food museum blog

On Fat Kids and Stingy Buffets

The Washington Post is running Part 2 of a major piece on childhood obesity in America, an exploration of the excesses of one country's love affair with bad food and drink choices, among other things.  But always part of this not-new story, is that in the poorest of our country's neighborhoods are the fewest decent supermarkets. The well-off have access to good food, gyms,  personal trainers, and multitudes of how-to books and magazines on health and well-being.
( My unsolicited advice to all new parents--never take your kid to McD's or the equivalent, period. One visit and they are hooked. )

Meanwhile, to buffets---I returned to a favorite Indian joint recently and found two of the three primary veggie offerings were 1--potatoes and a few green pepper hunks; 2--carrots and peas. Neither dish had much appeal, even though I enjoy both spuds and carrots. But I felt I was witnessing the "cheapening down" of what was once a worthwhile buffet, a phenomenon written up on the Internets recently.  And, puzzled by the not so fine taste of the chapati bread, I decided that they were made with inferior flour, to save costs, given the huge rise in wheat prices.  I will ask about that the next time I stop by, if I stop by again, but before parking myself for lunch, I will more closely scan the buffet offerings.   

Slaughtering News From All Over, Plus, A Teapot Scandal?

Grateful that I do not have 150 feet of intestines tucked inside, as do manatees, I see that the current crop of free healthy product magazines are recommending a huge roster of "cleansing" items this winter, none of which would be needed if the magazines' audience were eating as advised in the first place, right?

But I digress---a slaughterhouse video from Hallmark Meat Packing in Chino, CA, has prompted Los Angeles schools to withhold meat products from a company called Westland that buys meat from Hallmark, on the grounds that the "downer" cattle unable to walk towards their deaths were being dragged or pushed in, and thus might be suffering from diseases that could render their meat iffy for human consumption. Westland provides ground beef to the USDA's National School Lunch Program.  Many school systems around the US have chosen to reject meat from Westland, including some in Oregon and Florida.

( Meanwhile, rival groups in Kenya have been killing one another not only machetes, but also with bows and arrows. )

Japanese whalers, despite concentrated efforts to stop them, continue to slaughter whales with impunity, though Australian authorities now claim the video evidence they have will bolster their case against the spurious legal claim of the Japanese that they are taking whales for "research purposes."

Apparently The Teapot Museum of Sparta, NC, was the recipient of a $500,000 grant from the Federal Transportation office back in 2006, a fact now revealed to all and sundry with great derision. This report from 2007 says the planned new museum idea has been scrapped. Now as one who applauds any museum effort directed however tangentially at the subject of food, the stuff that sustains us, rather than at yet another monument to war and destruction, I must say that chunk of change would have been a fine first step towards the creation of the National Museum of Food & Farm on the Mall in Washington, DC. Read more about The FOOD Museum's proposal here.

Spare the "Nutrition," Spoil the Child with Good Food

I was just listening to a woman from the Center for Science in the Public Interest speaking with Ed Schultz on his  radio show about children and obesity. Now we all recognize that this is a huge  ( sorry) problem in America, as well as in Britain and elsewhere, and much has been said and written about it. But this morning, after chat about changing what is in school vending machines, and an acknowledgment that  lunchrooms have slowly improved their offerings,  the speaker said something about "teaching nutrition" in schools.

Please, no. Turning the food thing into a nutrition lesson will kill off anyone's appetite. ( Except for those of budding biochemists, perhaps.)  Imagine the young eyes glazing over when asked to focus on good and bad fats, which vitamins do what, amino acids--huh?, and so on.  This seems to play right  into the "fear  food" syndrome that appears so bizarre to many Europeans.

Kids need to experience what good food really is--from growing their own veggies, to cooking up tasty meals full of variety, to sitting down with classmates and teachers and family and eating well. And cleaning up!

They also could take pleasure in knowing where food comes from, who raises it, and what its  history is.  ( Yes, The FOOD Museum offers proven educational programs along these lines!)

Interspersed with all that, like green peas in basmati rice, could be inserted stealth nuggets about nutrition...

( Pic from www.newmexicokids.org/.../index.htm.)

Fluffernutter Wars Rage in Massachusetts

Thanks to alert food fan Ezra Ball for informing us about the key school lunch reform issue of the day--should kids in Massachusetts be served Fluffernutter sandwiches at school ? And--a prime legislative issue-- should said sandwich be named the state's official one?

State senator Jarrett Barrios has called for legislation limiting the serving of Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter sandwiches to schoolkids to once a week. This bizarre icky-sweet combo, traditionally served on Wonderbread or an equivalent non-bread, is a Massachusetts kiddie staple. Fluff is made from corn syrup, sugar syrup, vanilla and egg whites, with no preservatives, evidently. And it's still produced in Lynn, Massachusetts by Durkee-Mower Inc. The company's history is longish and detailed and reading some of it sparked a memory in Foodie of her actual young self scooping out Fluff from the jar and eating it on top of a scoop of chocolate ice cream....and licking the spoon, with catlike thoroughness. ( She had Massachusetts relations who plied her with the stuff...It was delish, come to think of it.)

Anyway, now another state rep, Kathi-Anne Reinstein, wants to make the Fluffernutter the state sandwich. Stay tuned.

As for actual marshmallows, those melting gooey divine glops of sugar integral to the S'mores beloved of campers, they once were derived from a plant. The marsh mallow's  mucilaginous content was used to hold the sugar and eggwhite together--these days gelatin made from animal bones does the trick, though we don't think gelatin is a factor in M. Fluff.

Fewer Soft Drinks, Lower Saturated Fat

Good news in the food biz!

USA Today reports on a deal reached with beverage distributors to remove soft drinks from all elementary and middle school vending machines. The arrangement was worked out by Bill Clinton's Foundation, in partnership with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the American Heart Association.

USA Today is also running a piece by Bruce Horovitz that reports Frito-Lay is replacing cottonseed oil with sunflower oil, for the cooking of all its potato chip lines.

"The result of the latest change: Saturated fat in the flagship Lay's Classic chips, for example, will drop by 66%, from 3 grams per 1-ounce serving to a single gram. Based on Lay's total sales, the switch will cut 60 million pounds of saturated fat a year from the nation's diet, says Rocco Papalia, senior vice president of R&D.

Not that this solves America's fat problems. 'Moving in a healthier direction is good,' says Jo Ann Hattner, a nutrition consultant in San Francisco. 'But just because your chips got lower in saturated fat doesn't mean you can go out to eat fried chicken.'"

Let 'Em Eat Crap! ( Other Than During Test Week...)

This just caught our eyes, courtesy the Miami Herald, April 21.  Seems a Fort Lauderdale elementary school principal was pleased that her 4th graders made advances in the standardized test for writing, part of Florida's FCAT.  And, that it had been an entire school effort.

Said she: " Everyone became reading and writing specialists," adding that even the school cafeteria workers helped out by planning test week menus low in sugar and free of high fructose corn syrup.

Heading Towards School Lunch Reform

Those concerned with what kids eat at school, please read this from Marian Burros in today's NYTimes.

( Pic at left, labeled Kids Eating Vegetables!, is from www.schoolhouseofwonder.org, Durham, NC.)

Bill Clinton, Reformed Fat Boy, Will Share His Story with Students

Former President Bill Clinton  begins a tour of US schools this September in connection with an American Heart Association campaign aimed to "reduce childhood obesity in the US within 10 years," according to Sanjay Gupta's column in the August 1 Time Magazine.  Evidently Bill was 210 pounds at age 15, and not pleased about it.
Clinton suggests restaurants like McD's need to change their core menus. Tra La. The column points out that McD's is one of the largest purchasers of apples in the US, indicating this is  "progress." If those apples are going into the transfat and sugar laden apple  "pies" the company sells, that ain't progress, baby.  (  McD's website lists 250 calories per 2.7 oz baked apple pie serving, 34 carbs, 11 grams of fat of which 4.5 are trans fat.)  Anyway, as Morgan Spurlock points out in his film, Supersize Me, and his book, few people go to McD's for the salads and apples.
( Pic of BC from www.jaybrewer.net--Okay, we know Bill no longer eats the stuff, right??)

School Lunch Reform--A Full Report, PLUS " The White Meal"

The FOOD Museum's motto is from famed writer about food and eating, MFK Fisher, who said in an interview once, "First we eat. Then we do everything else."
Right--before we can build, paint, teach, fight, play, write, manage, jog,  organize, research, act, compete, we must be fueled.  This includes children, too, oddly.

How well are we feeding schoolchildren in the US? How well elsewhere in the world?  Morgan Sperlock, the fellow who ate McDonald's for a month and recorded his "findings" on film for his award-winning documentary "Super Size Me,"  has a book out called Don't Eat This Book.   In it he states: " Some 23,000 of our public schools now have fast-food franchises in them."   And, the US government tosses in vatfuls of surplus milk, cheese, and oodles of meat. Clearly we in the US are really really doing a swell job at feeding our kids at school.

But enough. The tide may be turning. For a full  and positive report on this topic, with sources, links and looks at countries beyond the US, please visit The FOOD Museum's newest offering compiled by Tom Hughes,  all about school lunch reform.

Hey--remember "mystery meat?"  Remember "the white meal?"  It appeared once a week when Foodie went to college back when dinos roamed the quad,  and she knows college kids are not school children but still, it was a school, and even then, before Foodie became, well, Foodie, she had been raised on tasty, healthy, colorful food. So "the white meal" really had an impact.
Now Foodie is willing to reveal the makeup of "the white meal," but first, let's see what you Blog commenters think it contained, ok?  Weigh in..........
   

Arnold Says CA to Terminate Junk in School Vending Machines

Twinkies may someday be out, apples in, in CA school vending machines, if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can move ahead with appropriate legislation.

According to an article by mindfully.org, " 'First of all, we in California this year are introducing legislation that would ban all the sale of junk food in the schools,' Schwarzenegger said.

Aides said later that the governor supports a bill by Democratic state Sen. Martha Escutia that would ban soft drinks at public schools, and that the administration hopes to develop a more comprehensive legislative package dealing with snack foods. "