Scool Lunches = Threat to National Security?

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of retired military officers says high-calorie school lunches are threatening national security.

A study by the group Mission: Readiness finds that school lunches are making American kids so fat that fewer of them can meet the military's physical fitness standards. That, in turn, is putting recruitment in jeopardy.

A report from the group, being released Tuesday, says that 27 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 are too overweight to join the military.

One of the officers, retired Navy Rear Admiral James Barnett Jr., says many young Americans are simply too fat to fight.

The officers are pushing for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier.

www.foxnews.com...

At first, I laughed at this. I thought it seemed like more 'schools are terrible for the children!' reteric.
But than I actually considered it.

Think about it: our public schools classify Tomata Ketchup as your daily servings of vegetables.
I think these guys are right on the money when they say that unhealthy eating is leading to less combat ready citizens. And with a war on three fronts coming soon, we need all the help we can get.

have you not been watching Jamie Oliver in America

While fat kids are not good, the military can go get stuffed.

[edit on 20-4-2010 by acrux]

Originally posted by acrux
While fat kids are not good, the military can go get stuffed.

[edit on 20-4-2010 by acrux]

at the end of the day it's not just about the military, hospitals will be overcrowded with illness's caused by being over weight , heart conditions, diabetes and cancers. this is no way for a nation to be feeding themselves, we are just as bad here in the UK and the future looks bleak with rising child obeisity.

i dont think kids need lunches at school at all.

eat breakfast. come home/go out and get dinner. then have afternoon snack.

they dont need a huge meal inbetween. most school lunches are:

Sandwich. bread = 110 calories a slice
=ham 30 cals a slice
lots of salt.

Pack of crisps( potato chips)

120=300 calories, depending on size of bag.
high in fat
high in salt

chocolate bar:

300 calories.

and fizzy drink

250 calories,
30g sugar

They dont need this, this is more than I eat in a large meal.
too much sugar too, wich causes them to bounce off the walls and not being able to concentrate during school.

(Average school lunch data: from when i was at high school, this was most peoples lunch)


today I hear kids bring in whole packs of biscuits, and eat them.
They will bring in tubs of this:
img.shinyshack.com...
and eat it.

it's disgusting.



[edit on 20-4-2010 by MR BOB]

I do not think school lunches are as near as big a threat to national security as is the failure to properly teach reading, writing and arithmetic and SPELLING.

The spelling on ATS just makes me crazy. If one cannot spell, then they should observe the little red line that appears under mis-spelled words. That is a signal that you got it wrong and if you put the cursor on the word and right click it will offer suggestions as to the correct spelling.

reply to post by expat2368


And some people should observe that not every one uses google chrome. or even likes it.

it's slow. theres no stop loading button, can find recently accesed pages easy etc..

this isn't about that. this is about food.

Eating a huge meal in the middle of the day will make you tired and feel lazy. Especially junk like chips and soft drink with no nutritional benefit and huge amount of carbs. Then at the end of the day, the kids just loll around in a classroom all afternoon and are too stuffed to pay attention.

Hunger makes our brains more alert.

It would make more sense, as MR BOB points out, to eat a decent breakfast, afternoon snack and then dinner.

To me, this is a non-issue and generally a stupid position to take.

I have 4 children, 3 of which are school age and eat school lunches every day of the week.

Otherwise they eat vegetables and fruits at every meal, only drink good things (milk, real juice, or water), and eat limited meat. They are more than healthy and get plenty of exercise.

Let's rephrase the statement in 2 parts:

1) Parents suck and are killing their children and costing everyone money (not to mention the eye-sore that is fat people)

2) Our food is generally crap and has one or more of the following: Corn, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and/or MSG

School lunches are the least of our problems.

reply to post by KrazyJethro


It's not like that at all, it's just people dont realise that it's really not good giving them what they want.

I think it would be interesting to see the differeance of the behaviour, and grades, when they are fed junk. vs fresh fruit. maybe some low GI foods like Oats.(not flap jacks!!) and just water to drink.

It would make a change. In a good way.

what do you put in the kids lunches?

reply to post by MR BOB


At what school do the give the kids chocolate bars and sodas for lunch?

Being able to buy those items a la carte is one thing and not necessarily something I agree with, but they don't hand out candy and soda as part of the school lunch anywhere that I've ever heard of.

reply to post by Jenna


You would be supriesed how many schools have a Cola machine.
and snack machines.

But i was specifically talking about bring in lunches.

The food the schools serve is just as bad, its mostly stuff like cheeseburgers, pizza, sometimes pasta

reply to post by MR BOB


Snack and soda machines are a far sight different than a school lunch. The lunches people send with their kids is also a different animal from school lunches. The lunches the schools serve are already regulated by the government to make sure kids get at least one decent meal a day and I'm sent a menu every week letting me know my oldest is getting meat, a vegetable, fruit, a slice of bread and a carton of milk for lunch every day. Well, aside from pizza days where they replace the meat and bread with a slice of school pizza.

Point being that school lunches are actually pretty healthy. Someone sending their kid to school with money for vending machines or a lunch bag packed with twinkies and Cokes is a completely different thing that falls on the parent's shoulders and doesn't require any regulating from the government.


Back to the OP, I find it odd that they're saying there aren't enough people qualified by weight standards when I know for a fact the national guard (and I suspect the army as well) changed their standards a year or so ago to where you had to have a higher asvab score to enlist because they had too many people wanting to join and not enough slots to put them in. Granted that could have changed in the year or so since it happened, but I don't see all those people who wanted to join and were qualified except for their asvab scores just up and disappearing. It's a puzzler for sure.

School lunchs suck and are effing up America in a number of ways.

Many lower income children rely on school lunches as thier only meal and that meal is crap and effects thier energy level, ability to learn and pay attention, weight etc. etc.

The military is right of course that it is making american kids less able to fight, but it is also making them less able to compete on the world stage in every way...and frankly raising are kids with the aim to be combat ready is kind of a sick motivation. I'll settle for just healthy, happy kids and our school lunches aren't doing it.

School Lunch vs. Lunch From Home
Compared with kids who brought lunch from home, those who ate school lunches:

•Were more likely to be overweight or obese (38.2% vs. 24.7%)
•Were more likely to eat two or more servings of fatty meats like fried chicken or hot dogs daily (6.2% vs. 1.6%)
•Were more likely to have two or more sugary drinks a day (19% vs. 6.8%)
•Were less likely to eat at least two servings of fruits a day (32.6% vs. 49.4%)
•Were less likely to eat at least two servings of vegetables a day (39.9% vs. 50.3%)
•Had higher levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol
The school-lunch kids also were less likely to participate in active sports like basketball, moderate exercise like walking, or team sports than their home-fed counterparts. And they spent more time watching TV, playing video games, and using computers outside of school.

"One-third of kids in the U.S. are now overweight or obese, which means one-third of kids are at risk of heart disease and diabetes as they age. That scares me," Jackson says. "If we don't do something now, the recent trend toward fewer deaths due to heart disease among U.S. adults is in jeopardy of reversing."

www.cbs19.tv...

It would be more appropriate to consider that the point has now been reached where NATIONAL SECURITY is now a threat to the PEOPLE.

reply to post by SerialLurker


100% wrong. Being well fed gives the body the nutrients to stay alert and function. If you are starving your body in the middle of the day you will become more drowzy as your body begins to consume its self. If you don't replenish your energy, it has to come from somewhere.

On top of that, eating a larger meal in the middle of the day is why so many Europeans are skinnier than Americans.. you burn off most of what you eat by the time you go to bed, assuming you dont eat a massive dinner. Rule of thumb is: Large diverse breakfast, large lunch, small dinner.

In America we gorge on food at around 6-7 (8-9 on the east coast) then we sit on the couch and watch TV, then we go to bed.

If you think thats healthier you're insane.

Not only are the school lunches made up of loads of processed food, but many schools also receive the worst of the worst meat and dairy. The stuff the companies can't sell in the stores go out in bulk to the schools.

reply to post by MR BOB


Not in all states. Im in Colorado and the school district we are in has such a plain healthy menu that most kids wont even buy the lunch. No seasoning, only fruits veggies, salads and realtively healthy meals. No soda/snack machines. For kindys, at snack time, they are only allowed to bring healthy snacks. All candy, junk food, gets taken away

Im curious as to where the states are that have the crappy foods for kids, because I know parents all over the country and they tell me that the schools are just like here - no unhealthy food.

[edit on April 20th 2010 by greeneyedleo]

Originally posted by MR BOB
reply to post by Jenna

 

But i was specifically talking about bring in lunches.

For privileged kids taking away the lunch is fine. What about inner city schools, and the kids that depend on that free meal.? The sad truth of it is that some children can not afford to bring in their own lunch. To them it might be the only full meal they eat.

And trust me there is a lot of those kind of kids.

School lunch is gonna stay.

Originally posted by SerialLurker
Hunger makes our brains more alert.

That is not true. Hunger causes the heavy energy using prefrontal cortex to become more dormant, thus limiting rational thought and self control. That is why you are cranky when you are hungry -- you literally have less control over your emotions.

On the other hand, overeating and eating the wrong foods are not very helpful, either. Jamie Oliver is my new hero. I despise the goals of the military, but these generals are absolutely right.

We must begin a program of massive regulation of the food supply. Freedom to eat what you want is causing a national catastrophe. More importantly, the freedom of big corporations to abuse the population in the name of profit is not acceptable.