Basically, the idea is restricting the quantity of starches being served in school lunches will force a greater selection of vegetables to be offered, and ultimately consumed, as a part of school lunches. “Under the USDA proposal, school cafeterias would have to limit starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn, peas and lima beans to a total of one cup per week for lunch.”

Truthfully, the state of the nation’s nutrition is a major problem and should be treated as a long term crisis with economic, financial, political and military implications. Since most kids and teenagers eat at least one meal a day in a school cafeteria, there is a logic to the approach of establishing rules and regulations designed to encourage better eating and nutrition in school cafeterias.
But, I am not entirely sold that restricting the quantity of starches being served in school lunches will have the intended result.
First, it is important to remember the nutritional quality the starches being restricted. According to the National Potato Council: “Potatoes deliver a good source (providing at least 10% of DV) of two of the four nutrients of concern for children – potassium and dietary fiber. In fact, according to the DGA 2010, one small baked potato is the #1 source of potassium in the diet, providing 738 mg potassium in just 128 calories, and is listed among the top sources of dietary fiber (3 gm).”
Second, I don’t understand the logic or assumption of restricting the quantity of starches being served resulting in increased consumption of other vegetables. Yes, it is true that restricting the quantity of serving starches will result in other foods being served. But, just because other things are being served does not mean they will be eaten. After all, if you were given the choice between potato foods such as french fries, hashbrowns, tater tots or other similar things and broccoli, asparagus, brussel sprouts or other vegetables, which would you choose if you were eating in a school cafeteria? Based on my memories of cafeteria food and what I know about how we all eat, I don’t think it is a far stretch to think the potato choices will win.
The truth of the matter is that the intention of this effort is good, however, the result of the effort will probably not produce the intended result. Instead of focusing on what is served, why not focus on how it is served? Maybe it might be better to focus on how it is served or consumed? So, instead of getting rid of fried or “oven baked” or “oven fried” foods that are very high in statured fats, why not draft regulations designed to encourage cafeteria foods that are prepared in healthy, low fat ways and consumed without the addition of horrendous toppings such as mounds of sour cream, bacon bits, excessive amounts of cheese, or other “toppings” that are enough to cause a coronary in school kids?

For more on this issue, the National Farm to School Network has put together a very interesting briefing on the proposal and problems with implementing the proposal.

Approximately one third of the world’s people suffer from a lack of micronutrients. Micronutrients are “any substance, such as a vitamin or trace element, essential for healthy growth and development but required only in minute amounts”  More specifically, micronutrients in food include essential things such as: folic acid, iron, vitamin D and iodine. Although they are consumed in minute amounts, the have profound implications on our health and wellbeing.

According to the World Health Organization, “these substances are the “magic wands” that enable the body to produce enzymes, hormones and other substances essential for proper growth and development. As tiny as the amounts are, however, the consequences of their absence are severe. Iodine, vitamin A and iron are most important in global public health terms; their lack represents a major threat to the health and development of populations the world over, particularly children and pregnant women in low-income countries.”

The proposal to address this problem is to enrich food staples and salts with micronutrients. It is true that enriching food staples such as adding iodine to salt and vitamin D to milk has been practiced in the US for a long time and is a primary cause in the elimination of nutrition based diseases such as rickets. Also, the article correctly notes that the cost of fortifying food stables with micronutrients is extremely cost efficient.

But, doesn’t this seem a bit like treating symptoms instead of treating problems?

The problem is not exclusively a lack of access to foods containing micronutrients. In all reality, the problem is a lack of access to an entire diet capable of meeting the current nutritional needs of people.

In a sense, fortifying food staples is the somewhat the nutritional equivalent of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The situation is akin to switching from regular to diet drinks as a way to regulate sugar and calorie consumption. The switch comes with the trade off of increased caffeine consumption as well as increased exposure to artificial sweeteners. At the end of the day, all you are doing is playing a game of nutritional three card monty by trading one bad thing for another.

It is critically important to ask what food staples that will be fortified. If fortified food products in the US serve as an example, they will be highly refined or processed, bearing little-to-no resemblance to their traditional form or place in a person’s regional or ancestral diet.

Considering:

“[When we eat refined foods] … we limit the opportunity to bolster our immune system, keep our blood sugar and emotions balanced, keep our blood sugar and emotions balanced, protect against degenerative diseases, maintain a trim and fit body, and in general, keep our integrated experience of life harmonious.”

“Our desire to overeat can stem from eating foods that are refined and therefore missing ingredients; these deficient foods can foster addiction as we are instinctively driven to over consume them in our endeavor to obtain the missing nutrients that are never there.”

Healing With Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford (2002 edition) pgs 16 -18

And, according to Harriet V. Kuhnlein, Professor of Human Nutrition and Founding Director of the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE) at McGill University in Montreal, Canada:

The development, health and scientific communities do not usually understand the food resources that indigenous people know and use. Scientific identifications and laboratory data for nutrients and other phytochemicals for a food system may be unknown for many species.

A possibly better solution to this issue might be re-examining and then reintroducing traditional dietary and agricultural practices “upgraded” for current daily life instead relying upon artificially fortifying foods derived from highly refined and processed foods frequently from foreign sources and diets.

So, at first impression it seems this spouse deserves a gold star for supporting the partner and understanding the challenges of following an unconventional diet with many possible restrictions.

Then the spouse laments for the days of gluten foods and half jokingly says gluten free foods taste “like straw”. Now, it seems that re-evaluating those gold stars might be a god idea.

Since this is “FOOD for the rest of us” and not “MARRIAGE counseling, guidance, and judgement for the rest of us”, I lets focus on the food.

This spouse is not the only person in the world to consider gluten free foods to be unpleasant.  In fact, I have previously blogged about a NYT article where celiacs’ laments for gluten foods such as pasta and breads were followed with praises to the food industry for coming up with increasingly “better” imitation foods as substitutes.

In fact, while making a birthday cake with two layers of genoise brushed with sherry and iced with mocha butter-cream and chocolate icing using regular all purpose flour, I found myself thankful for not having to counter balance any of the garbanzo bean flavor sometimes found in many gluten free flour mixes. I was also glad to focus on the cake and not if the amount of xyntham gum added was sufficient or too much.

So, while I wasn’t saying it tasted like straw, I was viewing it as something inferior to a gluten based product. Then I realized this was probably due to the fact that I was automatically assessing the possible tastes and textures of something made with out gluten against something made using gluten.

Just as substituting beef or chicken with some sort of soy based product, using vitamin pills instead of eating fruits and vegetables, or eating farm raised vs wild or “free range” fish, fowl, or beef leads to all kinds of dietary issues and doesn’t taste all that good; forcing an over processed, chemically stabilized, and artificial-in-nearly-all-aspects-of-its-existence food item to replace is not exactly a good idea.

Instead of looking for substitute food products or items that can be swapped in and out of your eating habits as if they computer parts or brake pads, maybe it is better to consider it time to undertake a food odyssey, searching for new to you foods that are fun to eat and do not conflict with your dietary choices.

After all, just because a meal or a specific dish or food item is made to be gluten free does not mean the food should not be good.

For example, the other weekend I cooked great meal.

The salad included fresh cherry tomatoes, sweetened red onions, basil, sheep’s milk feta, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

For the main course, I roasted beef sirloin with a rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, Grana Padano cheese and garlic crust. The beef was accompanied by roasted apples, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and turnips, a pan sauce, and rustic mashed potatoes.

For dessert, I used Giffords’ double chocolate ice cream with warmed “Last of the Season” peaches and a ruby reduction.

Although I added toasted bread croutons with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, parsley, and basil to the salad, and the salad would have been equally good without them, the meal was essentially gluten free.

Nothing came out of a box, was almost entirely gluten free and it did not taste like straw. In fact, I was later told the meal was “Kick A** Good.”

It is easy to look around at the bounty of fruits, vegetables, and other foods being reaped during this time of harvest and believe the cornucopia is endless and offers limitless healthy food to all.

But, the cornucopia is neither endless nor offering limitless healthy food to all.

Instead, 36 million Americans, including 13 million children, struggle with hunger every day.

You may ask how is it possible for our American society to be plagued by such a horrible problem while our American society is also considered to be plagued by an obesity pandemic. Similarly, how is hunger among so many possible when so many fast food restaurants offer $1 menus?

The answer is not that food is not available. Neither is the answer that hunger equates to lacking of access to food.

Instead, it is better to consider the hunger crisis in terms of access to information about nutrition and foods offering dense nutritional value.

A body’s energy comes from three sources: Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats. Proteins and Carbohydrates offer about 4 calories per gram while fats offer about 9 calories per gram.

Considering our instinct is to seek out those foods offering the most energy and not necessarily the most nutrition, and the foods offering most energy happen to be fats, is there any real wonder why we would choose to eat an order of chicken nuggets dipped in a BBQ sauce with high fructose corn syrup as the primary ingredient, over a salad of fresh tomatoes with salad greens, thinly sliced steaks and a sauce of basil, garlic, parsley, olive oil and balsamic vinegar?

Similarly, when you walk into a coffee shop, what catches your eye longest? The lovely looking cracked bulgar salad with green onions, parsley, and tomatoes or those plump cinnamon, spice and rum soaked raison scones with the crunchy sugar sprinkles twinkling like stars and just enough to be seen? Since I just made myself hungary by typing the second description, I suspect the scone is the correct answer.

If you are tempted, what about everyone else? What about someone who might not be as interested in food as you and I, or someone who might not have the time, money or other resources to shop and cook the same as you?

So, during this time of amazing bounty, transition and the beginning of the fall and winter holidays ultimately leading us into 2011, it is important to remember the bounty offered to us can only be for all of us if each of us takes action to spread change and help those how ever possible.