USDA has announced first school lunch guidelines in 15 years. It was about 15 years they took in bringing some sort of reforms to the diet of the school kids. Right now a typical meal consists of low fat milk, a sugary fruit popsicle and roll with a breaded beef patty on it. Let’s see what the new menu is going to offer the school children.

• Broccoli
• Skim milk
• Peaches
• Baked fish nuggets
• Whole wheat roll
• Mashed potatoes

This is not exactly the most ideal menu for growing school children but something is better than nothing. At least they get a portion of their daily serving of fruit, meat, vegetables and dairy. The school meal plan has a participation of nearly 32 million school kids on a daily basis. USDA is hoping the new school lunch guidelines will help reduce child obesity and make a substantial difference to their health. The parents obviously will also be grateful about the nutrition standards being raised.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is quoted to have said, “With many children consuming as many as half their daily calories at school, strengthening nutritional standards is an important step in the Obama administration’s effort to combat childhood obesity and improve the health and wellbeing of all our kids.”

The new school lunch guidelines will no longer allow schools to serve French Fries every day, they are now limited to just one cup of starchy vegetables in the week, sodium intake is to be reduced by half along with increasing of fruits, whole grains, vegetables and skim/low fat milk options in their menu.

This new school lunch guidelines could not have come at a more apt time, according to a study done by the USDA. A third of the children between the ages of 16 and 19 are obese and this number has shockingly tripled over the past couple of decades. Furthermore, it has come just weeks after President Barack Obama signed into a child nutrition bill into law which would assist schools in paying for healthier food options which mostly are more expensive.

There has been some criticism that has come up ever since USDA announced their new health guidelines for lunch. The concern being that schools that are not so financially sound would have trouble paying for the new healthy food items. Vilsack says, he understands the new standards may pose some challenges for school districts, but he believes they are necessary. He compares obesity, and related diseases like diabetes, to a truck barreling toward a child, and the new guidelines to a parent teaching that child to look both ways before crossing the street.

The only caveat to the change in school guidelines for lunch is that it applies to lunch and breakfast that is served to the kids in school but not to the vending machines and what is sold at the school stores. Perhaps the next time we hear that USDA announces changes to school lunch guidelines will also cover the school stores and vending machines.

Image credit - ifoodtv