First lady bucks GOP on school lunch rules

[IDemo]

WASHINGTON — First ladies typically avoid getting into public scraps, but Michelle Obama has jumped into perhaps her biggest battle yet.

She’s fighting a House Republican effort to soften a central part of her prized anti-childhood obesity campaign and says she’s ready “to fight until the bitter end.”

Mrs. Obama even mocked the GOP effort in an opinion column and argued her case on Twitter.

“Remember a few years ago when Congress declared that the sauce on a slice of pizza should count as a vegetable in school lunches?” she wrote in The New York Times. “You don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that this doesn’t make much sense. Yet we’re seeing the same thing happening again with these new efforts to lower nutrition standards in our schools.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michelle-obama-fights-gop-on-school-lunch-rules/2014/07/05/eb9faeee-0415-11e4-8e9a-8f02626a2ac0_story.html

[liberal N proud]

1. Sometimes, I wonder who the real terrorists are.

Everything the GOP does leads to destruction of the country.

[roguevalley]

14. I love her. I LOVE THIS WOMAN! She is smart, beautiful and fearless

That old rag Joan Rivers called her a tranny. Fuck Joan RIvers. Now I know why her husband killed himself.

Joke, Joan. HA-HA-HA.

She called Obama gay and Michelle a tranny. This world needs an asteroid to hit it. These cockroaches are everywhere.

[Cha]

2. repubs want America to be as unhealthy as they are. Mahalo Michelle!

[femmocrat]

3. This was very well-intentioned, IMO.

However, the schools did not do much to implement the changes. I saw very little change in the menus except that they took away the salt shakers. The meals were still overloaded with sugar, salt, and fat. I considered them inedible and felt sorry for the kids who had a steady diet of pizza, chicken nuggets, and French fries.

I hope she is successful in pushing for even more healthy changes.

[yeoman6987]

5. The problem is she demanded changes without giving money to the school district

Some districts are in deep debt getting rid of teachers to facilitate changes. Plus the waste is out of hand. A rule on not taking food the kids won't eat would be helpful. Also allowing the sports kids seconds would help as they get hungry by the time the sports start. Otherwise a great program.....as with ACA, a few changes would not hurt.

[Jenoch]

10. I have a nephew who was a high school

football player and wrestler and he experienced exactly what you described. He weighed about 190# and gad low body fat. He was probably burning 5,000 calilories in each wrestling practice and a bit less during football practice. Of course there is childhood obesity, but that is not the case for all of the youth.

[bluestateguy]

4. Stand up to the Obamas! Feed your child as much junk food as possible!

I bet that is the teabagger logic.

[pangaia]

6. What is the problem?

Buy vegetables.

Teach the school lunch crew how to cook.
Cook vegetables.
Serve vegetables.

Same works for chicken or whatever meat if one wants to by it.

[SoCalDem]

8. A large part of the problem is that many schools no longer HAVE true kitchens

They no longer have "lunch ladies" who show up at 6 AM to prepare food from scratch.. The "food" arrives on a truck in prep trays..ready-cooked and available to be microwaved just before serving.
Food is usually prepared/portioned out at a central "kitchen", and trucked to schools..

For many schools, the cost of full time lunch ladies went away a long time ago, and now they just have tray-pushers, who just work a few hours a day..

[pangaia]

12. Shows you how long it has been since I have been in a school.

Thanks.....

Hummm... so, tell the 'central kitchen' to prepare healthy food.
I mean, I get better food on an airplane than American school kids.

[sheshe2]

7. Thank you Michelle Obama!

[nobodyspecial]

9. I think a big part of the problem

is that kids aren't being fed properly at home. Kids should be able to recognize and eat regular fruits and vegetables. Problem is they eat so much processed crap, real food doesn't taste good or appealing to them. It's amazing how much your taste buds and cravings change based on what you are eating. Now I actually get sick or feel poorly if I eat that packaged garbage.

[yeoman6987]

11. I went to Catholic School

and we had to bring our own lunch to school everyday or starve. A few times, Mom would bring them by when we forgot but we definitely didn't want to make it a habit. This was in the 80's so not 100 years ago. I guess now they get breakfast and lunch.....and soon dinner. Parents certainly don't have to worry about the "child forgot their lunch again" dilemma. Parents do have it easier today in some ways.

[pangaia]

13. Processed food makers know exactly how much salt, sugar and fat it takes

to get you addicted to their products. They have it down to a science.
It is such overkill that if you take away those high percentages, we think the food is bland. It's not.
I remember in the early 1980's going on the Pritikin diet and suddenly, with the almost total absence of salt, what vegegables actually tasted like.. and I saw the light.