Christmas is coming early for America’s schoolchildren, as the Trump administration rolls back even more Obama-era lunacy.
Chocolate milk will soon be back on public school lunch menus as new rules ease nutritional standards established by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and championed by former first lady Michelle Obama.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday published a new interim rule, due to take effect on July 1 after a period of public comment, which relaxes sodium limits and whole-grain requirements on school lunches and also allows flavored milk with 1 percent back into school cafeterias nationwide.Currently, public schools are allowed to serve only flavored milk that is nonfat or unflavored milk that is low-fat or nonfat.”This is not reducing the nutritional standards whatsoever,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters when he unveiled the proposed changes in May. “I wouldn’t be as big as I am today without flavored milk.”“Schools need flexibility in menu planning so they can serve nutritious and appealing meals,” Perdue said in a statement Thursday. “Schools want to offer food that students actually want to eat. It doesn’t do any good to serve nutritious meals if they wind up in the trash can.”
While non-fat versions of flavored milk are an option, fat is what gives food and beverages a good taste. Plus, as the health benefits of eating sensible amounts is also no longer being suppressed, fat is now appreciated to be an important component to a well-rounded diet.
There’s even more sweet, regulation-ending goodness in this gift.
The interim final rule published Wednesday means lunchrooms won’t be required to further restrict sodium levels as planned for the 2018-2019 school year. States will also be allowed to grant exemptions to schools experiencing hardship in obtaining whole grain-rich products for 2018-2019.
Of course, the doom-and-gloom, nanny-staters derided the new policies:
Now, schools will be able to rely more heavily on refined grains in rice, bread, pasta or cereal, among others.This is disconcerting to Juliana Cohen, a professor of health sciences at Merrimack College’Refined grains remove the fiber and nutrients from the grains,’ she says. ‘So kids may get hungrier faster.’This is particularly important in the context of the current obesity epidemic. Even if children eat relatively healthy meals and portions at school, the temptations of snack foods may well await them at home.’With healthier school meals, kids leave school fuller, so they’re not compensating when they leave school and enter obesiogenic environments,’ says Cohen.
Instead, I would blame the fraudulent reports that blamed fat for the heath effects caused by sugar, and the ensuing federal standards that were based on the #FakeScience as the origin of obesity, high blood pressure, and a myriad of other health problems we see among the entire population (including kids).
Many parents are as joyful as their offspring:
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY