaster at our high-poverty school district, where 90 percent of students were on free or reduced lunch. I heard many complaints from students and staff about the requirements, which resulted in terrible waste. It breaks my heart to say this, because in theory I love the idea, but in practice I saw students literally forced to take the fruit or vegetable and then dump it in the trash when they left the cafeteria. The amount of waste was heartbreaking.
1
The problem with all these guidelines is that they are filtered through bureaucracies that are concerned with meeting guidelines in a technical sense and they miss the big picture.
The quality of most school food is terrible and better nutrition guidelines do not improve quality.
Whole grains means a highly processed “whole wheat” bun for your hamburger instead of a highly processed white bun. They aren’t really much healthier and taste like cardboard. So that increases the food waste the schools complain of.
“Greens” mean some pale iceberg lettuce covered in dressing. Lower far means baked and reheated frozen chicken patties instead of fried and reheated frozen patties.
Instead if buying processed foods in bulk to benefit from scale savings, school districts should buy bulk raw ingredients— rice, beans, eggs, pasta, fresh and frozen veggies, different kinds of grains—and let each school decide what to cook with them.
Quality and nutrition would improve, waste would decrease and Kids would get a wider variety of foods.
Until that happens shifting guidelines from people who think ketchup is a vegetable isn’t going to matter much.
A lot of the better food gets thrown out. Most kids don't want to eat kale, etc.
Happy Birthday, Michelle. Thank you for caring about the health of our children.
2
Each year, we have a Project Graduation for our high school students as an alternative to going to parties where alcohol may be served. I was in charge of food the year my daughter graduated, and I was told that all the kids would want is pizza, burgers, and chips. A local super market donated 700 pounds of fruit which I was told would be wasted. I washed, peeled, cut, and scooped fruit into cups. I also put veggies and lowfat ranch dip into cups. The fruit and veggies went first. High school kids squealed with delight when they saw the fruit. "We never get fruit at home" was the common response. Fruit and vegetables are foreign to kids on food stamps because parents have to find the cheapest options to make their meager allotments stretch, and fruit is expensive. We have to teach our children to make healthy choices, and if we can help parents by doing that at school for breakfast and lunch, we should. My own children and grandchildren will take salmon and broccoli over chicken nuggets and fries any day of the week because they have been taught to make those choices. We have never had high medical bills because we make sure fruits, vegetables, and water drinking is the norm at home. They go hand in hand. Michelle Obama is a brilliant lady who knows that good food and good health go hand in hand.You want to lower medical costs? Start with the food people put in their mouths!
2
Everything Trump does is based on one concept: get himself re-elected. Not surprising, as that is a big part of what a politician must do. I think that’s just the system we currently live with.
Trump, his team, and the fake conservative media have clearly made undoing Obama policy one aspect of his re-election strategy.
They just go too far with it. Affecting kids in this case. Being mean spirited. Accepting foreign influences in the election, and so on.
He has been a wake up call. Hopefully we respond with the proper reforms and adjustments to steer our system back to what this country is founded upon. The impeachment will be a good first step.
There was plenty of reaction to the Trump administration move to roll back school nutrition guidelines. All the proper associations, politicians to be sure, and of course, the almighty Heritage Foundation were cited in the article. I read nothing coming from anyone with the initials MD or RN behind their name. Certainly, statements from medical professionals might have been included in the article regarding the facts of the matter.
1
We should prepare ourselves for a string of such announcements to distract from the impeachment trial. And that’s the generous characterization: I’d hate to think Trump is actually targeting our young people, it’s just politically expedient, right? And a dig at Michelle Obama was just low-hanging fruit (so deserved plucking, according to Trump math). Did the staffer who caught that handy confluence get an extra pat on the back?
Then again, adding this to Trump putting Betsy DeVos in charge of undermining public schools so that charter schools make more money; and turning away from sensible vaping regulations to make more money; and preventing the implementation of student loan forgiveness programs to make more money, one has to wonder. TMMM should replace MAGA as his slogan.
It's a scary statistic that almost 19% of kids are obese, and we need to do something about it before they become another burden on our already stressed health care system. Donald Trump falls into the obese adult category and therefore should have no input re: school meals. We live in a country where high caloric food is promoted. Man-size pizza. Deep fried foods. Chips .Ice cream. If adults don't care about their food, the kids won't either. Michele was on the right track, but now we're off the track.
If this were only Mr. Trump's usual pettiness, it would be shameful. But it affects millions of children, some of whom only eat at school (I know because I was a child welfare social worker). Not only is it cruel, it is also counterproductive to shortchange children by neglecting their nutrition. A strong nation needs strong citizens and those citizens need good lifelong nutrition in order to contribute their best to our society.
Guess what, I have seen what’s offered at school when the beef and corn industries are being placated. Corn dogs, french fries and hamburgers!
We should not let big Ag businesses dictate what is eaten at school.
1
What's with all the "pizza shaming" on this thread? Pizza is one of the easiest "snack foods" to make with healthy ingredients.
Whole wheat flour, organic tomato sauce, low-fat cheese and sausage, fresh peppers, mushrooms (maybe even pineapple!) ...easy, healthy and probably very littke plate waste!
1
The sad "rhetoric" that the Trump administration uses to rationalize changes to regulations. In each case they misrepresent some type of freedom they are returning to the people and eliminating waste.
The truth is more chilling as it is just Trump and his minions following in lock step bowing to corporate interests. Here it will be poor nutrition for kids. But the overall list includes more pollution of air and water, exploitation and destruction of nature and future global warming.
Destruction is easy while fixing that destruction is very difficult.
Why is the federal government telling schools what to serve? The biggest issue here is the enormous amount of food wasted in schools. The best way to reduce this is to do away with all these paternalistic regulations. And my underweight kid would like full fat milk if you don't mind.
I would very much appreciate Melania Trump's opinion on this and what exactly her "Be Best" program is doing regarding our children's nutrition. I noticed when she was in New York, she brought school children to the Stock Exchange which might have been very nutritionally or even culturally inspiring?
The way that Tump has gone to literally erase the legacy of the Obama, which is very unfortunate.
This, is another in an ongoing campaign of corporate lobbyists. Who I'm sure contributed to the RNC to influence policy for their own economic interests over the health of children. Despite the unsubstantiated claims of kids throwing out food, by promoters of chemical infused junk food, whose spilage dates should be in terms of half-lives, like radioactive waste; Instead of fresh if used by dates, kids eat healthy food put in front of them.They still eat cookies. The best thing is that soda. The worst offender of children's nutrition is no longer being sold in schools.
Outside of the Sackler family and Big Pharma, the food industry represents the biggest threat to the health of Americans, especially children. Processed foods, the beef cartel and our own government have colluded to literally poison Americans for profit.
Unfortunately, too many parents are complicit by not providing healthy diets and leading by example. As an ex-pat, every time I travel to the United States, I am shocked at the level of obesity.
One look at Michelle Obama and Donald Trump and it's easy to see which person you would rather be taking dietary advice from.
1
@LL That might well be, but was he a vegan growing up, in those high-growth years? I'm all for reducing meat consumption but replacing protein requires a lot more planning and purchasing than parents of these pre-teens and teenagers can muster.
Also, does Ayanna Pressley have to infantilize the children and teens by calling them "our babies?" Warren also has used that term. Not helpful.
Some history for naysayers like Mystery Lits. A 1906 book The Bitter Cry of the Children revealed how many children in the US were chronically hungry, undermining their ability to learn. School lunch programs were introduced in many cities and towns using tax dollars, donations, and surplus from farmers. After WWII, Truman learned that many young men had been rejected from military service because of poor health related to malnutrition. The federal school lunch program was signed into law in 1946 as a matter of national security. Kids eat half of their daily calories at school, and millions qualify for lunch at reduced cost. It's not their fault that their parents either can't or won't pay attention to their nutrition. Unhealthy children become unhealthy adults, and we all pay for that eventually.
9
Informative post. Thank you.
Does ANYBODY Remember School lunches? I had plenty of options to eat healthy and usually didn't choose them. Healthy eating starts at home.
4
When there is food at home! Do you know that kids wrap up half of sandwiches to take home to mom or younger sisters and brothers? On top of cuts to food stamps this will hurt children and families.
3
If they get a meal at home ...
2
It would be incredibly helpful for this article (or, say, the Trump administration Agriculture Department) to have included some data on how countries similar to the USA feed their children in their public schools, what the outcomes are vis a vis participation (i.e., if the kids eat), cost, and those countries' childhood obesity. I realize there are more factors in public health assessments than just school lunches, but more data is better, period.
2
@Skip1515 Great idea! I often look up how Scandinavian countries do things when I come across the need to answer the question you raise, Then I turn to see what the EO does, and depending how compelled I am, I might see if the UN has something on whatever I am looking for.
I am a physician. Before the nutrition rules were enacted I would see teenagers who gained 13 pounds in 2 weeks eating 2 school meals a day with foods such as rice crispy treats and chocolate milk given for breakfast and fries, hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza for lunch. There were no healthy options. Many children are prediabetic or have high cholesterol due to these diets as well as the cheap and prevalent fast food in our communities. Who is going to pay for their health care costs? They are developing chronic health problems that usually present in middle age while children or teenagers. This is a societal problem that should addressed with policy or these children will have shorter lifespans than their parents with more sickness and disability.
43
@Beth I cannot agree with you more. I grew up in Asia, where people do not eat desserts (sweets) after meal. People just drink a tea. So, although girls like cakes and pies occasionally, most of men do not necessarily like/eat sweets even if available in front of them. When I came to the US, I was amazed to watch a lot of adult men eating big cakes and cookies. In addition, American cakes and cookies are way too sweet for us to finish (ok only for a bite or two).
If children grow up in this environment and are exposed early to a lot of added sugars (becoming sugar addict), there is no surprise that obesity is a fast worsening epidemic. Parents and society need to start nurturing healthy eating habits from babies through school years to adults, which would significantly reduce national health care costs, too.
5
@Beth
Really? 13 pounds in two weeks eating two school meals a day? And you are a physician? It takes about 3300 Calories to gain a pound. So 42900 Calories from two meals a day over 5 days, or 10 meals. You really think they are eating 4900 Calorie meals at school twice a day?
1
Whoa, be best.
21
@Dr Spock Well, Melania eats only fruit, vegetables and fish. Not a coincidence!
1
I am sure nobody is surprised.
Kentucky Fried Chicken for everyone.
18
Shouldn’t we really just send all kids that are not rich to Amway training, with Betsy DeVos?
22
Last year I had surgery for 5 heart bypasses at the age of 75. The cause of the blockage was the American processed food diet. I stopped eating bread and potatoes, and chips, and eat more fruit and veggies. I have lost 25 pounds, so far. Had I been raised on this low carb, low salt, low sugar diet, I would not have needed this surgery. Wake up, America.
34
I have kids. They enjoy and eat healthy foods -- they love salads and find the ones offered at school are brown and wilting. Frankly, disgusting.
P.S. Trump you really picked the wrong woman to mess with.
18
He needs to placate his big money corporate donors.
1
Trump has nothing else to do but fool with the school lunch menu???
28
Let them eat cake
16
This is racism, exhibiting itself.
12
What is it with this guy???
17
He is vengeful! Like a Demi god in a snit and we all suffer...
We need a list, NYT, of Michelle Obama’s accomplishments and efforts so we know what will be targeted in the next year. Has he destroyed all of Barack’s efforts yet?
16
Why does The New York Times and other media fall for every single one of Donald Trump's insertions into all events?
e.g. Michelle Obama's Birthday.
Trump might not have been elected president if his name had not appears on every news cover since his announcement of running for the highest office in 2015. 99% Name Recognition
6
Another reason to vote Trump out of office. Between polluting our air, water and soil, he now wants all our children to be obese. What nightmare. He is like the bully that just has to destroy what the smart kids set up.
27
Of all the things to rollback! And on Michelle Obama’s birthday, too. Can’t this administration leave just one Obama policy in place?
11
Not if they can help it! But, to pick Michelle Obama’ birthday, is really Trump just being his usual nasty, cruel self.
1
Nothing you can do Trump will Evey undo the fact that Obama was more popular and well-respected than you will ever be. How many people, in this case mostly poor kids reliant on school lunch, will suffer from your inadequate personality.
19
OH NO, Michele Obama wants our kids to be healthy! I know that Donald Trump thinks that ANYTHING linked to an Obama is automatically bad but does he not understand that healthy children are more apt to learn more in School?
9
@alan Your mistake is in thinking that trump cares if children learn in school. Fact is, he has demonstrated that he prefers that people remain ignorant, and therefore more likely to vote for him.
1
Obesity is his fall-back position.
Why wouldn't he want it changed?
He's an overweight, junk-food-loving, food-aholic.
Healthy food makes him unhappy.
And ... an Obama had something to do with it ... hence it MUST be changed.
18
Fortunate that Obama didn’t come up with a cure for cancer...Trump would destroy that too...
22
@J
He would just remove the requirement to treat it from the health care policies.
2
Regulations are always changing and I don't think Trump's admin put any thought into Michelle's birthday with this particular rule change, though it looks like NYT did though.
3
Is there nothing this administration regarding Obama won't go after?
One of the first things they did was dig up Michelle's garden.
Face it Trump. Michelle will always trump Melania (or Melanie, as you call her).
15
@Pat I think the garden is still there.
1
Trump is obsessed with the Obamas and unraveling every good thing they've done. Perhaps Michelle will run for president, get elected, and overturn every single bad thing Trump has done. it would be so grand to erase Trump.
10
Be Best.
3
This is evil. Just plain evil.
9
Watch for him having Michelle's veggie garden paved over and a burger drive-in installed. Trump is a petty bully.
11
He’s not a nice person.
3
Is this part of Trump's effort to reduce health care cost? The more unhealthy people you have, the more discounts you can ask for. What a genius!!!
2
He just won't quit! He's bound to subvert or destroy everything that has the name "Obama" on it! How unbelievably wonderful those Obama years seem now: a moral, upright family that put the welfare of the nation and the nation's children first. How far we have fallen!
8
Anything Obama-related is on his to-go list. So obvious, isn’t it?
5
Not at all surprising instead of “Let them eat Cake” it’s “Let them eat Whoppers!”
4
Let’s for the moment set aside the nutritional value of the school lunches. President Trump will, as has, undone almost everything the Obama administration did because not only is he, in my opinion, a racist, but he embarrassed Trump at The White House Correspondents’ dinner.
https://youtu.be/zeGpLg0b3DE (In case you missed it)
4
Be best. At obesity. What a legacy this current bunch of lying hypocrites is leaving. Too bad we all are being dragged into it, like it or not.
6
Children of the coastal globalist elites don't touch fast food. You won't find any bags of Cheetos or Doritos in their hands. Twenty years down the line, the separation among Americans will not just be in finances but also health, obesity, and lifespan, and we know who will get the fat, glycemic end of that stick. Sara Palin is all for cutting off your nose to spite your blue states face.
7
@Uxf Actually they do, but only when the 'rents aren't around. Teenage taste buds are pretty much the same everywhere.
Does anybody think Donald Trump knows anything about nutrition that isn’t served in a disposable bucket?
8
Make America Fat Again.
Every Obama step forward = 4 Trump steps backwards.
7
Billionaire unhealthy food producer Sonny Perdue can make more than chicken feed from this change.
2
Pettiness knows no bounds.
6
Two comments:
1) Based on Trump's dietary favourites, McDonalds should just get all the school lunch consessions.
2) If this is about obliterating the Obama's legacy (again!), then they have nothing to worry about since Melania will be forever remembered as the First Lady who made zero contribution to the national conversation (except for some dodgy wardrobe choices and her obvious contempt for her husband).
8
American school children should have school meals based on the diet of our glorious leader, Donald Trump. Look what a high fat, high cholesterol, high sugar diet has done for our morbidly obese, “healthiest ” President ever. If only our children could be as physically fit, and look as good, as Donald Trump! Heaven help our children if Trump has any input regarding diet or exercise protocols for our schools.
5
If you had any doubt that this administration has just been stupid, and was not actually evil, here is the absolute proof they are, after all, fully evil.
Literally, what could be more important, and non-negotiable than feeling your children well, nourishing their growing brains and bodies?
Unbelievable. Do what you have to, America.
7
Such a pitiful person, I wonder if he was abused when he was a kid? Why would anyone goes after kid’s meals? For god’s sake, we got more important issues with middle class and poor. I still believe this bad hombre was not thinking about getting elected, he was going to get his 10 min fame( besides the reality shows, nyc papers) and make some money and that is it. Then to his surprise he got elected, lol.
1
Why worry? Corporate America and the tRump administration have proven time and again that they have NOTHING but the best intentions for our children, as with us all. Let the diabetes and corpulence roll. MAGA!
3
The Donald's decision making "process": Whatever the Obamas did, I'll do the opposite.
1
Awesome!!!
Love the audacity
When will this pettiness end?
2
Guess What, it would be rolled back at some point when a Democrat comes on power or when my smart daughter becomes president one day! I’m not worry at all!!! Trump is a crazy man with a hammer; but the truth is, this is his time, so is the GOP;
1
Doesn't surprise me. He is evil..period
1
By unraveling Mr. Obama’s nutrition standards, trump would like to make everyone in his own image. Overweight, lazy and unwell. It must be very painful to hate someone so much the way trump hates Brock and Michelle Obama. He hates them so much, that he is willing to destroy the health of innocent children, pollute our rivers, stink the air, take away all the regulations that made the world a cleaner and better place, destroy relationship with our allies, pardon war criminals, and take away help from those who need it and give it to those who don’t. Must I say more?
3
There is no bottom to these sociopaths in power and the banality of evil of the bureaucrats who implement the cruel "policies" they dream up.
4
It can't be a coincidence that they did this on Michelle Obama's 56th birthday. The Swamp at work.
3
Junk food is "Be best" meal for kids? Melania?
5
What do the Trump grandchildren and son have at lunch?
3
Evil trump is determined to try to erase anything that states Obama. But won't it be sweet revenge when not only does the person that comes behind the grifter totally obliterates him but the street he once lived on is named Barack Obama and Prez Obama ends up being a SCOTUS. That would be sweet utmost revenge. Even better is when all of those appeals hits the SCOTUS and Obama is at the table. Oh sweet Jesus, let it be.
1
Who is surprised when you consider the garbage food served and consumed at the White House?
KFC, Big Macs and fries.
Heart attack served in cardboard containers.
3
Of course! Because these changes REFLECT TRUMP’S DIET, for God’s sake! One more example of his unfettered ego as well as his rampant jealousy of President Obama. Mama. Mia!
1
If you let this happen the Obama's are not going to suffer but your children will.
3
MAGA - Make America Gorge Again!
1
Manly food.
1
unfathomable depths of jealousy, this man Trump
Because this President knows from nutrition!
1
Trump continues his petty attempt to negate the Obama Era with the Trump Error. The only sure losers are America's taxpayers and its schoolchildren. Many of the latter will have little choice but to eat the lousy food that's served in most public schools and that our obese president likes to consume.
2
What's next? Trump forcing Melania to destroy Michelle's vegetable garden on the South Lawn?
1
How is it possible that he and his administration come down on the wrong side of everything????
4
At this point it's just spiteful.
1
Why are not the democratic candidates calling out Trump for destroying everything Obama did? Now lunches? Plus DeVos? Why are they letting it all go?!!!!
This is important journalism.
I wonder what St. Andrew's Episcopal School serves for lunch?
1
Wow. Everything is politics now. Instead of the food lunch program being tweaked it is headlined that Trump is targeting Michelle Obama. If it was a white male that created the school lunch program Trump would likely leave it alone. But it was a black woman who started the program. Trump has been waiting until her birthday too deliver the blow.
2
But... Oscar nomination? No, you haven't got that. But you'll try. Hahahaha.
You know we’ve all been waiting for this. What do you expect from a president who this time last year proudly posed in front of a “feast” of salt and fat... ahem.. I mean fast food.
A side of type 2 diabetes to go with your climate change today?
5
Here we go again with ketchup being called a vegetable.. Where have we heard this nonsense before? Oh yeah...Republicans..
3
it was sad waking up with news like this....enough is enough | makes you want to run for president | go for it Michelle...!!!!!
1
Q: How do you get Trump to change a light bulb?
A: Tell him Obama put it in.
10
"Ketchup is a vegetable,"
- Ron Reagan
3
Be OBese! New motto.
4
This is another terrible example of the influence Big Food has on Republican governance. It influences food programs in schools, the placement of soda machines in schools, the marketing of unhealthy food to children, federal dietary guidelines for adults, and resistance to regulations that limited unhealthy ingredients, such as sugar, salt, hydrogenated oils, food additives and preservatives. The Republican Party is one big nanny state, devoted to watching out for the financial health of food and beverage industries.
5
If children eat better, they become healthier, and this even leads to a healthier adult population (with less government money spent on diseases like diabetes and a larger pool of people fit enough to join the military in a crisis). For Republicans this has unacceptable results. First, it diminishes the usefulness of schools as a profitable dumping ground for agricultural over-production, for example in potatoes. Second, healthy kids on average learn better. If too many become able to read well and analyze what they've read, and to do simple arithmetic, it's curtains for many Republican candidates.
When Ronald Reagan tried to make catsup (which is a third sugar) and the pickle in a hamburger count as vegetables, the public outcry made him drop that policy. The MAGA mob is, sadly, not as affected by bad publicity.
6
Cannot Trump leave the Obamas alone? Now to reverse nutritional guidelines in a country where childhood obesity is at an all time high. School food may be the only food many kids will get in a day so why reintroduce carbs, prepackaged/processed foods. This will only impact the healthcare system now but as importantly later with younger people having metabolic disease: High blood pressure, diabetes and hyperlipidemia.
6
And now it is obvious. More than clear. If a policy could be labeled "progress" Trump and his industry hacks will want to reverse it. If it had it's origins in an Obama - well, that just makes it a priority target.
But this sort of thing is sadly predictable. Who needs healthier foods when you are being exposed to more mercury? And since we'll all either burn up or drown from flooding, why not be fat and happy on the way to the end?
This really is "Idiocracy 2". Is it a sequel or prequel?
6
This is shameful and outrageous and no one should be surprised. Once again the children paying the price are “vulnerable children in food insecure households,” a lot of whom probably reside in Trump territories. Why are people so misinformed that they continue to vote against their own best interest and that of their children??
4
Once again between a healthy diet for the kids and healthy profit for corporate America, the US Government choose profit over health.
3
An administration that orders children separated from parents and locked in cages is so callous and cruel that feeding children badly seems almost kind.
I can well imagine that Mr. Trump considers obesity quite acceptable.
7
As a volunteer, I have watched children in a summer nutrition program simply throw away their nutritious, but admittedly not very tasty or attractive, lunches and ask for chips instead. Suspect this is not unusual.
1
Well, so long as the kiddos (& the junk food industry) are deciding what's best. Too bad there aren't any adults present.
1
N\This is nothing but another display of Donald Trump's pettiness. He just can't stand the idea of the Obama administration receiving credit for anything good. His pettiness will kill us all slowly, unless his rashness does it quickly.
2
In a way, you can't attribute this to Trump alone, this is the Republican playbook. Keeping children malnourished is part of the Republican scheme to dumb down grade school education, especially in the South where Republicans and evangelicals dominate school committees to insure there are enough zombie like individuals to march for them
2
In a world in political and environmental crisis, Trump's personal crises of narcissism leads him to hone in on the Obamas' successes. He dismantles and proclaims victory; destroys and calls it achievement; pollutes and poisons and declares himself the anointed one. And the Republicans stand by and cheer like some chorus of Neros: destructive depravity.
1
Just a coincidence that he trashes Michelle's initiative on her birthday?
I am reminded of his tossing Tubman from the twenty.
Let's be clear: It's not his narcissism, his ignorance, his incompetence, his malice, his greed, his racism, misogyny, etc. that knows no bounds.
It's his pettiness.
3
Did Mrs. Obama receive a towering birthday cake from Trump? Multiple tiers, kaleidoscope colors (artificial), fake butter frosting with red, white and blue sprinkles? Yes, "Keep America Great"!
Trump's obsession with overturning any and all accomplishments of president Obama--from the ACA to environmental protections, the Iran deal, the Paris accords, and now this--is putting our health and the planet at risk. This vindictive move, planned for Michelle's birthday (does anyone really believe this was not intentional) reveals the depth of his narcissism and cruelty. Now children become pawns to his irrational spite.
2
This is Leap Year so there are 366 days in this year and the Trump administration just happened to announce this change on Michelle Obama's birthday.
The probablility of that happening this year is even less than in any other year.
I guess I'm saying, I do not believe them. I believe this was an Obama initiative and anything the Obamas did, Trump wants to change.
1
I will go for this only if Trump supporters & Trump’s grandchildren as well as children at expensive private schools are forced to eat the same garbage. Another form of tyranny to separate the super rich from the middle class & poor. This is horrible but at its worst its a cruel scheme to make the poor & middle class less healthy. So disgusting when you think of all the money he wastes traveling to Mara Lago & his obsessive rally's.
2
This president has lost it! Becoming more and more erratic and nasty. AND bad for the country and its people. Frightening for the world!
2
Spiteful implies a mean or malicious desire for (often petty) revenge. 'Nough said!
1
He wants the children to look like him ; straight out of "Bananas " everything bad is good for you and everything good is bad . He has managed to exhaust us all with his fabrications and contrary views ; in doing so it gets normalized and one forgets how abnormal his brain is . Every outrage , every power grab must continue to be noted , that is why he is trying to silence the press , and all those that oppose him by discrediting them . The danger lies in people thinking this is normal .
1
Amazon can deliver cardboard boxes and Trump can classify them a vegetable.
"A spokeswoman for the department said that it had not intended to roll out the proposed rule on Mrs. Obama’s birthday" Really? 365 days in the year and this just happened to be rolled out on Michelle Obama's birthday? Despicable and frightening, that there are people in the Agriculture department (or elsewhere in the administration) who find it necessary to demonstrate this kind of petty contempt.
2
It just goes on and on and on.
2
Trump must have been beaten mercifully as a child. This is the result. His depth of sickness and evil never ceases to astound me.
2
Trump continues to try to wipe all evidence of the Obamas from the world. Too bad they are more respected and loved by that world than he could ever hope to be. You know that behind this initiative are some greasy spoon corporations who rather churn out cheap, unhealthy food for schoolkids. For some kids, this is their only meal of the day. You can have a slice of pizza or a burger and still eat fruit and vegetables. Kids learning now to eat wisely will take that with them into adulthood. What’s the downside?
2
Hi,
It is not words, it is actions that define the meaning.
My guess President Trump does not like children........
.........his actions in lowering the environment standards
.........his actions his lack of support for the reductions in global warming
..........his actions, rising debt with no repayment plan
And now ......this the lowering of nutritional standards in our schools (of course I am sure he never had a public school lunch)
He is simply a mean old man.
3
Donald Trump is just trying to get people's attention on his impeachment trial. It started with the drone strike against an Iranian military leader. What next?
Sec. of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is a crook. He kept running his agriculture business while he was governor of Georgia, where I lived until eight years ago. He thought teachers were overpaid and there were few, if any raises while he was in office.
Trump paid off farmers with government subsidies when he imposed tariffs on China, a big customer of soybean farmers. The aid to farmers will disappear if he gets re-elected.
1
Did you know that America has obese infants because only in America would unregulated Capitalism be called freedom. Freedom to make yourself obese and unhealthy.
2
Say it isn’t so, Superman(person)!
"With nearly 14 million American children, or about 19 percent, considered obese..
14 million obese children have 28 million obese parents.
Our "Free Medicare for all" can pay for their lifetime of diabetes, heart failure and other..
Why do my tax dollars have to subsidize this?
3
What's wrong with, pizza, cheeseburgers, French fries and
cake for lunch ? those foods keep our president well fed.
Trump wants the children of America to eat like he does. Parents, you have been warned.
1
Ugh. These Trumps are so grotesque. May they all be humiliated long after this year ends.
1
The traitorous GOP continues its decades long legacy of undermining America in as many ways as possible. If it’s bad for America, the GOP is for it. Al Qaeda could never have had a better ally.
1
I certainly do wish Michelle Obama woulod run for POTUS in 2020. She would win hands down. Then I would just love to see her go on the attack and wipe out everything trump. It would serve him right, but it would serve us better.
1
New Trump Administration Lunch Policy: McDonalds trucks back up to schools' loading docks and drop off lunch.
1
This decision is a two-fer for Trump: Do something against an Obama and against a woman, just coincidentally on her birthday. The only surprise is that it took him so long to come up with it. Think it could perhaps be another deflection about impeachment? Of course, not.
1
yes, and the school menu's will be replaced by Melania's "Let them eat cake" diet.
1
@steve More like "let them eat povitica" since she's Eastern European.
Beyond his execrable presidency that allows him to exercise his twisted will, this president happens to be one of the most shallow, vindictive and unrelentingly petty people in the country. It appears that no matter the consequences, he is simply incapable of ever considering them or of ever under any circumstance being “the bigger person”. He is a very small human being doggy-paddling in a job that is far too large for him.
2
In his next move, Trump will press to remove all taxes from cigarettes to make them more affordable.
3
Back to Reagan and ketchup for a vegetable.
2
Exactly what were Michele Obama's credentials to be a food expert? I know she's a well connected lawyer. Regulations and rules change all the time. Doesn't mean she had the holy grail.
1
Ultimately Blue States for the most part will continue with reasonable and rational healthy choices. Red States in the other will allow their children to match back towards obesity. Long term, they will help to kill off the base.
1
For public health, the future of life on earth and the children who will be here to experience the consequences, Trump and his gang are agents of poisoning, destruction, disease.
From caging children at the border, to erasing pollution regulations, and now this ludicrous move to feed junk food to children, this president has shown he's a wrecking ball.
He holds nothing sacred other than money and power, and his destructive persona is obvious for all good people to see.
3
Just because he’s become “the healthiest president ever elected” (as he touts himself) by eating junk doesn’t mean our children should. Just petty. From the pettiest of men.
I hope school district ignore this and stick to a healthier approach.
1
Only Trump would stoop to stuffing poor kids with junk food to increase the already inconceivable wealth of the food cartel. Sir, have you no shame?
3
This is all part of Trump's scheme to attempt to delete anything related to the Obama's from history.
Trump also wants us to eat like he does so we too can be obese.
2
Nothing screams qualified to advise on nutrition like a Quarter Pounder and KFC diet, and being 50 pounds overweight.
3
What I find more interesting is that fact that Trump was a reaction to Obama’s progressIve agenda.
It tells me that there are enough people in America who think it’s ok not to really think about the effect of their vote. The same people who voted Barack Hussein Obama also voted for Donald John Trump.
How low can these people go?
1
Trump is ruthless in his mad drive to sate his vindictive appetite. No coincident this was done on Mrs Obama's birthday.
The president has such an obsessive, visceral hatred of all things Obama that he purposely made sure that the announcement of the Agricultural Department’s rollback of Michelle Obama’s nutrition guidelines for school lunches occurred exactly on her birthday.
When you are about to blow out the candles on your cake and make a wish, Ms. Obama, please know that the rest of America will be right behind you, making that very same wish ...
2
Trump would rather put school children on the Rush Limbaugh diet - where food is food, a calorie is a calorie. Doesn't matter if its Coca Cola and Cheetos or broccoli. Got to get these children into the capitalistic system early on, and exploit their young bodies because its very profitable, plus kids love junk food!
Nutrition is a foreign concept to this unhealthy obese man (obviously), plus a certain highly regarded and talented African American woman created this program, so in Trump's mind it must be undone because that is his asinine modus operandi.
I think when this man and his administration lose power (if), we will all sleep a lot better at night.
1
It seems that it is about time to read Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s recent release, “Fast Food Genocide: How Processed Food is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It.”
I can’t publish this in response to my own comment, since it already has three responses. That’s the limit according to the unsaid rules. Remember when Kanye said what he said about Katrina? He looked like he was surprised to realize that George W Bush didn’t care about black people. When I wrote what I did about Belgian prisoners being better fed than American public school students, it was the same kind of deal. I shocked myself with my own realization.
1
There is truly no bottom to the pit that is Trump.
2
Growing children need lots and lots of calories.
And for all those bringing up politics... You certainly can't help see the hypocrisy of Obama trying to force everyone one in this country into socialized medicine when he would not even send his children to public schools. George Orwell could not have written it better.
The Obamas live rent free in Trump's head. He's so obsessed with sticking it to them, I think he'd repeal a regulation declaring Trump's birthday a national holiday should it have been passed by Obama.
2
Let the Republicans fatten up America’s children and then take away their healthcare.
2
Trump's rage toward the Obama's knows no bounds.
1
Donald Trump: The role model for healthy, wholesome dining.
2
Everybody knows “ hamberders” will make you grow up to be president.
Oh, how the Republican Party, rife with lobbyists and financial cronyism, adores you see its constituents both stupid and unhealthy!
1
With this president’s eating habits I’m sure he sees nothing wrong with this guideline. After all he has often stated how huge he is...(sic) hugely popular
1
If doing it on fmr First Lady Michelle Obama's birthday isnt a mob-style message I dont know what is. They hope to demoralize her, humiliate her and intimidate the rest of us.
2
thats right donald---"BE BEST". i cant wait until the next president retires THAT empty platform
1
He undermines the accomplishments of the Obama’s but that only reflects badly on him because he doesn’t have any accomplishments of his own.
Small man with a even smaller mind.
1
Vindictive sure. But you’ve played right into Trumps hand with your headline. And his cult love it when they make people cry.
Could these people in the wh possibly be any more miserable.
Trump isn’t fit to polish the shoes of ANY Obama.
1
Umm what about “Be best” as a nutritional standard? It looks more like it is “eat wurst”.
And here I thought Trump was only jealous of President Obama.
If there’s anything this Administration can do that’s bad for public health, they’re really on it. Unhealthy food, air pollution, neurotoxic pesticides, cutting off food to hungry children- you name it, they’re on it. And so-called ‘conservatives’ and ‘Christians’ lick their idol’s boots.
Yuck!
2
No surprise. All part of Donald Trump's plan to kill off the Obama's legacy while killing as many Americans as possible with poor food choices.
No more Food Stamps.
And no affordable health care.
Trump's jealousy of the Obama's popularity is off-the-chart. His wife's "anti-bully" campaign never stood a chance considering she can't even reign in the disrespect and taunting her hubby inflicts on all. So, all things Obama must go. Now it's time to impeach Trump and end his reign of stupid.
1
Reagan : “ Ketchup is a Vegetable.
Trump : “ Bread and Water is enough for Moochers “
Had Enough ? Vote them ALL out.
2
And how’s the “Be Best” initiative coming along? Haven’t heard any updates...
2
This certainly brings back the good old days - when Reagan and his Republican stooges monkeyed with school lunches in the early 1980s and insisted that ketchup was a vegetable.
1
on her birthday, what a little man
2
This administration is down right evil and vindictive. Wonder who came up with the brainstorm of announcing the rollbacks on Mrs Obama’s birthday: Trump, Cohen, Mnunchin.
1
Can a republican explain to all of us in all political spectrum what is the value of this move , beside the fact that this was Michelle Obama initiative , if you support republican ideology your name is attached to this cruelty, sickening.
Because, of course he would...
If junk food is good enough for the president of these United States, the, by God, it's good enough for our kids. Or, at least, good enough for the ones who have no choice but to eat whatever garbage schools can afford to ladle up.
Trump wants to let providers feed kids any way that makes money. Bad. Obama wants the low fat regimen that fueled the obesity epidemic. Bad. This is America.
1
This has nothing to do with school lunches. It has everything to do with Trump’s racist intention to discredit the Obamas at every turn.
1
What a pathetic country. Intent on ensuring an unhealthy uneducated population. GOP loves the uneducated, ask yourself why.
1
Using Trump's favorite unknown Straw Man: That's what People are saying.
“Schools and school districts (Straw Men everywhere) continue to tell us that there is still too much food waste and that more common-sense flexibility is needed to provide students nutritious and appetizing meals,” Sonny Perdue,
What did you expect from the KFC and Big Mac president.
This is a guy who thinks the human body is like a battery, with a finite amount of energy, which exercise only depletes.
His idea of exercise is riding around in a golf cart and swinging a club.
Be a whole foods plant based vegan Its the best.
sad very sad!!!!
How comfortable would Ivanka Trump be with her children eating the new “diet” suggested by her father?
1
The school lunches should be modeled after the lunch Trump’s son gets at St. Andrews Episcopal School in Potomac.
“Included in the school tuition, for kindergarten through grade 5, is a hot meal served family-style. Grades 6-12 enjoy an amazing, nutritionally balanced array of options including a hot entree, a vegetarian entree, salad bar, sandwich bar, pasta bar, soup bar, and beverages. Gluten-free and nut-free options are always available as well.”
This week’s amazing menu:
https://www.sagedining.com/menus/standrewsepiscopal
18
You forget that Trump hates ordinary people. Let them eat cake (and fries, and twinkies, and chips,etc)
1
The administration knows nothing more than how to undo things. With a bit of imagination, cooperation and compromise, it’s not far-fetched to think we could formulate a cafeteria menu that appeals to kids and makes them healthy while allowing food companies to still profit. But that would require effort on the administration’s part, and the notion that the federal government actually still has a role to play in supporting a healthy society.
2
Did obesity rates drop during in the years since the Obama nutrition plan has been in affect? I highly doubt it. Will it get worse with this new change? Probably not by any significant margin. The hand wringing is probably all for nothing.
8
@kazolar Is Obama's nutrition plan really in Effect?
Trump is stooping to new lows in politicising what children eat in schools for lunch. Children need to be given the most nutritious food possible. We owe this to our children. To give them any less is a travesty. I'm sure that Mrs Obama's recommendations were not perfect, but they were certainly a big step in the right direction. Michelle Obama's principles should be adhered to and improved upon when and where possible. This is an example of Donald Trump at his pettiest. And who will miss out? America's children! This is truly disgraceful.
1162
@Mark Alexander Now, if we can only improve the eating habits of grown-ups. Stop eating animal products including diary, eggs and poisoned fish.
9
@Mark Alexander Trump didn't politicize this issue. That happened while Obama was in office. They would have been better off if the food standards were changed quietly without the mass media brouhaha.
2
@Mark Alexander
For this and countless other reasons, it would be excellent to see Michele Obama win the 2028 Presidential election.
25
Trump should make it mandatory to either have Big Macs or KFC instead of all this nutritional nonsense. It will keep the economy growing and provide more jobs!!!
9
@Roger Certainly will support ER visits for acute coronary events. ER MDs are the economic engine of some of our smaller hospitals and hamlets in our fly-over- land. /snark
4
Agreed. Who cares about kids and their health! Trump doesn't!
"Let them eat coal!", says Trump.
25
My reaction is mixed. If schools stop serving fruits and vegetables, the nutrition of children will suffer. At the same time, the guidelines are way out of touch with current nutrtional knowledge. One hambuger a week? Why?
I'm trying to imagine a growing adolescent boy subsisting on a meal fit for Bugs Bunny and coming up short.
There's a difference between getting plenty of green vegetables and fruit and being given insufficient meat. Fat-reduced milk is absurd. Added sugars are bad. Trans fats are bad, saturated fats OK, monounsatured fats excellent. And so forth.
It seems the Trump Administration is only interested in corporate profits and the bottom line, while the Obama Administration was obsessed with outdated nutrition advice and fashionable trends.
Give he kids their hamburgers, and their fruit and veggies too.
129
@Josh Hill "insufficient meat"? And this is a Times Pick? And the author cites the Obama admin as being reliant on "outdated nutrition advice"?
195
@Josh Hill Tom Brady is a vegan. Seems if it's good enough for him, maybe a few veggies thrown in with the pizza is good enough for a growing adolescent boy.
161
@Josh Hill Sorry, if you think low carb Keto is great nutrition, (I'm guessing). The facts don't back that up.
50
One of the most obese countries in the world wants to make sure to stay that way. Congrats. The stupidity of this administration doesn't know any boundaries.
7
I have read comments on various forums where people complain if someone who is poor and/or on food stamps dares to buy chips or a dessert or whatever. I assume those same people will be rejoicing that our kids in school now have less healthy meals. Consistency is not a virtue we have in abundance.
3
Demoralizing.
1
Evil policy.
1
Oh, god, Melania. Where are you?
1
Make America Obese Again.
Trump 2020
5
God please help us.
1
Anything, regardless of the consequences or reason, to denigrate the Obamas. Trump will take a swipe at anything related to the Obamas based on what? Political party and race, not necessarily in that order.
6
I am a health conscious mom of a 11 y.o. boy. Most days of the week, I cook home made meals with lots of vegetables, lean meats, legumes and fiber. I am also a full time employee with a demanding work. I am decent cook (according to my husband) - shout out to NYT Food section, you are my heroes! Guess what? My son refuses to eat healthy. Give him pasta, burgers and pizza every day (not that I do) and he is a happy camper. I will admit, I often let him eat something fat just so he would eat anything. I still continue to offer him healthier options (vegetable pizza) and make sure he exercises and maintains proper BMI which he does. Hoping he will wisen up as he grows up.
2
The children growing up have higher risks for chronic health problems easily reduced with fresh fruits and vegetables replacing inexpensive but high carb, high fat, and highly seasoned processed food snacks. This legislation basically costs society vast amounts of money to save a few institutions just a small proportion of their budgets. It’s penny wise pound foolish public policy. Trump takes another big bite out of America’s future.
1
This is just another thing that Trump is doing to take the name Obama off of everything good he did, but it replacing it with an insufficient meal to stave off the hunger and the vitamins that kids need to learn.
I can remember long ago that our lunch lines had a buffet style to the with several choices of meats and veggies, all hot, and a cup of milk. I had that a from kindergarten to when I graduated high school.
Republicans don't like the idea of a healthy lunch served in school. It was Ronald Reagan who classified catsup and mustard as veggies. It is always a republican.
4
When growing up we seldom had things like chips or soft drinks in our house, they were regarded as not healthy food.
I have never really developed a liking for this type of food.
We are not fanatical and we do occasionally indulge however we seldom bring junk food home.
The best part is that our eating habits seem to have made the generational jump to our kids.
Think long term.
1
The USA is about to find out the price of ignorance as the results of this move produce more unhealthy children and eventually adults. The health problems this move will create will come back to haunt the country over the next generation.
5
Trump food is junk food. It will make our children fat and unhealthy. The November election gives us a choice: Healthy food or Trump food for our children.
2
I worked in a lot of schools and saw the food waste. They would require that the students take a fruit whether they wanted it or not. LIke the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water...so they would take it and they would toss it. Now, I applaud what Michelle and the Obama Admin was trying to do. BUt more needed to be done to stop so much waste. I don't have the answers but Trump is likely doing this because it's an Obama thing and reversing Obama's initiatives regardless of the consequences is fine by him. It feeds his ego for the day. If Trump came from a place of wanting to provide more options without reducing the health benefits, I could support it. BUt Trump never does anything if it doesn't benefit him directly or indirectly and he certainly doesnt put much thought behind anything.
Part of the problem too is the abundance of junk food students have access to outside of school. Many of the kids who come form lower socioeconomic families live off of junk food and only exercise when they have PE. If they ended the subsidies to Big AG, that would solve a lot of problems. Over the years the corn and sugar subisdies have skyrocketed along with obesity as junk food is cheap and plentiful. What should be subsidized is more plant based foods which are acceptable to the picky pallets of kids and teens. Until these things are done, food will continue to be wasted.
But obesity rates have been slowing so overall things were improving. Too bad Trump doesn't care.
1
@Chuck When I was in grade school we had lessons about "healthy food " that included required "tasting sessions " in class.
Maybe if kids were made to "sample" small amounts of fresh produce in science class, they would be less inclined to shy away from it in the cafeteria.
And maybe even encourage their
moms to buy a bag of apples at the store.
1
This is another action by the Trump administration that is short-sighted and driven by greed rather than wanting to ensure all kids have a chance at healthy meals and nutrition which is so important .
Want to point out this is a proposal and there is a comment time period so commenting here is a good idea but also commenting on the government site would allow those opposed to express directly that this proposal should not become policy.
1
I think this is ridiculous--the whole thing.
Trump rolling back healthy lunch room rules and the author for
saying potatoes are bad foods. Its how you prepare these foods that are bad..this entire country eats entirely too much sodium and fat but its not in a potato. It's in a potato chip.
boiling a potato and serving it with a low fat yogurt dip. Thats bad? Pasta with lower sodium tomato sauce is bad? Turkey meatballs or maybe veggie meatballs? most of us have to recognize that kids don't like leafy greens-that takes some acclimating to.
the processing of foods are going to kill us all.
In the supermarket really start looking at the amounts of sodium thats in processed foods. it should be against the law.
Everything we eat can be done better with less sodium sugar and fat.
Its that simple.
2
I grew up with kids who were rail slim and consumed tons of junk food. I ate lots of fruit and was the "fat kid".
I also have never met a vegan who looks healthy.
It is misguided to believe that any diet is correct for all people.
Fruits are loaded with sugar, some veggies are loaded with fat, and this is before they are impregnated with chemicals and processes that are an abomination to the natural growing cycle.
Most of the Tomatoes we eat have been prematurely picked and put in a gas chamber of Ethylene to fool consumers into their being ripe. That fresh fruit you believe you are getting is nothing of the sort. It's been chemically altered from harvest to market.
Would we rather have our kids being guinea pigs, eating modern farmed food that is posing as fresh, but is nothing of the sort?
I'm surprised that in California where everything has a cancer warning sticker that the "frankenfruit" doesn't, because most of it is loaded with chemicals from root to shoot to the table.
By comparison, when you consider how much of our money is spent on fancy planes, bombs, and all the latest variety of assorted weaponry designed to kill and maim our fellow human beings, this act of cruelty to children, by depriving them of healthy food~ not to mention the promotion of ignorance through the defunding of public education~ certainly fits right in with Trump's continued agenda of cruelty to children.
Methinks this is a way for poor ol' Mr. Trump to subconsciously retaliate against the cruelty that was inflicted on him as a child. He does continue to suffer a mental illness from that experience, which can also be seen in how he raised his own sons, who needlessly kill beautiful animals, competitively for sport.
Sadly, promoting good nutrition for children is way out of Trump's league, beyond his capacity.
1
Children and the future of the nation's health and heath care expenditures are not well served by dumping corporate excess unhealthy food production into the bellies of school children. Feeding the disadvantaged with the detritus of imprudent industrial farming and teaching by example poor nutritional choices is as foolish as it is immoral. Nutritional science and professional nutritionist expertise are not rationally or reasonably trumped by business or poltical interests. Corporate avarice superceding science in schools is cruelty to innocent children and an abrogation of civic, educational, and government obligations of service to citizens.
2
A repeat of Regan's famous statement about ketchup (essentially sugar delivered in a thick red sauce) being a vegetable. Just look around and you can see that America is in serious long-term trouble because of obesity. Who is going to pay for the care of prematurely old people with massive diet-induced health problems?
1
Now that Trump has trampled on almost all of President Obama's accomplishments, he is going after his wife? Is there no end to this man's offensive behavior towards the Obamas?
Mrs. Obama's recommendations were really beginning to show results. A few years ago childhood obesity was actually going down a little. Recently it has shown signs of rising again. Coincidence? I think not. Sadly, schools are a low priority in too many school districts. It is usually the first budget cut made.
This does not bode well for this country. We are already well into being a nation of poorly educated and poorly fed students.
1
Trump's obsession with plumbing has spilled over into food.
He loves junk food, and he wants to bring everyone down to his level.
This is contemptible!
(even if you ignore the insult and the need to destroy other people's good work)
2
What’s wrong with America ? Stoping rules and regulations in place to help with children’s health , not providing them with decent health insurance as grown ups , destroying their habitat by removing environmental regulations ...
There are 235 million voting eligible people in the United States. 63 million voted for Trump. That’s less than 27 percent of the American public. A minority. Not much more than 1 in 4 people.
Trump’s key appeal to this dwindling group is simply his manner of flipping the bird at anything progressive. This action is just the latest. The EPA? Appoint a fossil fuel lobbyist. Department of Education? Appoint an amateur who is hostile to supporting public schools. International climate treaty? Withdraw from it. Subvert fuel efficiency for cars and roll back other conservation efforts. And so on. None of this really has much at all to do with policy. It’s grandstanding for mean-spirited audiences of smirking talk radio jocks. Flip-the-bird governance. Well, not really governance ... just acting out.
But like I said, the supporters of this deranged clown in the White House are a minority, and 2020 can be a lot like 2018.
3
This is just another example of the malicious spite Mr Trump has shown for the last three years over any initiative, agreement, treaty or legislation proposed by the previous administration.
Childhood and adult obesity is a serious problem in the US and in my own country and this latest ruling, no doubt pushed along by various lobbyists, has no justification in the weasel words offered by the Agriculture Department.
Mr Trump has done many terrible things so far, let’s now include condemning countless more children growing up to face a life of diabetic agony and financial worries over medication.
2
Another sad day in America. Schools need to hold themselves to a higher standard than that set by these guidelines.
Glad to hear that our children will be eating normal food again like the rest of us. And that includes meat and potatoes. And dairy products. And yes, the occasional chocolate bar. Come on, vegans, keep your diet to yourself and do not impose it on our children through government regulations.
Once again, Trump sacrifices the interests of those who love him so that big business can make more money.
Of course, his base doesn't care. Obesity ain't no big deal.
2
This is disgusting. Is this administration's goal to make the quality of our lives and the planet consistently worse? Contrary to what appears to be Trump's belief, there are things more important than money!
1
Heathy children in school poses a problem for the GOP, because students eating a healthy diet can focus better and learn more. In school students might learn about In alienable rights, the horrors of science, and worse yet our constitution and the rule of law. All of this is terrifying to members of the GOP.
2
Junk, starchy and sugary food should be avoided, not protein and good fats. Anytime the food pyramid is a big joke, and parents are free to send kids to school with a lunch box. Food waste is a huge problem.
I remember school lunches in the old days. The memory still makes me shudder. The worst story, which is absolutely true, follows. Trigger warning to squeamish folks. It was 1989 or 1990 in Columbia, South Carolina. I got a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. I made the ultimate mistake of taking the top piece of toast off the sandwich so the meat was visible. There was a tiny tongue, complete and fully formed, a fetal pig tongue (later in anatomy class I dissected fetal pigs) embedded in the middle of the piece of ham. I almost threw up. My friends noticed my discomfort so I showed them what caused it. None of us ever got the ham and cheese sandwich again.
2
Where did anyone get the idea that this was about nutrition and school kids rather than Trump's virulent and continual racism? If he really cared about nutrition, he would have insisted that all schoolchildren be served the "lunch of champions" every day, burnt cheeseburgers. :) I suppose that it is too late to save the defunct Trump Steaks by ordering the Department of Agriculture to insist that they be served in America's schools daily...
1
I take solace from some of these comments which berate Trump for his steady cruelty to everyone including children and the means to keep them healthy.
It's possible this attempt to sabotage nutrition standards will be challenged in court and I hope so.
That Trump would target children and deprive them of healthy and nutritious meals speaks to his brutish and hateful nature which is immune to treatment and is incurable.
1
Is this also part of Trump’s Russian-sponsored undermining of the American people? Make our kids fat, diabetic, and even more easily manipulated than their parents who voted for him? What rational reason could there be to set back this modicum of progress on our children’s health? Hint: It’s not rational. It’s all about Trump’s obsession with the Obamas and, since he will never be of their class of human being and American citizen, trying to undue everything they accomplished on our people’s behalf.
1
I don’t understand why Republicans hate children so much. They don’t want them to have nutritious meals and they certainly don’t want them to have access to health care. I can’t for the life of me understand how this is going to make our country great. Children are our future. How unhealthy do we want this country to be.
1
Just another example of how Trump's "pro life" stance really means "pro birth." The Trump administration doesn't care about children once they are born. The hypocrisy is sickening.
2
The Trump administration has no love for any common man US citizen. If Melania is fine with Barron having this same school lunch (plus he has to have it daily), I am fine. Also the sheer nastiness- shows the spite Trump has for Obama - surely something Trump himself ordered.
1
American farmers will still get their tariff remediation while our kids will now be eating Chinese chicken nougats instead of domestically grown fresh produce and fruit.
So called school administrators will pocket the savings.
1
After reading some of the comments, it is evident most everyone is on the same page. I believe that Trump could have been a decent president. The only thing that got in his way was his ego and the drive to get rid of everything Obama did. And the other urge he had was to make all of his buds more money by rolling back all of the things that would have made this earth a better place to live. my guess is it will take 50 yrs to correct all of the things he has undone.
1
" I believe that Trump could have been a decent president." Triumph of hope over experience.
1
Michelle Obama's primary cause was supporting military personnel and their families. Yes, she also started the White House garden and encouraged fitness and healthy eating among children. I believe the health focus was inspired in part by national security concerns that we are raising children who could not pass the basic physical requirements for serving in the armed forces. I mention this to say this wasn't just some "elitist" kick of Mrs. Obama's to get kids to eat like her family. At the root was concern expressed by folks in charge of our national security.
1
Is anyone surprised at this move? It's perfectly in keeping with Trump's Obama obsession. It has little to do with increased costs and everything to do with erasing as many of Obama policies as he can. Sickening!
1
So healthy children is a bad thing, clean air to breathe is a terrible thing, taking care of the disadvantaged is a horrible thing, keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals and mentally ill is unconstitutional ,,, The list seems endless.
The only really bad thing is this miserable administration and its yes men and women in Congress.
1
For something like 80+ years the republican party's main focus was rolling back FDR's New Deal - and for most of that time FDR was dead.
With Obama, they simply morphed that goal to him.
Trump was elected to roll back Obama.
The majority of kids getting these lunches are black, and it's paid for by white taxes.
This will play to his fan base AND to the big donor corporations! What more could you possibly want?
Australia's Regressives function on pretty much the same level. Maybe it's something they ate.
1
All Trump has done in office is to undo the Obama legacy; some examples are healthcare, the Iran nuclear deal and a whole lot of environmental regulations.
If Trump gets reelected, what's he going to do? He's got no policies of his own; no beliefs; no guiding principles. He's just a flamethrower who has yet to articulate a grand vision. He's not even good at building the wall. And he didn't get Mexico to pay for it; the US military is paying for it. What a joke.
1
At least Trump is consistent. First the wine tariffs and now this. Now listen up adults and children alike: order food from Mc Donald's and KFC and wash it all down with Coca Cola. Wait - what's next? Yet another food pyramid? At least it will have interesting graphics instead of those boring fruit and vegetables...
When will Mr. Trump stop attacking the American People? granting tax reductions for the big corporations, fighting against Obama Care and now helping the junk food industry, all these are clear measures that damage the majority of Americans.
1
As with Trump's assaults on environmental protections and healthcare, the losers will be the American people - in this case, kids.
1
I understand rolling over to business lobbying underscores this bizarre policy change, again demonstrating a lack of capacity to understanding long term financial and social implications off poor diet. But this looks like obsession with the Obamas. A 'transient' White House offical claims Trump is insecure, full of self doubt and self-hatred. Compare this to the well educated, articulate personalities of the Obamas; with public regard fueling Trump's own insecurities.It seems to leads his on a mission to abrogate their achievements, to 'create' a narrative of his own 'success'.
1
Is there no part of our government that isn’t ethically bankrupt?
1
Next announcement: Trump signs a law banning municipal sewers. They are un-American.
Private waste collection, contracted to a Trump Co. affiliate, will commence in all cities, at a cost of $400 per mo. It will however, be optional.
1
Curious to know how often Ivanka Trump's nannies feed the Kushner kids pizza and potatoes for lunch. You really have to wonder how she can countenance the caliber of moral disregard that allows for her father's increasingly petty antics.
2
I grew up.. we were dirt poor.. My mom still found something to pack a lunch with.. We never relied on the school cafeteria.
There have never been healthy lunch choices at my kids’ public school. Unless you think a turkey corn dog is healthy. I wonder why.
So much for these kids living into their 70’s. I was being offered this garbage for school lunch 50 years ago.
Why am I not surprised that an obese president who makes many of his “policy” decisions based on revenge against his predecessor would choose to make children pay by replacing healthy with unhealthy choices in their school lunches? Of course it doesn’t hurt that food companies applaud this change while nutritionists decry it. And the children for whom the meals they receive at school are their main meals of the day will end up eating like the president who prefers fast food to fruits and vegetables any day.
2
Michelle Obama won’t be affected by Trump’s pettiness. Last time I checked the First Lady looked fit and lovely. Children who eat school lunches will definitely be affected.
1
This brings me back to the Reagan days when ketchup was declared a vegetable. Déjà vu all over again...
2
There’s an amazing documentary about school lunch that I’d like to recommend. It’s called
“Eat Up”....the story: Boston Public Schools transitioned from prepackaged food to fresh cooked. The kids loved it, and the school department SAVED money, It was screened to congress...
This might look like bad news for America's children, but let's not forget that it's good news for food manufacturers. Yes, that was sarcasm.
1
How low can Trump go? He wallows in a cesspool of hatred about anything the Obamas did. His minions and his supporters are not a bit better than he is. Destruction of environment. Undermining children's health. Corruption galore. Food manufacturers and some school districts? The devil may care about our children. Everything for Trump and his lot is reduced to dollars and cents. What other 'surprise' has he in store for us. Maybe we should not complain too much. His 'beautiful' expensive wall (AKA Trump's folly) will protect us from our foes' ICBMs, unless before they bother to strike us the rotten infrastructure will collapse and save our enemies going to the trouble.
1
It's fascinating to me how fans of Trump and his policies act as though they are rebels bucking the system when they are supporting big business at their own expense. It reminds me of how smoking was marketed as anti-establishment while what it did was create addicts and make millions for corporations. Now, people want to feed their kids junk food as a rebellion against...the Obamas? It's the kids who will become addicted to sugar and processed foods. I don't see how obesity and disease are aspirational. Propaganda sure is powerful.
3
Why is it that children in other countries eat a variety of food but not here? My picky eater likes chicken nuggets and French fries and would eat it every meal if allowed. She also likes pasta with broccoli and now likes corn and peas. And she has never had chocolate milk or soda. If we decide it’s easier to just feed kids what they say they want then we will raise children who only eat junk. Why tell them they need to read and write? Or learn math? We could just install TVs and video games in a mc Donald’s. You can be president and not know geography or history! What a great country we live in!
This evening, for supper, I am having fresh greens (harvested today) dressed with olive oil and cider vinegar, with homemade sauerkraut, and a piece of homemade sourdough. An orange from a neighbor’s tree for dessert, a little cheese.
Why aren’t our children eating this well? Can it be that they don’t know how?
Can it be that both Donald and Melania Trump don’t know how, and don’t care? What do they feed their son, for example? Why would they be unwilling to have the rest of America’s children fed that way?
Just asking.
Right... after all, why should American schoolkids have nutritional meals at school? Not enough in the budget for anything that frivolous, right?
1
Peak Trump? I fear not yet, with an election on the horizon. Just when you think it can't get worse, it does. It has so far.....
1
Well, if children get heavier and develop heart disease/diabetes later on down the road, that will benefit the pharmas won't it...
There you go, that must be Trump's "rationale".
1
This move is simply another brick in the wall. Get kids to eat more unhealthy foods that the food companies can make more money on, turn the into obese diabetics that they drug companies can make more money on from treating their chronic illnesses which will drive up health care costs for all. Couple that with the plan to eliminate coverage for pre existing conditions and...voila! A perfect scorecard for the capitalist ventures that are the Republican Party. And don't forget that this is all done in the name of "individual liberty". Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
And if you don't think this kind of plotting is not going on in corporate board rooms and smoke filled Republican Party conclaves, I got a bridge in Arizona I'd like to sell you.
Wake up, America! You're being had and tricked into thinking being had is in your own best interest.
1
I really appreciate how zealous republicans are to poison our children. It’s hard to fathom how a political party can be so entirely devoid of any sort of decency.
2
Well well. Once again trip is doing what Putin would want (demand?) him to do.
1
Why am I not surprised that mr. Cheeseburger man will undo Michelle Obama's nutritional guidelines? After all she is Michelle Obama with whom Trump could never hold a candle and, secondly, Trump has always shown that he does not care a hoot about the well being of children. And as Trump sees it what is good enough for him is good enough for everyone else. Think for a moment whether you would want your children to imitate anything that Donald Trump has done or said.
1
Shades of the Reagan Department of Agriculture ("Catsup is a vegetable, so French fries with catsup counts as two.")
1
I hope they don't get rid of the ketchup. Ketchup is a vegetable, right?
1
Isn't Trump a fast food junkie? He fed sports teams visiting the White House junk foods, for crying out loud. I doubt he's a consumer of information about what constitutes a healthy diet.
1
What about those Trump stakes he was bragging about. no doubt the best cut of beef in the entire universe. Oh that was a flop? really?
1
There appears to be an essentially unreported systemic vendetta on Trump's part to undo every possible achievement of America's first black presidency. Pulling out of the Iran deal made no sense other than Obama made it. It doesn't seem to matter how small it might be, if the Obama's achieved it, Trump is determined to make it vanish. Goodbye nutrition standards. Trump obviously abhors the very idea that there could have been a Black President. This has gone way beyond partisan and is simply racism unleashed in Trumps petty vindictive way. Remember when The Times was reluctant to use the word "lie?" It is past time to call out these actions for what they are.
1
Such a petty spiteful move. It’s not even about money. Trump could rig some lucrative contracts with “healthy food” special interests just as easily as he could with some “junk food” special interests. It’s just about spite.
1
The hidden costs of MAGA, in damaged health, damaged ecosystems, and damaged power and stature among nations, are going ruin this country. Just you wait.
Thanks, Republicans. It’s 100% on you.
1
But Mr. Trump, you said Ivanka was "always pushing me to do the right thing." Remember? And she's a mom of three kids, what does she think of this?
Oh that's right! Her kids will never come near a public school.
Never mind.
1
Next, I suppose school districts will lay off the cafeteria staff, and privatize food service to McDonald's. "I'm lovi ' it!"
1
Even the vegetables aren't safe from the ravages of Trump's bruised ego.
1
This why we need to Warren/Sanders, who will keep big business out of kid's plates.
I do hope that the next Democratic President has a bagful of Executive orders to sign on his first day on the job.
Skip everything on the menu and prepare for a full day of autographs.
You might even prepare national emergency declarations.
1
I’m in the UK but my thoughts are fight back with good nutrition
Couple I met recently used to feed the Cambridge University Rowing team,now make healthy soup for the homeless in their area every evening
David
1
It’s about time. While the Obama’s children were eating delicious, expensive meals at their fancy private schools, public school children across the country were dumping their cafeteria slip into trash cans. “We know better” is the mantra of the left. But as the millions of pounds of badly prepared and tasteless cafeteria food rotting in landfills proves, forcing kids to eat food ghey don’t want is an expensive, fruitless act.
1
Why is this change being made? Because the ToDo list of the Trump administration is overturn or eliminate everything that was put into practice during the Obama administration.
1
The only reason is hatred for the Obama's. He is obsessed and wants to erase anything either of them have done. Making America better or worse is not his consideration.
1
Bring the Hamburgers, Cheeseburgers, Big Macs and Pitza, and french fries, yes, and let's not forget the fried chicken, just like the one Trump (and Barr) likes.
1
It will be great. The kids can be/eat just like Trump: obese, no exercise, cheeseburgers, fried chicken, etc. I hope they can avoid the hatefulness and revenge always on his mind.
1
Dumb policy imposed by an unelected prima donna. Let it rest in peace. Feed the children well and hopefully it will lead to a new generation of Republican voters.
1
We have more and more children in our country that need gastric bypass surgery so they don't die of obesity or diabetes. Trump and big food want to force feed our kids into becoming addicted to their junk food again. This is pure cruelty, plain and simple.
1
But what this really is, is the further unraveling of anything the Obama administration did that id good for people. The obsession with Obama regulations keeps going on and on.
1
Just another excellent example for young people provided by the “Be Best” program!
Caving into junk food manufacturers at the expense of our children. Trying to erase Obama's legacy is not good enough, trump has to go after Mrs. Obama's also. There is nothing lower than trump, nothing.
1
A new low.
It's subterranean.
2
I loathe Trump and his policies as much as the next sane person, but the fact that this one step is the thing that undoes Michelle Obama's legacy should tell you all you need to know about Michelle Obama's legacy.
But make sure to buy her merch!
2
I remember that during the Reagan administration ketchup was considered to be a vegetable . Must be a Republican theory of nutrition .
2
DJT knows that President Obama is a better man than he will ever be and it drives him crazy.
It’s just a shame that he has to take it out on kids...
And the environment
And women
And immigrants
And our allies
And on the rule of law
2
Oh my, why am I not surprised? The obsession with the Obama's continues! What would truly surprise me if folks didn't continue to give lip service regarding caring about all women and children in this country. Shameful!
1
"an effort long sought by food manufacturers..." Food Manufacturers. The companies that take actual food, add a bunch of sugar, salt, preservatives, artificial coloring and flavoring and a bunch of that cheese that's sitting in warehouses because they made too much of it, and manufacture it into something that is eaten but should not be called food. Let's define these companies more precisely.
5
Beware the Nutritional Industrial Complex — American agribusiness, packaging edibles in boxes and plastic containers laced with chemicals, preservatives and obscene amounts of sodium to extend shelf life, and artificial flavoring and fructose to mask the taste of foodstuffs nearing their expiration dates. Neither their plastic packaging nor the plasticized food inside are sustainable for healthy lives. The concept of “Farm fresh” produce and low-fat, low-calorie items are few and far between and price-prohibitive in grocery stores. They’ve been relegated to upscale food boutiques, the pricey Whole Foods ethos or, bless ‘em, itinerant farmers markets. Organically-grown foods are priced out of reach of millions, a quasi-elitist thing instead of an example of how all foods should be grown and produced. It’s not just our kids who’re at risk. It’s a society-wide menace as dangerous as Big Tobacco.
6
Potatoes should not be given such a bad rap ! They are one of the most versatile foods available, easier to grow in more diverse climates than any of the cereal grains, and nutritious.
The problem is how they are prepared. A baked potato with a choice of protein-based toppings (chili is a classic), plus a side salad or vegetable, and fruit for dessert, would be an easy to prepare and serve, economical, healthy lunch option for any age student. (or teacher or administrator).
14
I love potatoes but they aren’t good for you. All that starch which is basically sugar. Cauliflower is better.
3
Let them eat fries! And what's wrong with 19per cent of US kids being obese. C'mon America, you can do better than that!
1
Having choices is a good idea.
Variety is also a great idea.
Limiting sugars, fats, and salt is basic to nutrition and is best for everyone.
In an ala carte system recognize that calories are on a scale. Scales can be adapted to an average calorie per meal. Each days selection must fall within that scale. All the high calorie items together cannot exceed the highest suggested calorie intake for a day.
Limit the number of times a week when "fattier" foods like hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and pop are served. Don't remove them from the diet, but incorporate them.
Vegetables and fruit get boring, incorporate jello's, pudding's, yogurt and ice cream.
Food is difficult to regulate. Adjusting to everyone wanting the same thing on the same day is even more difficult to figure out when working within large populations.
Waste is not why a Federal Law should be changed, it is why a school district needs to review how food is offered, what are the combination of foods, and what is the variety. Survey the students, that will give more insight than guessing at why stuff ends up in the garbage.
In a survey, make sure the students recognize they need to choose 5 different entrees a week, not just hamburgers all week. Could be enlightening.
3
I agree with the need for healthier food and less fast food, as other readers have said, but we should expand this conversation to physical education in public school. I'm talking about a simple 30 or 40 minutes of running around, playing kick ball or softball or basketball; a brief outlet which can make it easier to concentrate.
Over the past few decades, as funding for public school has declined, 'phys ed' is not being included in many schools.
Congress people run on a platform which includes reduced taxes resulting in less school funding. The well to do can educate their children, afford tutors to help them with college boards, and pay for college. They can provide sports opportunities. The poor and middle class, not always.
We are in danger of cementing the wealth gap so the children of the poor do not receive a quality education and the potential of many of our citizens is not realized.
This will not make America great.
14
Is ketchup a vegetable again?
How about sugar, because it comes from beets?
Caffeine because it comes from beans, coffee beans?
20
@Lawrence -- That was the invention of Reagan, the sainted Ronald Reagan. I suppose it's all morphed into Trump now. His Agriculture Department is updating the science mired in the 70s and 80s that formed the basis for Reagan's, and Michelle Obama's, standards. But, you know, the saints can do no wrong and Trump is motivated only by pettiness and jealously of Obama's classy natural brown hue, as commentator Blackmamba says.
1
As a former teacher in a high school in Chicago, I remember that ketchup used to be considered a "vegetable." Is that age returning?
I remember also questioning why an orange was cut into quarters. I was told that each piece is a serving.
I also recall broccoli covered in cheese. That is like chocolate covered strawberries. Take a nutritious food and ruin it.
10
@Jan -- There is nothing non-nutritious about cheese. It contains protein, calcium, magnesium, and fat, which is essential for the absorption of vitamins A, E, D, and K. Cover broccoli with it, and the kids may actually eat the vegetable.
9
Do you really think the broccoli is covered in REAL cheese? It’s covered in processed cheese that has absolutely no nutritional value.
8
No the cheese they use.
One board member of the School Nutrition Association from my home state of Minnesota is Land of Lakes Dairy. I will not being buying any more Land of Lakes products if that company puts profits over the healthiness of our kids.
it would be nice if others follow suit.
20
While I disagreed with the low fat milk option, because all the good stuff is in the fat, I do believe in eating healthy. I want to argue that throwing out food is a local school issue. When I was in school many, many, many, years ago we had a real cook who did beautiful lunches. As an extremely finiky eater though, I hated cooked spinach, a favorite "good" food at the time. Waste was not allowed. We had to clear our plate before we could leave for recess. That's right, we had rules about not wasting food when kids were starving in other countries. My fifth grade teacher was not unfeeling about my spinach issue. She adviced that since spinach was served on chili day that I just put the spinach in my chili. The idea at the time was insane in an era where the dishes were divided to keep food from touching. But it worked! No more gaging my way thru lunch and it is a tool I use today in smoothies, stews and salads. Thank you school lunch program. Thank you to all the great cooks we had at Colton Elementary! And special thanks to Mrs. Seward for helping me find a way to eat healthier and not waste food!
23
@Patricia Tawney
Unfortunately, now many elementary schools are not even designed with kitchens, and the 'meal program' is based on airline-style meals (remember when airlines actually offered meals ?) which consist of single-portion servings in disposable containers on trays which may or may not be re-used (depending on the system).
Even if the focus is on 'healthy' foods, the packaging is extremely wasteful (1 or 2 meals / day X hundreds of students X 5 days / week) and the 'just throw it away' message is awful (not to mention how convenient it is to surreptitiously throw away undesirable food at the same time). And today, kids don't usually have the time to both 'eat lunch' and 'go to recess'. Sadly.
9
As usual the extreme right and left are wrong because they confuse ideology with actual facts. Common sense says that you should eat a balanced meal in moderation. I was raised on a farm in Galicia , Spain, and our diet consisted of pork meat cooked as a soup with potatoes and vegetables; we ate 4 eggs a week, whole milk everyday and fruits in season. Hamburger is just ground meat, which is animal protein, not junk food. I am opposed to Trump, but in this case changes are necessary.
2
@perdiz41 -- Everyone here is opposed to Trump, which in most cases means they are blinded to common sense. Nothing he does can possibly be right. Especially when it means opposing a program attributed to Michelle Obama. They would rather accept a nutritional standard more appropriate for the middle aged, middle class woman who thought it up -- salad -- than a diet suitable for growing kids.
Thank you! Finally someone reasonable..
As a high school student in NYC, I can guarantee you that the school food ideal—“green vegetables,” healthy snacks, etc., is nowhere to be found. This isn’t just a cliche complaint about school food as a high school student; I think my point is that if you are going to do something (in this case, attempt to make school food healthier), you should do it in earnest. I don’t think students like myself would be able to tell the difference between a ton of the soggy vegetables that we’re served; I’d actually argue that being served potatoes would be better—instead of having those green vegetables that no one eats, potatoes would definitely be eaten more; some vegetables are better than none. And it’s not like potatoes are useless in terms of nutrition, either.
Sorry for the tirade; it’s 2am here, I can’t sleep, and I hate school food so I started bringing my own lunch this year :(
18
Good job! I brought my own lunch to school through the 80s and early 90s. Only had school lunch pizza on Fridays as a treat. You are providing yourself with a better option and that’s something to be proud of. “Self care” is all the rage, but you are actually doing it!
The healthcare companies, pharmas, hospitals and doctors will love Trump for the legacy of illnesses that this promises.
Things are looking up !
9
Who in their rightful mind lets kids eat warm at an American school? Mine make their sandwiches in the evening and I cook dinner for my family in the evening.
When I lived In Belgium everyone ate warm for lunch. Fried food is not served at schools, some maybe once a week, tops.
Who keeps voting for these people?
7
The concept of a snack is way overrated. Schools shouldn’t provide them at all, except for maybe the apple-a-day bin. Sacks should generally be brought from home—problem solved! What all schools should offer is mandatory cursive writing instruction, but that’s another story.
9
Exactly! Three meals a day and no snacking.
"Friday’s proposal goes further. It allows schools to adjust fruit servings during breakfast, to reduce waste, it said, and to make room for 'meats and meat alternates.'”
Sounds to me like Cholesterol King Donald wants to sell Trump Steaks to schools (and pocket the profits of course).
10
@Joyce
An entire cup of fruit would be a lot for me first thing in the morning, let alone a kindergartner. And it would be high in sugar. What is wrong with a choice between half and one cup portions ? Just ladeling out the food with no consideration for if it will be eaten is not a good strategy ! Proteins (meats / eggs / yogurts / etc.) are a good breakfast choice because, unlike fruits & carbs, they provide fuel which lasts all morning.
I was raised in the 'carbs good / fats bad' nutritional years (when it was important to promote Midwest wheat products). That is one of the big drivers of diabetes. Humans need to eat healthy fats, but it is tough to re-set that meme. One way to start is by going back to whole fat milk, which is more nourishing.
"A spokeswoman for the department said that it had not intended to roll out the proposed rule on Mrs. Obama’s birthday, although some Democratic aides on Capitol Hill had their doubts."
Those doubts WILL be founded. Remember when Wilbur insisted The Question on the Census was to defend the Voting Rights Act? This too shall leak.
4
One of the worst aspects of living in American society is the undue influence of agribusiness and other businesses which determine just what is sold in grocery stores.
Americans end up with processed, sugared and salted food which promotes unwellness when eaten over time. Consider the links between stomach cancer and a higher salt diet or the link between a higher sugar diet and obesity.
Now, with a "hamberder"-eating leader, what little dietary improvement kids have in their diet is compromised. Guess who pushed for this decline?
Americans, your problems begin with the unhealthy influence of money upon your diet and politics and the Chinese won't "eat your lunch" either – they will eat something better.
20
I currently work at a Chinese university, where I regularly eat in the cafeteria. I've worked at a Korean one, where I ate at that cafeteria, and I was an exchange student in France, living in a dorm, and ate at the dorm cafeteria.
These three cuisines are very different, but the meals that were served in the cafeterias were all very well balanced, with vegetables (much more vegetables in the Asian ones than fruits), and were all composed of non-processed foods. Like real food.
Also, they were almost always delicious. I've come to love liver and spinach at my Chinese cafeteria. On Christmas eve in France we got this wonderful vegetable lasagna with jamon cru (prosciutto) as an appetizer.
When I recall grouping up with the soggy, greasy corn dogs and soggy, greasy french fries I ate at my American schools I pity what American kids have to eat.
47
Sure Trump supporters will applause the news as a new genius move....from President Trump.
Interesting to see a country running full speed ahead to a wall and supporting a cult leader.
It will make a fascinating section in history book 20 years from now..
Bottom line this president can not stand anything done by a black man/woman (in this case) and he will go again and again to dismantle everything for the next 4 years as Dem as unable to sell a clear message...
Good luck my American friends
26
Trump's move has nothing to do with race. It has to do with a narcissist who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, when he wants in order to serve himself and the conglomerates he supports.
1
Just Trump being Trump?
You betcha!
No act too small or too mean for Trump to undertake to make America worse--again!
Prediction: Not fit to rule, and as Trump's legal problems and failings mount, it will get even worse.
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/17/797457501/the-authors-of-a-very-stable-genius-on-their-book-about-the-trump-white-house
27
Nobody said it better than Rick Wilson: "Everything Trump Touches Dies."
36
When a person who can’t understand science, health care, ecology is put in charge he inflicts his utter ignorance not only on the taxpayers but our children and generations to come. Intentionally uninformed man. What a crying shame and his republican cronies are as guilty as him.
38
What a really nasty man this Trump is. I just hope there is a God and that he will get what he deserves.
28
Role already taken, by Trump. Why do you think he is so popular with evangelicals?
1
Disgraceful state of affairs when a government can’t even get this right. If you’re promoting policy that will cause childhood obesity, you’re a criminal.
Lock him up.
26
Hard to believe there is a leader worse than Australia's PM but Trump must be close. How many hours did he waste plotting this small minded act of revenge?
Trump and ScoMo both useless!
41
@De,
Before you comment again, try learning about the structure of Australian politics with respect to Federal and State responsibilities. Once you do that, you might find that your PM is hamstrung in what he does. There is a big difference between Morrison and Trump.
I guess Trump doesn't care if American children be best.
;)
29
Michelle Obama helped create a healthy menu for school children to start them on the path to a long, active and healthy adulthood.
If your kid follows the Trump diet, on the other hand, he or she may grow up to be President! An impeached President, but President nonetheless.
11
“Nanny state,” the bloviating conservatives claim.
Actually, a Nanny state would tell parents what to pack for their kids.
As a tax payer, I expect the schools to serve healthy food, not sugar and fat laden slop.
Conservatives are always, always about their business cronies maximizing profits, hence the habitual lying.
They lie about tax cuts, they lie about trickle down economics, they lie about austerity, they lie about self-regulation, they lie about the 2nd Amendment.
32
Trump and Company have achieved yet another level in their sinfulness. Always work to satisfy corporate greed: the story of Trump's life.
Republicans are comfortable with this. Saint Ronald Reagan declared that ketchup was a vegetable--i.e., a good enough vegetable for American school children, not for himself and his high-flying wife.
9
Ketchup is a vegetable.
2
Especially when it contains sugar.
1
Would Trump’s family members eat a meal like he proposes , or one like Mrs Obama recommended ?
I think everyone knows the answer
10
KFC for everyone!
1
Maybe if we didn't subsidize all kinds of high calorie, low nutrition foods we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic in the first place. Right now we have a nanny system for farmers and ranchers. These socialist farmers receive many billions in subsidizes each year to grow crops that make people hungry, lazy, and obese.
29
Donald Trump wants everyone to be as nimble and svelte as himself ,Bill Barr and Mike Pompeo.
Trump is also envious of the Obama's classy natural brown hue, fitness, scandal free good character and articulate cool.
55
I don't understand how the food can be so bad. Liberals run the schools and everything should be perfect. If you can't manage to feed the nation's children properly it's your own fault. Don't blame Trump.
1
Just a fact to know. What kids get to eat in schools is not controlled by tree-hugging neo-socialists. It’s controlled rural state political people who get their funding fro big agricultural biz. I know that having grown up in Kansas and having inherited such property.
As for what children pick to eat is substantially shaped by TV ads featuring children eating food. Of course adults don’t watch much media aimed at Children’s purchases. I even tested such strategies as a scientist.
13
Schools don’t run school lunch programs. The rural members of Congress run the school lunch lunch program. Follow the money.
I think this is more about Trump's hatred of the Obamas than any baroque collusion with Big Business interests. Trump reverses anything Barack or Michelle initiated. And here we go again with the ketchup being a vegetable.
21
Trump is a bully. He helps the strong and hurts the weak. Please fellow Democrats, vote in November no matter who our nominees are.
21
At best both Obamas will hold posts within the 2020 Dem administration - perhaps Michelle as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
10
This man is evil. Pure, unadulterated evil.
May the Constitution prevail and rid our Republic of this darkness...
30
The Republican/Trump/conservative plan of "tax cuts for me and austerity for everyone else" is really just cruelty and organized degradation as a governing principle!
In 2016 Trump won by lying about being a populist. Here's hoping beloved Democrats have learned their lesson and hire a real populist to blow them away. Recognize we're in a populist era and don't let Trump steal your breakfast again!
4
Limitless petty spite and hate.
32
@Ben Lieberman What else does he have to offer?
And besides, for him those greasy french fries were the best part of any school lunch.
What a mean and petty little man. By these childish moves he is only proving that he really ISN'T (and never will be) as good a president as Obama or as smart a person as Michelle is.
34
The trumpster is incredible. If something, anything, has an Obama label on it he twitches and instead of saying "Mufasa", he mumbles "Obamaaaaa. Gotta trash it ". Hope we make until next January and he's sent packing back to NYC. Scary.
8
We don’t want him back, thank you.
The kids were throwing away a lot of the food. Let's not turn Michelle Obama into a saint
5
@AACNY If there's anything saintly about her, it's not because we appreciate her work. It's because of who she is and what she does.
Like Ivana?
3
@AACNY We haven't seen or heard any proof of such. "Everyone knows" or "many people say" is about as truthful as this excuse.
It is not difficult to have good recipes that kids like. It's far more difficult to make the attempt it seems.
No, this is just another convenient justification for placating business concerns at the expense of the common good.
11
I’m not a fan of unhealthy lunches but I see little point of serving good at school. I never heard of breakfast at school hen I grew up. And lunch was what I brought from home or I went hungry. Funny, I thought the purpose of school was academics. Not nutrition.
3
@Patrick Campbell Some families don't have enough money to provide lunch for their kids, not to speak of healthy items like fruit and veggies.
So, which would you rather see: kids going hungry or eating potato chops for lunch, or the school system providing (or at least offering) decent food to our children?
Kids who are hungry or malnourished can't concentrate and become aggressive. They can't learn, and the result is we - as a society - fail.
2
@Patrick Campbell "Funny, I thought the purpose of school was academics"
So you saw no point in having a gym or a playground ?
Difficult to learn when you’re chronically hungry and malnourished.
1
Notice that no one is mentioned PE and exercise. That would require work and some sweat. Many public schools have eliminated PE in favor of extra classes to meet top down test requirements. In my kids' private school the PE program is intense. For athletics it's even worse. Guess what, not one obese kid in the school.
11
Yes, schools should offer PE. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t also offer nutritious food.
11
The article is about school, not exercice. And no physical activity can offset a poor diet.
1
Many kids around the country rely on meals being provided at school because of their living conditions. For many of these kids if a meal wasn't provided they wouldn't know where their next meal was coming from. It is important that the breakfasts and lunches provided at school give kids real nutritional value. It not only helps them now, but in the long term it will teach them healthy eating habits. Because of the things the Obamas put in place for these kids they have been given access to healthy, consistent food that would have never been an option otherwise. Focusing on the short term cost of fruit and vegetables is going to cause a problem for the long term health of these kids. The risk of them becoming obese, having heart problems, diabetes, etc. will only increase if they are never given the opportunity to develop healthy habits. Eating habits start young and they persist. School aged children are the ones who gain the most from healthy eating - because every part of them is still developing and growing. Theres ways to make the food appetizing to children while making it nutritional. Kids are not just attracted to sugary junk food. Kids are going to waste food regardless of whether it is healthy greens or pizza and burgers. Cutting back on the regulations will cause schools to start leaning towards the cheaper options - like potatoes - which don't give kids the nutritional value they need because they are basically processed like quick carbs.
27
Look at what Trump eats - it’s hard to tell whether he seeks to undermine children’s health for political reason or he actually believes heavily processed foods are good for you.
13
I love Michelle Obama and appreciate what she’s trying to do, but this “nonfat/low-fat milk is healthier” is horribly outdated. Full fat milk is healthier, is associated with LOWER rates of obesity and no one drinks enough milk in a day to gain weight from the few extra calories. Otherwise, I’m with her on the fruits and vegetables requirements. Kids need to start good eating habits early, before it’s too late.
14
@Elsie H And it wouldn't hurt if this actually started "early" -- at home.
Fruits and vegetables expensive? I have been shopping for food for 45 years, daily for the last ten, and as every food-shopper I know that what is expensive is protein — meat, fish, cheese. Particularly meat and fish. Prepared foods are, of course, also expensive. The expensive F&V argument is hogwash.
19
@Denis Pelletier Are you telling us that these kids get lots of expensive meat and fish?
Today, while serving 30 million Michelle Obama approved school lunches, 75% of which comprise low income and minority students where 1/2 of the child's daily caloric needs are consumed, $1.2 billion of these meals are thrown in the trash by students, most are the holy foods: fruits and vegetables. It seems that the fad of the day nutrition message hasn't reached the majority of consumers, the school kids. So when offered foods they don't like, haven't liked, don't eat anyway and now they are being coerced into taking fruits and vegetables from the cafeteria serving table, it is not surprising that a Michelle Obama endorsement doesn't mean diddly squat. This isn't school kid's rebellion; rather, a poorly thought out, "feel good" elite adult program baring no relationship to the people who are the end consumers: kids.
Now, in the face of horrific waste in purchase, preparation and most ending up in some landfill, maybe, just maybe Government administrators will ignore the clamor of "do gooders" and other out of mind out of touch voices, and ask children what they will eat, when, and how much. A good place to start is to interview the "breakfast" children who come to school hungry. They will eat: eggs, bacon, ham, milk and if you make a wrap of it, they prefer the long term benefits of high protein diet to curb the hunger pains. Now I've asked them, watched them choose what they eat, and I can tell you it ain't fruits (occasional apple). Feed children what they they will eat.
6
@RiHo08 Having good recipes is very important but it seems it is easier to serve junk than to develop better recipes.
2
Hogwash. If you start kids early enough, in preschool, before they develop bad habits, they will eat fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. As an Early Childhood teacher, I see this. They may not always like everything on their plates (who does?) but will at least give them a try.
11
@RiHo08 Are you proposing that, instead, we provide children with $1.2 billion in cookies and ice cream so the money won't go to waste?
2
It reads like a pharma initiative to promote insulin dependency, no different than nicotine and opioids.
12
In my home town of Bellingham, WA, the comments regarding this news are sad. A particular women from Lynden Christian School is adamant that people should "feed their kids themselves and not ask for handouts" and yes, this is the same community that is "right to life'. Who cares that after life the kids are hungry or suffer? While it would be an honorable goal to think that every person with children could feed them healthy foods, this is simply not true. When kids arrive at school hungry they do not thrive.
25
It goes without saying that parents should feed their children, that being am I reading you correctly? They should not have a right to live?
1
@JoAnn So what are you suggesting with regard to this topic of "school nutrition"?
More money than every before goes to public schools. The kids don't get healthy food, school supplies, etc... The money all goes to teachers, administrators and bureaucrats.
Oh, sure. Those undeserving teachers, how dare they get paid a living wage for teaching your children? And last I heard, teachers have to pay for their classrooms’ school supplies out of their own pockets.
1
@Reader In Wash, DC Okay. And now back to THIS story.
1
You look at all the environmental regulations enacted during Obama's administration that Trump is overturning and this shouldn't come as much of a shock. The guy has exactly zero regard for the healthy future of the planet. All in the name of protecting the bottom line of his sponsors, and his family.
16
Low income people will suffer the most. Poor nutrition affects brain development. The Republican War on the Poor needs to stop.
Furthermore, this will only increase the health issues this country already experiences. Obesity,metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease will increase
Why is the GOP so mean?
11
Nobody should have kids they can’t even feed, but some people think it’s ok to live from charity.... people know their “rights”...
The change in school nutrition standards should set off flashing red lights.Overweight children and those with diabetes have serious health problems -and what is Trump doing to solve the cost of healthcare-nothing.This step backward is dooming many children to unhealthy lives and a compromised future. Trump cares more about putting more money into budgets than he does feeding hungry children who need a healthy diet.Trump’s reversing all restrictions on clean water, clean air and healthy food show that his motto is to Make America Grim Again.
7
Long after Trump is out of office and remembered as a low point in our history, Michelle Obama will still represent a force for positive change, as well as an icon of decency and patriotism.
24
Why must this be mandated at the federal level? Things like foreign policy or basic rights, sure. Or uniform standards to enable smoith commerce. But school lunch details? Why?
1
@Ilya Shlyakhter Somebody got the idea that these children are Americans. Granted, our children's health and lives are not as important as "smooth commerce," but some of us do care anyway.
6
As a parent in this globalized world I am glad that America is going to feed their school kids lousy food - as lousy food equals lousy results making it easier for everyone else.
And as an aside - it still startles why some Americans cannot grapple with the idea that the state has a place when it comes to things like education and here, nutrition. If your rugged individualism was so great, how come your nation is undergoing an obesity epidemic and the astronomical health care costs associated with it?
Your drive to the bottom will leave you exactly there.
19
It's nothing but mean spirited. School meals are sometimes the only full meals children eat. To deny fresh fruit and vegetables for children in favor of cost savings is nothin but class warfare.
18
If we really want to see kids getting healthier, how about making food part of their curriculum? Get them involved in the growing, harvesting, processing and preparing from an early age. I see no reason why many schools can't produce at least some of their own food, maybe not the beef and pork but certainly some vegetables, fruit, eggs and yes even chicken. In fact the chicken could handle some of the so called "waste". How about aquaponics? Fish and vegetables could be grown at the same time while the children are learning about life cycles, chemistry, nutrition, etc. I feel a big part of the problem here is the disconnect most people have about where their food comes from.
16
@David Yes. Agreed. But it might help to see that they're fed, too.
5
Many kids around the country rely on meals being provided at school because of their living conditions. For many of these kids if a meal wasn't provided they wouldn't know where their next meal was coming from. It is important that the breakfasts and lunches provided at school give kids real nutritional value. It not only helps them now, but in the long term it will teach them healthy eating habits. Focusing on the short term cost of fruit and vegetables is going to cause a problem for the long term health of these kids. School aged children are the ones who gain the most from healthy eating - because every part of them is still developing and growing. Kids are going to waste food regardless of whether it is healthy greens or pizza and burgers.
17
Meanwhile, private schools will continue to have healthy options presumably leading to healthier, more focused students and, so, the disparity deepens.
21
I raised two very healthy kids on a no refined sugar diet ( no sugary cereal or pop allowed) and on a diet of whole foods with everything in moderation. Avoid highly processed foods full of hidden sugars, preservatives and trans fats and you will be just fine. It’s not that complicated. All the comments for and against meats and for and against plant based diets miss the point. Feed the kids whole foods vs highly processed foods and they will be healthy and robust. Give them lots of refined carbohydrates and their glucose levels will spike causing all kinds of issues from diabetes, to heart disease to obesity to inflammation to epilepsy to all kinds of other chronic diseases.
16
Many... perhaps the majority...of poor families live in food deserts where there isn't access to the healthy foods you were fortunate to have. And for many poor families, the majority of their income goes to housing costs. There's no money left for a healthy food budget. And remember, the SNAP (food stamp) program is being cut...so people who rely on it to purchase healthier food will no longer be able to do so. For the majority of poor families, providing healthy meals isn't as simple as you believe it is.
17
@Stephanie Oh, the food is available. That's why middle-class-plus people in those "food deserts" can eat healthily if they so choose. But what about the others?
1
@JP Agreed. And now back to the topic of school nutrition.
so where are the data?
5
@Acep1111 Do you have Internet access?
Trump's War on Children: In order to woo junk food money into his reelection campaign, Donald Trump dedicates himself into shortening the lives of America's children.
24
@Jim Manis Oh, I don't know about that dedication. He just likes junk food.
@kenneth Been heavily documented, too.
I hope these rules will apply and harshly implemented at Trump's children and grandchildren"s school.
13
This could be good news, if Michelle gets angry enough to run for President.
23
Check my letter three years ago: trump will stop at NOTHING to undo everything that Obama put in place.
Here's an idea, let us give all of the uneaten food from the school's programs each day to the homeless. Wi-Win...
13
One more way this administration is making America lose. One more way of putting big business $$$ over people. One more way to hurt the poor. School lunches in Canada and France (and most of civilized world) more nutritious and balanced than in US.
17
So, has fruit and vegetable averse Trump had the former First Lady’s glorious White House vegetable garden, a hands-on teaching device for kids, paved over yet?
15
Yes he had that ripped out almost immediately.
This from the man who thinks KFC, McDonalds and Diet Coke are a balanced meal.
24
Let's put a generation of children on the food choices of Potus. Good plan. Not.
10
He only goes low.
18
If you want your children to look like Trump and have his favorite foods on their menus at school you probably should not have had kids in the first place. Check out school food in countries that are known for training chefs and having healthy diets that can easily be duplicated in the USA. I grew up fat and sickly in a middle-class family that put too much food on the table, although my mother was a great cook, and everyone came to our house on holidays. After college I stopped eating meat and it wasn't until my son was born that I added chicken to my diet that was basically vegetarian with fish like sardines and salmon added a few ties a week. My son is 6'4" and a basketball player and grew up on a meatless Mediterranean diet and has been spared my sickly childhood and many of the health issues that some of his friends experienced. Parent can set examples for their children and make meals both healthy and substantive with imagination and cooking skills. Schools can do the same. A world full of Trump-like children would be worse than any Stephen King horror story.
13
When I watched the school lunch portion of Michael Moore's Where to Invade Next, I cried. What they served in France, at a low-income school, was beautiful, healthy, served-at-the-table food. Education isn't just about learning to read and do math, as the mandatory testing seems to suggest: we should be educating the whole student, mind and body, and if we teach them what nutritious, delicious meals look (and taste!) like, that is information they can carry with them into adulthood. Learning what to eat is an education in itself, one that people of all socio-economic and educational backgrounds deserve. With that sort of education, we'd all be better off.
19
@Sarah But if we do that, how is Burger King going to "nourish" its bottom line?
These same people undermining the earth and all on it are themselves parents. “Hope you understand child that the cost of these healthy school lunches were cutting into my profit margin. Love you.”
18
Just happened on this, while watching Alan Dershowitz saying he will be impartial on behalf of the constitution as 45's lawyer. So this administration rolls back laws on environment, support to families, unions, food safety, any Obama era legislation and the American people remain silent? Shameful!
29
Yeah! That's right Donnie! Make America Great Again! Bring us back to the good old days when ketchup packets counted for vegetables and Mom made casseroles out of cat food!
30
Apparently anything done by any Obama must be reversed. He withdraws from the Iran deal and we almost go to war. He changes nutrition requirements so we can have more obese diabetic adults and children. Not everyone wants to look like Mr. Trump. And the rest of us don’t have a doctor with us 24/7.
33
Oh, is ketchup a vegetable again?
19
@Rob Brown It's"plant-based."
@Rob Brown
Relish, too!
Do congressional members have anything to say about the Trump/ Purdue (Chicken Baron) plan to destroy schoolchildren’s health? Do they even care?
13
So now Trump is attacking Michelle Obama's efforts to help young children eat better food in school as his Senate trial begins.
For many children, school lunches may be the most nutritious meal they get during the day, especially if their family faces food insecurity. There are numerous US neighborhoods with little to no access to healthy fruits and vegetables. They are called food deserts. That's why healthy nutritious school lunches could be one of the few places children get important phytonutrients from fresh fruits and vegetables instead of from heavily processed foods with too much salt, sugar, fat and toxic chemical additives.
We need to keep the higher standards for children's school food spearheaded by former First Lady Michelle Obama. Trump's efforts are petty, stupid and wrong.
34
As long as Trump gets his Big Mac, fries and a Coke, he doesn't care what school children eat. I doubt the timing of the roll back was a coincidence. It is sad and maddening to see foolish decisions being made at the expense of the health of our children.
27
@Peyton Collier-Kerr
Agreed, Timing was no coincidence. On the eve of his Senate trial and MLK weekend too.
Pathetic.
7
@Vicki I'm pretty much on your side with regard to the school-nutrition issue, but I'm not really sure that it had much to do with Martin Luther King.
Trump's has two ambitions: The first is to steal everything material he can from anyone he can, while the second is to destroy anything created during the Obama administration, which is just another form of stealing: Stealing of hope, of kindness, of decency, of justice.
32