Slowing Down School Lunches
Organization plans potlucks to raise awareness.
Food plays a central role in our lives. I can recall what was on the menu from dinners years ago, and I’m sure I’m not alone in associating good times with good food. But on the flip side of those fond memories is the queasy feeling I get when I walk down the frozen food aisle and glance at a package of fish sticks. The horror of school lunches immediately comes back to me. School lunches are in the spotlight every five years when the Child Nutrition Act comes up for reauthorization. The current act, which governs the National School Lunch Program that feeds more than 30 million children every school day, expires on Sept. 30. Read more
New Report Targets Added Sugars
Sugar has been making headlines recently, and the news is anything but sweet for a nation addicted to its soft drinks and candy bars. Earlier this month, some of the U.S.’s largest food companies wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack lobbying for more lenient import restrictions on sugar and claiming that unless policy changes are made “our nation will virtually run out of sugar.”
Well, according to a new scientific report from the American Heart Association, the U.S. could stand to do with less sugar in its diet. The association has released recommendations on the consumption of added sugars, which are sugars and syrups added during the processing of food and also at the table. These sugars differ from those that naturally occur, and a high intake of them, according to the statement’s lead author, Rachel K. Johnson, is implicated in a laundry list of health problems, from obesity and high blood pressure to heart disease and stroke. Read more
