Makes you pretty sick, right? I got a cavity and gained 5lbs just watching that clip- actually, I watched that clip twice, so that’s two cavities and 10lbs! Ouch! This school bus demonstration only reinforces my theory that American children are fatter-than-ever because of our school systems... and shame on us for not doing more to stop it!
I respect Jamie Oliver as a person and a chef and I am a fan and an advocate for his American-based Food Revolution. Jamie has transformed the way his native British school children eat lunch and he is trying to do the same for us Yanks. English studies were assessed after a year of Jamie's British food revolution. The studies showed that British school children not only got slimmer, but their test scores improved. With these kinds of proof positive results, why can't American schools get with the program?
Well… because American school systems are doing stuff like this:
Chicago schools have BANNED or are in the process of BANNING homemade lunches.
*Note: Please forgive me for some of the Fox News footage- ordinarily I find FX News ill-informed, bigoted, shamefully misguided and brutally conservative. For time efficient, visual purposes, I will make an exception. If you require a higher esteemed news organization, read these articles from TIME magazine or the Chicago Tribune.
Healthy food options are one thing, but since when is this:
At the most, those lunches are $1 per student… not 2.25. (Kind of makes me wonder where the extra 1.25/per student is going?) At the grocers, I can buy a PACK of all beef franks for 2.50. I’m willing to bet that the pictured hot dogs aren’t 100% beef. I’m also going to take a wild guess that the buns aren’t whole wheat, either? While I don’t have any problem with banning sodas in school, I have a HUGE problem with school board members insulting my intelligence and allowing flavored, pink milk as a “healthier” beverage substitution… on my dime, no less! A school sized, 8oz carton of strawberry milk has, depending on the brand, between 160-200 calories vs. a 12oz can of Coca Cola at 140 calories. Chocolate milk is 158 calories whereas a regular, artificially flavored-free 2% milk carton is 122 calories. It’s still loaded with calcium and potassium, much like its colorful brother and sister- but without the added sodium and sugar. Sure, chocolate and strawberry milk is sweeter and more enticing to kids… but when childhood obesity is at an all-time high and you are making me buy a “healthier” lunch than what I could provide for my child at a lower cost, then I EXPECT much, much better than this. 
Flavored milk aside, and in all fairness to this particular school districts decision to ban homemade lunches, 70% of their students are on a free lunch program and typically come from families who are on federal food assistance. Maybe mom and dad truly can’t afford healthy food alternatives? Have you seen the price of produce lately? Then again, the last person I saw who whipped out her ACCESS card had $200 dollars worth of pre-packaged garbage, a pack of smokes, and not one fruit or vegetable. Not one healthy thing, other than milk, out of $200! And yes, the woman was obese. And yes, so were her children- especially the one playing his brand new PSP. Kids learn poor eating habits somewhere, now don’t they? Who would have thought that parents are the biggest enablers. My neighbor, who is a doctor, helps out in the local clinic. We reside in a blue collar, Pittsburgh suburb that is on the lower economic scale vs. other suburbs in the area. He told me that he had a family of overweight diabetics come into the clinic. The teenage daughter broke down in tears because she was being picked on, “fat and didn’t know how to lose the weight.” Doc S. asked her what her eating habits were? She said that she and her family ate fast food at least 5 days a week. Doc S. suggested that she order a salad, instead. The girls’ mother snapped back with a, “NO! Salads are too expensive and she can eat a burger and fries just like the rest of us.” Case and, sadly, point.
As I have mentioned in a previous article, "What’s the Story with our Big, Fat Kids," 1 in 5 American children are obese. Signs of obesity start early on but are usually chronicled by the time kids go to school (K-12) due to mandatory visits to the doctor for vaccinations and general health checkups. American kids are consistantly getting BIGGER... and not length wise. Just go anywhere and you can see it. Something needs to be done and it doesn’t involve requiring parents to buy Chicago’s version of a healthier school lunch- which is a joke that most of the children toss, anyway. In the meantime, I urge everyone, especially parents with school aged children, to make more conscious food choices, continue to pack your child’s lunch and watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution for a wake-up call- a big, bloated, wake-up call.
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