What the new school lunch menus will (hopefully) look like

The USDA put out a proposed before/after menu for schools, comparing what old lunches look like (hot dogs, pizza, tater tots...basically baseball game food) to what the new ones should look like when schools start following the new guidelines. Hooray! The new menu looks fantastic. These are the types of meals I would like my students to be eating. But, like I said in my previous post, now kids need to be taught how and why to eat these new healthy foods. Otherwise they won't eat them.

Here is some other coverage of the new lunch regulations:

Marion Nestle on Food Politics (who says kids need to be taught where their food comes from for this to work)
NY Times (which says that the potato industry is apparently still upset that "the potato is being downplayed in favor of other vegetables." Good.)
Fed Up with Lunch (who says kids need more time to eat these healthy lunches...currently they get about 15 minutes at most schools)

Healthy school food needs to come with healthy food education

Today Michelle Obama announced the new nutrition standards for public school lunches. The standards call for doubling the amount of fruits and vegetables, offering only whole-grain foods, and reducing fat and sodium. She had a great quote, saying

When we send our kids to school, we have a right to expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we're trying to keep from them when they're at home. We have a right to expect that the food they get at school is the same kind of food that we want to serve at our own kitchen tables.

She is right. Parents do have a right to expect healthy food be served at their kids' schools. But I don't think that kids will automatically eat these more nutritious lunches. Kids are very used to the fatty, salty, sugary foods that are so bad for them. Thus, when healthier foods are introduced, they're less likely to eat them. It's not just because "kids are picky eaters." Yes, some kids are picky eaters. But for the most part, kids will eat foods they are familiar with. They are very familiar with pizza, and chicken nuggets, and french fries. Why? Because this is what they are eating at fast food restaurants, at school, and sometimes at home. Most kids are NOT familiar with eggplant, couscous, kale, and garbanzo beans. So they don't eat them. (Would YOU eat a strange-colored, squishy and/or crunchy food that you had never seen before?)

Fortunately, this is not an insurmountable problem. With healthy lunches should come healthy food education. Kids need to be thinking about healthy food, learning about healthy food, getting excited about healthy food. The earlier a child is introduced to healthy eating habits, the more likely she is to keep these healthy eating habits.

Schools need to bring in chefs, farmers, and nutritionists to talk to their students. They need to model healthy eating habits by eating school lunches (or their own vegetable-packed homemade lunches) right next to their students. They need to make vegetables, fruits, and other unprocessed foods seem more familiar, more appetizing. And last, they need to be teaching kids about food on a regular basis. This means teaching them how to cook it, how to grow it, how to eat it.

Middle school students design a poster
explaining why green foods are so good for you

I have been working with Seven Generations Ahead, the farm-to-school organization in Chicago that I have mentioned before, to help create a food curriculum for teachers of 5th-8th grade students. The curriculum, called Linking Plants and Food, hits on all the important aspects of healthy food education: how to cook it, how to grow it, how to eat it. It also delves into issues of food justice and access and sustainable farming. This curriculum will get students thinking about food and developing healthy eating habits. Our hope is that, while school lunches slowly become healthier, kids will slowly become healthier eaters who understand where their food comes from.

Linking Plants and Food is set to be released in the next few weeks. I am so excited to see it, and use it in my classes. For more information on Linking Plants and Food, see sevengenerationsahead.org or contact act@sevengenerationsahead.org. I will repost as soon as it is officially released!

What is the single best thing we can do for our health?

I came across this video a while ago called 23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health? It's a bit long (nine minutes) but it stuck with me. If you don't have time to watch it, the basic message is that thirty minutes of exercise a day will make a huge difference in your health. It's hard to find the time, particularly in the winter with days getting dark by 5:00. I'm so much less motivated to run after it starts getting dark. But this video was a good little push to help me realize it's worth it.

Some new blogs for the new year

In the past year I've discovered so many fantastic, informative food and health blogs. They inspire me to keep eating healthy, cooking creatively, and staying active. Here are a few recent discoveries:

New Domesticity: This one is perfect for anyone who has recently taken on canning, knitting, gardening, making their own shampoo, or any of those newly-popular domestic projects. The author asks, "Why are women of my generation, the daughters of post-Betty Friedan feminists, embracing the domestic tasks that our mothers and grandmothers so eagerly shrugged off?" SO interesting, since I am slowly becoming one of those women...

Eat Drink Better: This blog posts several articles a day that are related to sustainable eating. If you only had time to read one food blog, I would suggest this one, since they cover almost all current events related to food safety, politics, and cooking.

Feminist Kitchen: Pretty awesome blog that explores women and food, and how they have interacted throughout history (and still today).

Mark Bittman: Not a new blog, but I had to put it in here because I love his well-spoken and passionate articles, as well as his recipes. He also offers tons of food-related links once a week.

Homegrown: Fun articles by all different people attempting to grow their own food and generally live more sustainably.

Recipe of the week: Black Bean and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

In our attempt to add more protein to our diet, I always look for recipes that incorporate beans, since they're an easy way to add more protein without using meat. Here is an awesome recipe that I am currently obsessed with. If you bake the sweet potatoes ahead of time, it only takes fifteen minutes to get these ready. Perfect for the days when I get home from work starving.

Also, the recipe website I got this from, fresh365, is pretty awesome. But they adapted it from the Vegan Planet book, which I've been meaning to look at. Anyway, here is the recipe...

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 in. cubes 
• 2 T olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 small jalapenos, finely chopped
• 14-oz can diced tomatoes
• 15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t pepper
• 1 large handful fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
• 1 c crumbled feta cheese (optional)
• 8 whole-wheat tortillas
• 1 c salsa 

Preheat oven to 400F. On a baking sheet, arrange sweet potato cubes in one layer, and bake for 20 minutes until tender. In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat, and add garlic and jalapenos. Saute 2-3 minutes, until garlic begins to brown. Add tomatoes, beans, lime juice, salt, pepper, and cilantro. Cook 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, just to heat it up. Turn off heat, stir in onion, feta, and cooked sweet potato.

Arrange half of tortillas on baking sheet. Bake for two minutes in oven. Remove from oven, top with sweet potato mixture, and add another tortilla on top. Cook in oven for six minutes, until tortillas are desired shade of brown and crispiness. Top with salsa. Eat and enjoy!

Photo credit

A culture of health in America

Amsterdam, where travel by bike is easy

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be American. Now, I don't want to get too deep into it. I don't want to talk about patriotism and freedom and democracy and all that. Basically, I'm considering how being an American relates to living a healthy life. This particular train of thought was inspired by several insightful blog posts I've read lately, as well as discussions with family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday. We have two close friends from Spain who have lived here for the past year. In a recent conversation we asked them to tell us some stereotypes of America that they'd heard before they moved here. I should note that, after answering, they pointed out that stereotypes are often inaccurate (as an example, they informed us that everyone in Spain doesn't fight bulls and wear red).

After "don't know anything about other countries," they said another stereotype is that Americans are fat and eat unhealthy diets. How sad, I thought! Besides ignorance, we are known around the world as being the unhealthy country. Indeed, the obesity rate is pushing 33% of all Americans. One in three people are overweight or dangerously overweight. Indeed, we subsidize the growing of corn and soy instead of healthier fruits and vegetables. And indeed, we eat a lot of fast food.

But, I said to myself, I eat healthy. My friends and family eat healthy. I don't have any close friends that are particularly overweight. But I realize that this fact is largely based on where I live and my income level. Where you live and how much money you have really makes a difference in your health in this country. For example, in this insightful article from Feministing's community blog, the author describes where she lives:

As for me, I live in Washington, DC, where wealth and means converge. Exercise is trendy, as is eating healthily. Grocery stores, co-ops, and farmer’s market, all devoted to providing high quality food products are everywhere. An affluent population is willing and able to pay more for the privilege.

Although I don't live in DC, the same set of circumstances was true in Chicago, Madison, and various other places I've lived. It was easy for me eat healthy. I was lucky enough to be taught how to cook by my family and friends. The importance of exercise has been instilled in me, and I could walk or take the bus almost everywhere. Additionally, the city was full of people who ran, biked, and played sports. You couldn't drive through the north side of Chicago without seeing dozens of runners and several yoga studios. But that's not the case in other places. As the author goes on to say,

Are these same options present in Alabama, especially in the rural areas or the inner city? Not so much. Does a tradition and corresponding cultural expectation of these sorts of beneficial practices exist? Not really. Cities are concentrations of wealth and the highly educated. There is no financial incentive for either of them to leave and spread elsewhere. Quality food is rarely found in areas of poverty. Most often, only cheaper, lower quality food is affordable and available.

In addition to quality food, there are other aspects of health that are only accessible to the wealthy: health insurance, gym memberships, time to cook meals from scratch, reduced exposure to fast food ads, the privilege of living in a safe neighborhood.

I don't have a solution for this issue that our country faces, in which where you live and how much money you have has a disproportionate effect on your health. I wish that healthy food was cheaper and available everywhere. I wish there were bike lanes and bus routes in all areas, including surburban and rural towns. I wish we were taught in school how to cook, maintain a healthy diet, and build exercise into our schedules. I wish minimum wage was higher, so people could work less and spend more time cooking. I wish kids were given more time for recess and had greener cities.

I wish that health was an expectation our country, just part of our general culture, instead of a privilege. I don't think that individuals can be blamed for their obesity or heart disease or poor eating habits, at least not entirely. Right now, living in our country makes it harder to be a healthy person, instead of easier. I hope someday that will change. I hope, however naively, that someday when people think of Americans, they will think of healthy people.

Photo credit

Recipe of the week: Pasta with Swiss Chard, Goat Cheese, and Red Peppers

This recipe is delicious and a good way to use Swiss chard which is still somewhat in season. It calls for orecchiette pasta, but sometimes it's hard to find, so I just use medium shell pasta. Additionally, it asks you to blanch the Swiss chard (put it in boiling water, then dip it in ice water, then chop it) but you could just saute it instead. Whatever you have time for.

Orecchiette Pasta with Swiss Chard, Goat Cheese, and Red Peppers

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound Swiss chard (1 bunch), stemmed and washed in two changes of water
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 red bell peppers, cut in small dice
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 to 2 garlic cloves (to taste), minced
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh marjoram
• 3/4 pound orecchiette
• 2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup) 

Directions
1. Begin heating a large pot of water while you stem and wash the chard. Fill a bowl with ice water. When the water in the pot comes to a boil, salt generously and add the chard. Blanch the chard leaves for one to two minutes until tender. Using a skimmer or a slotted spoon, transfer the chard to a bowl of ice water, then drain and squeeze out excess water. Chop medium-fine. Keep the pot of water at a simmer.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet, and add the bell peppers and the red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring often, until tender, five to eight minutes. Add the garlic and salt to taste, and stir for half a minute. Then stir in the chopped chard and the marjoram. Stir together for a few seconds, then turn the heat to very low.

3. Bring the water in the pasta pot back to a boil, and add the orecchiette. Cook al dente, following the timing instructions on the package. Add about 1/2 cup of the pasta water to the pan with the chard and peppers. Stir in the goat cheese. Drain the pasta, transfer to the pan and toss with the chard, pepper and goat cheese mixture. Serve hot.

Recipe and photo credit: NYTimes