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Food Bans At School?
Tomorrow is NB's first day of kindergarten and I don't know if this is a local area thing or an all over thing, but a lot of our schools have started banning "junk" food. My brother's high school banned school "supplied" junk food a few years ago and replaced all the sodas in vending machines with bottled waters, gator aid, and that kind of thing. Same thing with the snacks. NB's school, despite a seeming obsession with chocolate milk, has done the same thing.
And it's not just school supplied anymore either. We decided to pack NB's lunch and snack most days because she is VERY picky. Example: If the school serves ham and cheese, she will refuse to eat it, even though she likes it because, "It's not the same as OUR ham and cheese." At her orientation we were given a packet of information, including a list of "acceptable" items for lunches and snacks. If she is bringing her own snacks we are responsible for making sure it is a healthy snack and the only drink she is allowed to bring for snack time is bottled water. The same goes for her lunches, except I can send juice or something in her thermos, but no soda or carbonated beverages of any kind.
A friend of mine, who's little girl starts K at another school got an even more detailed list. Only baked chips are allowed, absolutely NO candy or cookies or sweets of any kind, etc.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining really. I think it's pretty awesome that the schools in our area are starting to take an interest in nutrition, but really.... NO COOKIES??! Ever?
I kind of feel that if NB has a pretty balanced, solid, healthy lunch that it's not really harming her to throw in a couple of oreos now and again.
Do they do this at schools in your areas?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by mcglory13 on -
Yes, this was/is the rule at all of my son's schools. There were occasionally cookies-- sometimes they were served as treats for birthdays and/or holiday celebrations (and they celebrated every religious holiday) so they occasionally got cookies anyway. I am fine with it, probably because I tend toward health food freak anyway (and yes, wine is a health food. I don't care what anybody says). I think the point is that foods that are high in sugar and/or fat make learning really difficult for kids-- they get ramped up and then they crash and all of that distracts from learning. I think a healthy diet has treats in it, sure, but they can also have a few cookies after school when they come home right?
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Permalink Reply by The Oracle on -
I wish our schools would ban sugar. The Dragon is so sentitive to it and addicted to it that it causes major behavioral problems when he's crashing. But I can't get away from it. What I've been assured by schools and daycares is "just occasional" treats for birthdays, holidays, etc. ends up being at least once a week, if not more (and actually not just holidays and birthdays but random "special occasions" like, I dunno, it's sunny outside, or we're going on a field trip). Anyway, a week is nowhere near enough time for him to recover and get back on the wagon. I mean, it's like a real-life grown-up addiction like you'd see in an alcoholic or drug addict, complete with lying and manipulation. This is not hyperbole. It fucking sucks.
Plus sugar is everywhere else now too -- not just in line at the grocery store but at the freaking hardware store, Babies R Us, the library -- seriously, there's one library here with a candy machine in the children's department. I felt so betrayed when I went in there.
Anyway, I'm actually mentally gearing up to lead a crusade against sugar at our school. I don't have time to find the study now but there has been research done that behavioral problems decline dramatically and grades increase in schools once sugar is banned. I'm all for it.
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Permalink Reply by Herasmus B. Dragon on
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I don't like the idea, but that doesn't mean it's not a good one.
We try to pack as healthy a lunch as possible, every meal ahs a fresh fruit or a veggie in her bag, but yes, sometimes I'll give low fat Nilla wafers or some M&Ms in homemade trail mix. I would be very angry if I worked this hard and someone who doesn't know my family deemed my choices to be not healthy enough.
But on the other hand, we are probably not the family being targeted with such a rule. Big O comes home and will ask to try _____ product because her friend had it and it looked/smelled/sounded yummy, and I'll refuse after reading the package. There are kids who eat nothing but this crap made easily available in single-serving packages in giant Costco boxes that busy or poor parents rely on to throw together a quick lunch. Parents like this are going to be offended, and there may not be much they can do about it.
But in the end the question is this: What is the school's consequence of packing junk food?
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Permalink Reply by Gumbo Momma on -
I'm not really sure what the consequence would be.... that wasn't mentioned. But I agree. I don't think they are targeting occasional cookie givers, but the families that never pack anything BUT junk.
Herasmus B. Dragon said:But in the end the question is this: What is the school's consequence of packing junk food?
Oracle: I used to have severe "reactions" to chocolate when I was little. It took my mom a little while to catch on that my extreme mood swings and behaviorial problems were due to the influx of candy, primarily chocolate, that we'd get into at the holidays. We rarely had those kinds of sweets or sodas growing up, and I really try to limit what NB gets of those things anyway.
Like I said, I do really think it's a neat idea. I was just kind of shocked to see it happening around here. People in our area are the sorts that give babies coke in their bottles (Jeff Foxworthy was not just kidding around), so I'm wondering how these sorts of rules are working out for our schools. And now I'm really curious as to what the consequence WOULD be............I'm going to call my friend and see if her school's letter said anything about that.
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Permalink Reply by Kiwi on -
I have no problem at all with the schools cutting junk off their menu. I even understand them asking you not to send treats to the entire class or to students beyond your kid.
However, I absolutely have a problem with them telling me what I can or cannot feed my child. Unless I'm packing cocaine sandwiches with thermos full of vodka punch no one has any right to have their nose in my kid's lunch kit.
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Permalink Reply by The Oracle on
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To clarify -- I don't support telling parents what they can or cannot pack in their kids' own lunches (except, say, in the case of Kiwi's cocaine sandwiches). But I do support schools getting more on board with drawing the line about how much/how frequently they introduce sugar into the classroom/lunchroom/vending machines. And I support aggressively informing parents about the potential consequences of sugar and helping them pack healthier lunches.
BUT, I am really concerned about the Dragon trading food when he gets older. Right now, the teacher oversees the lunch table where his Pre-K/K class eats. She makes sure everyone eats the food they bring in their own lunches. But I remember rampant trading of food when I got to 4th, 5th, 6th grade and beyond. Maybe our problem is so extreme that it's not as big a deal in other families, but for us it's a huuuuuge ongoing issue and I'm honestly really kind of scared about our uphill battle going completely down the tubes once lunchtime is no longer adult-supervised. I'm haunted by tales of 13- and 14-year-olds lying and manipulating just to get their sugar fix.
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Permalink Reply by kommishoner on -
A year or so ago, I would have said the school should stay the hell out of my kid's lunch. But now, hearing from parents like Oracle, and knowing that there are kids in the little man's daycare who absolutely, do not pass go, no way no how, CANNOT be in contact with nuts, I don't really care so much. I have no problem with the school setting limits for what's okay food to bring in and what's not. There but for the grace of gob go I, and all that.
However, (and this is a big deal) the school needs to do so with an awareness of what's available to the kids in their population. They don't get to be all heavy-handed about the policy if there are kids in the school whose families don't have access to healthy food because of a lack of grocery stores or affordable food. I love that they're trying to get kids to eat healthy, but I wonder if this isn't an ineffective way to go about it. Are they also doing community programs about nutrition, or curriculum about gardening/cooking? Kids seem to get way more engaged in that stuff than strict deprivation policies anyway, right?
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Permalink Reply by kommishoner on
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For those of you who have researched this: is regular sugar or fruit-based sugar just as bad as high fructose corn syrup and refined sugar for the crashing, etc? It seems to me there's a long way to go between, say, a juice pop and an otter pop, but I haven't looked into it at all, so I dunno.
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Permalink Reply by The Oracle on
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I haven't read research about, say, the difference between regular refined sugar and HFCS. Kids who are addicted to sugar (and frankly grown-ups -- they exist. Hi!) will get their fix however they can, whether it's cinnamon toast, reduced-sugar jam, or a Snickers bar. Even artificial sweeteners, according to what I've read, act the same neurochemically as regular sugar to kind of keep the person addicted.
I can tell you from our experience that when the Dragon needs a fix, giving him fruit juice, or just fruit, takes care of the need but avoids the blood sugar spike later on (which causes the fix/crash/fix/crash cycle) because it's not as refined so it releases into the bloodstream slower than refined sugar like candy or cookies. But then we need to get protein into him (and actually need to keep him proteined all day long) and it gets better. Just this morning, he had too little protein with breakfast, sugar-crashed around 10:00 a.m., and had a huuuuuge meltdown for about a half-hour -- begging, screaming, kicking, crying for cookies. Knock-down drag-out. I offered him strawberries (no go) and a protein bar (no go). When he finally calmed down enough to eat half of the protein bar, suddenly he said, "I feel better, Mama," and we could go on with our day.
It's partly a blood sugar spike-and-crash issue and partly a neurochemical issue. The book that I got a lot of this from is Little Sugar Addicts. The author, who also wrote Potatoes Not Prozac for adults, ran an adult inpatient alcohol recovery center and in doing her PhD research found that, in some people, sugar produces the same neurochemical reaction as heroin. So ... yeah, for those people, it's pretty serious and highly addictive.
kommishoner said:For those of you who have researched this: is regular sugar or fruit-based sugar just as bad as high fructose corn syrup and refined sugar for the crashing, etc? It seems to me there's a long way to go between, say, a juice pop and an otter pop, but I haven't looked into it at all, so I dunno.
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Permalink Reply by mcglory13 on
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I know that HFCS is metabolized in the liver, like alcohol, and other forms of sugar are not. I don't know how they affect the body. I wish LG would pop in and offer the voice of science. :) I think low glycemic foods avoid the spike and crash cycle, to a certain extent. I also know that agave is just like HFCS with a healthier name and rep (this one I'm pretty certain on).
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Permalink Reply by Gumbo Momma on
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This is interesting... and totally off topic, but I wonder now if maybe something similar wasn't going on with Angelica from the Rugrats. Heh, but in all seriousness, I know kids that seem to react in the same way as the Dragon when deprived of sugary treats. I was one of those kids too. I remember sneaking treats as a kid if I could find them. I'm going to have to look into that book as I suspect NB might have inherited a little of that, and I need more details. As for protein in the mornings, is the Dragon allergic to nuts? We do peanut butter on toast or waffles in the mornings for NB instead of regular butter. Though, most peanut butters do have large amounts of sugar now that I think on it, but surely there are low sugar options right?
The Oracle said:I haven't read research about, say, the difference between regular refined sugar and HFCS. Kids who are addicted to sugar (and frankly grown-ups -- they exist. Hi!) will get their fix however they can, whether it's cinnamon toast, reduced-sugar jam, or a Snickers bar. Even artificial sweeteners, according to what I've read, act the same neurochemically as regular sugar to kind of keep the person addicted.
I can tell you from our experience that when the Dragon needs a fix, giving him fruit juice, or just fruit, takes care of the need but avoids the blood sugar spike later on (which causes the fix/crash/fix/crash cycle) because it's not as refined so it releases into the bloodstream slower than refined sugar like candy or cookies. But then we need to get protein into him (and actually need to keep him proteined all day long) and it gets better. Just this morning, he had too little protein with breakfast, sugar-crashed around 10:00 a.m., and had a huuuuuge meltdown for about a half-hour -- begging, screaming, kicking, crying for cookies. Knock-down drag-out. I offered him strawberries (no go) and a protein bar (no go). When he finally calmed down enough to eat half of the protein bar, suddenly he said, "I feel better, Mama," and we could go on with our day.
It's partly a blood sugar spike-and-crash issue and partly a neurochemical issue. The book that I got a lot of this from is Little Sugar Addicts. The author, who also wrote Potatoes Not Prozac for adults, ran an adult inpatient alcohol recovery center and in doing her PhD research found that, in some people, sugar produces the same neurochemical reaction as heroin. So ... yeah, for those people, it's pretty serious and highly addictive.
kommishoner said:For those of you who have researched this: is regular sugar or fruit-based sugar just as bad as high fructose corn syrup and refined sugar for the crashing, etc? It seems to me there's a long way to go between, say, a juice pop and an otter pop, but I haven't looked into it at all, so I dunno.
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Permalink Reply by GreenLantern on -
If your kid is going to a private school, the private school can set up whatever kind of rules they want. If it's a public school, then watch out. In anything "public" (schools, libraries, parks), everyone supposedly has a say in what goes on. This gets to a head when there are helicopter parents bugging a school to ban sugary foods, when they have no business deciding what I put in my kid's lunch. I even have a problem with banning candy and soda from a school. The school is not a parent. As long as they give choices to kids, then I'm fine with that. I know, there's the "well, kids will always pick the junk food" argument. Well, then that's on you, the parent, to teach them about healthy eating.
Honestly, I'm more concerned with the quality of some of the "healthy" food that is served. Like low grade meat and processed "cheese". But, then again, I have a choice in that. I can send my kid to school with a lunch rather than have him buy his lunch at the school. The more choices you take away, the worse off things get. Kids will become resentful.
Then there is the unintended consequence of no sugary food policies. You have outrageous zero tolerance rules where kids get suspended for having a jolly rancher in their pocket. There are even stories of "black market" candy bars. Kids get lots of candy bars and then sell them in school at a profit.
The only time I could see outright banning some sort of food item is the case of peanut allergies. I don't know anyone who has peanut allergies, but I have heard absolutely horrific stories about kids who have really bad peanut allergies. It's not just a matter of them eating a peanut. It could even be them being in the same room as a bag of peanuts. I just find it weird that I haven't really heard about peanut allergies until the last several years. Is it a societal evolution thing, or is it something in the processing of nuts that's causing allergies? Or, has it always been like this but doctors haven't really been able to figure out what's going on until recently?
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