Pictures comparing US school lunch to other countries

No surprise here... From DAILY MAIL

The school lunch comparisons were revealed by Sweetgreen, a chain of US restaurants, and website Never Seconds, run by Scottish schoolgirl Martha Payne, who logs her thoughts and experiences of eating school meals at her primary school in Lochgilphead, Scotland.
The 12-year-old launched the blog in 2012 as a school writing project with assistance from her father.

USA

Finland

South Korea

Italy

Brazil

Spain

France

Ukraine

Greece

I hated school lunch growing up. Its no wonder we are near the top of overweight/obese problems in the USA..Shoot I'd order some of these school lunches @ a restaurant! I think France and Italy kids have it the BEST!

*** OP EDIT its been pointed out the photos are staged to look pretty and not a realistic representation of what is given out in the schools on a daily basis . I agree, BUT as a representation of the Nutritional value in the different countries it seems to be an accurate presentation.

These all look delicious compared to the picture of the U.S. school lunch, but we have to keep in mind that all of these lunches have been made in a restaurant kitchen and professionally food styled.

what i find disturbing is how obvious it is that the pictures are staged to just represent what is the most common food in different places.
I've been to schools in america and italy and in both cases the food never looked that good.

Those are the kids that stay in the lunchroom. Who does that?

Lunch bell rings and its Mickey D's time!

originally posted by: DjembeJedi
I hated school lunch growing up. Its no wonder we are near the top of overweight/obese problems in the USA..Shoot I'd order some of these school lunches @ a restaurant! I think France and Italy kids have it the BEST!

My brother and I never ate school lunch, our mother made a lunch for us every day before going to work and this is one of the main reasons why I am not a fat bastard as an adult, I never acquired a tatse for processed food.

a reply to: DjembeJedi

If the 'main course' for the USA is meat (hard to tell ain't it? LOL) ... I'd still go with that one. Honestly, the others look quite light on protein (but I'm not a nutritionist by-day either).

-Cheers

I've also been to foreign school in Korea, China, and Brazil, and none of the lunches looked like these. They were well rounded in Korea and China, representative of the food culture there, as well as (in China) the cost the parents paid for their children to attend; and in Brazil...lunches were a little more scant, but looked NOTHING like the picture posted by the Daily Mail. Most lunches were rice, beans, piece of meat, maybe some vegetables, which were almost always starchy. No one was going hungry, but it wasn't 3 star Michelin dining.

reply to: IShotMyLastMuse

originally posted by: IShotMyLastMuse
what i find disturbing is how obvious it is that the pictures are staged to just represent what is the most common food in different places.
I've been to schools in america and italy and in both cases the food never looked that good.

I agree they are made to look the BEST for the photo's. But as a representation of what is served in these different countries no exaggeration as far as I am concerned.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I think you are missing the point in the photos and the girls blog. It about a comparison of the foods nutritional value offered in the different countries not how pretty it looks.

I was raised on kraft dinner (mac and cheese) everyday for lunch...those look amazing compared to that.
Even now that I know my way around a kitchen and love to cook great meals...sometimes I still have to get me a box of it.

But the whole point of the restaurants art project is to show off how pretty it is. It's in no way representative of real school lunches. The girls blog is amazing, and chronicles her school lunch experience nicely.

a reply to: DjembeJedi

a reply to: DjembeJedi

my issue is the lie that the article is presenting, because if the food really looked like that, heck i would go eat at a school instead of at a restaurant.
i mean just look at those grapes!

But i do get your point, the american dish is the only one that looked "heavy", well maybe the ukrainian one too, to be fair.
And if they represent what the average meal is, then it just becomes obvious why america has the highest child obesity rate in the world, no matter what you do at homes, schools undo it in just a few days.

a reply to: Atsbhct
french one would be my pick.
Dont think we have school lunch in Australia, just a tuck shop where you can buy meat pies, when i was there any way.

a reply to: Atsbhct

lol I think we both are just getting a different meaning from her blog. It is very well done.
I think her point once again is to show the different food items offered on a given day in any school around the globe and it turns out the US and UK offer food lowest in nutritional value.

This post reminds me of this video, but in reverse.



Like others mentioned, these lunches were obviously cooked to represent common food of that region, and created by professional chefs and put together in the most appealing ways possible. Seriously--they leave the leaves on the fruit in Greece, or imported mangoes in France a lot, or shrimp in Spain on a consistent basis?

Sure...maybe. But under-cooked chicken nuggets aren't always on the menu in the US, either.

I don't disagree that our school-lunch program sucks, but I don't blame the schools at all for it--healthier lunches are being tried, but when children live their lives at home on fast-food diets, you can't expect them to embrace a healthier lunch at school when it's offered. This is a response to American society, not the cause of it, IMO. I remember in elementary school in the 80s, I used to get sandwiches and fruit and vegetables. Sure, it was highly processed lunch meat, and the veggies were from a can, but you know what? At least it wasn't fried and accompanied with relatively low-health instant mashed potatoes and sugar-laden fruit cups.

I guess my point is that these pictures appear to be unrealistic representations, but it does reflect the differences in societies' diets in a decent fashion.

I'll take one Brazil, please.

Here's what I feel to be a better representation of some countries school lunches.

Student lunches.

originally posted by: SpaceWizard
a reply to: Atsbhct
french one would be my pick.
Dont think we have school lunch in Australia, just a tuck shop where you can buy meat pies, when i was there any way.

wow really? I have worked at a few factories in the past where we had food trucks to buy from for lunch..SCARY scary stuff...lol

originally posted by: Atsbhct
Here's what I feel to be a better representation of some countries school lunches.

Student lunches.

Nice find! Notice a U.S. photo is not even in the article..lol

I remember the pizza in school as akin to cardboard.
Crappy school lunches is why teen obesity is through the roof. (and lets admit it, most parents are guilty of packing these crap lunches too)
Sugar, sugar, carbs, carbs.

Just an aside, how many kids do we all know who would eat the school lunches represented by the restaurant? Some kids would, sure, but most? I don't know. As an adult who will try almost anything, my western palette had a hard time with some of the overwhelmingly fishy and spicy dishes I was served in China and Korea.