My high school-aged daughter shared some information with me that I found rather unpleasant. Apparently, the US Congress has decided that the 2 teaspoons of tomato sauce used on pizza qualifies pizza as a vegetable for the school menu....and...they are not allowed to limit the amount of starchy foods that a student can consume. Seriously? What on earth is this country coming to? When I was growing up, pizza and fries were a weekend treat, not a staple in my diet. That is utterly ridiculous. Thankfully, my daughter chooses to bring her own food. We've been vegetarians for a few years and since not consuming those unhealthy foods on a regular basis, eating them usually makes her body rebel and she doesn't like the feeling. Her usual lunch consists of a spinach and herb wrapped filled with vegetarian chicken, cheese, almonds, lettuce, low-fat olive-oil dressing and a drizzle of honey mustard. She also has dried cranberries, more almonds, pineapple or pear chunks, a low-fat Special K bar and a bottle of water. She has eaten the fries a few times and they have made her body ache. I know that feeling. I try not to consume a lot of sugar and one day I made the mistake of adding light brown sugar to my oatmeal and I must have used too much because my body started aching from it until I flushed it through my system with a ton of water.
Allowing pizza and fries further contributes to the childhood obesity rate in our country. For them to say pizza is a vegetable sounds crazy. I still don't believe it. Add to that the no-limit on starchy vegetables and your kid could walk away from the food line with 2 or 3 orders of fries and pizza for lunch. Yuck! We had pizza and fries on the menu when I was in school but that wasn't something I consumed daily.
If you don't have a school-aged child attending public schools in the US, consider yourself lucky and if you do, they might want to pack a lunch.
Has Congress not realized that food is fuel for the body and if you use bad fuel, you will get bad results, AKA obesity and other health problems at an early age? There are children being diagnosed with hypertension for goodness sake! You can't tell me this isn't a direct connection to the amount of salt and processed food available to kids today. There has to be a connection. We are bringing up a generation of sickly, unhealthy children who do not go outside and play, spend far too much time inside playing video games and watching t.v., surfing the Internet and consuming all sorts of processed foods.
I admit, I don't always make the healthiest food choices but ice cream, cakes, cookies, chips, pizza and fries are a treat and they don't make it into my basket on regular basis. My children know if they want those items, they have to ask for them. When I'm in the store, I find myself watching other people's basket items and I am completely amazed at all of the processed junk food I see in some people's baskets. Usually, these are the ones with 1 or 2 overweight children tagging along and the parents could eat a bit healthier as well. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not thin because I let those foods get the best of me as well so I had to make a change. Getting the weight off has proved to be very difficult. The good news is that since I stopped consuming all that "death" on a regular basis, I've stopped gaining weight and it's slowly coming off.
We need to wake up and take back our own health as well as the health of our children. It starts at home. I made the choice to become a vegetarian and my daughter, who was then 11 years old decided to do it as well, no pushing or forcing...clearly just following along in healthier foot steps so more parents need to take control. If they stop bringing those items into their homes on a regular basis, their children will make better choices away from home. It's just that simple.
The issue I have is with Congress saying it's okay...pizza is a vegetable. Catch a clue, Congress! Make the connection and stop the madness!
No comments:
Post a Comment