| Dear Dr. Susan,
As we move towards the end of the school year, many communities are holding school board elections. I'd like to tip my hat to Rick Tannenbaum of Nyack, NY.
Rick is running for a spot on his local school board and is committed
to making better school food a priority. I hope others will follow his
example of taking a stand on food and children's health.
Other districts have taken postive action by hiring a wellness
consultant for the district. This includes supporting teachers and
students in better health. Learn more about this position as we
interview Laura Tolosi for this month's teleconference.
We've been busy building an Advisory Board of experts from around
the country to help bring you accurate information that
is not biased by food industry funding. Check out BSF Advisory Board
member Cynthia Lair's piece on fats and oils in this newsletter.
Next month's teleconference will feature another BSF Advisory Board member: Geri Brewster as we discuss the pros and cons of the wide range of sweeteners found in food products.
Enjoy the warm weather that May brings, Dr. Susan Rubin, Founder Better School Food
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From a Kindergarten Teacher
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Dear Dr. Rubin,
| I
jumped out of my chair the day you were on Rachel Ray's
show. I have many questions concerning our cafeteria food. 
My
first concern is the milk. Our school offers 2% white, 1% chocolate, 1%
strawberry or vanilla. So for breakfast some of my student are getting
1% chocolate milk (1/2 pint with 25 grams of sugar), then they are
pouring all that sugared milk over sugared cereal (10 more grams of
sugar), then add to that a small 4oz container of yogurt with 10 grams
of sugar or they get a 4 oz container of juice. Hmmm I bet that
contains sugar.
No wonder these children can't concentrate. No wonder I have a difficult time keeping them on task.
I
did ask our nutrition folks if we could just offer 2% or whole milk.
There response was that in order to get subsidizes by the government
they have to offer 3 milk choices. BTW the flavored 1/2 pints of milk
have the same grams of sugar as a 12oz bottle of Pepsi. OK do the math
- so in a 1/2 pint (8oz) of flavored milk the students are getting 2X
the sugar per oz as compared to a 12oz bottle of Pepsi.
 I
think if parents understood that they would have a fit. I really don't
know of too many parents who would allow their child to drink a bottle
of pop for breakfast! We hear on the news just about everyday how obese
America is becoming and how juvenile diabetes is on the rise. Well
HELLO! Look at what they get for breakfast. Why do we follow the food
pyramid when planning meals and not a diabetic diet. It seems to me
that it would be just as nutritious and way way more healthy.
Thanks for allowing me to vent.
Karen Sutliff
Kindergarten Teacher
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Community Spotlight: Pawtucket, Rhode Island
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A Few New Things on Their Plates by Jennifer Quigley Harris
When
students at Jenks Junior High School file into the cafeteria for lunch,
their menu choices sound a bit more like lunch entrees at your favorite
cafe than offerings of a school cafeteria. Turkey-cranberry
wraps, chicken and broccoli calzones, garden salads made to
order. There's fresh fruit every day, a good amount of it from
local farms. Items for sale in the vending machines and snack
bars have changed as well. Candy bars, soda and popsicles have
been replaced by rice cakes, graham crackers, and yogurt.
Students won't find a soda or artificially sweetened drink anywhere at
this school. Instead they can gulp down a carton of low fat milk,
a box of 100% juice or a bottle of plain old water.
This middle
school lunchroom isn't a part of Alice Waters' efforts in the Berkeley
CA school district, and it isn't one of the schools under the kitchen
direction of Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef changing the face of
school lunches in Britain. This school is in Pawtucket RI, an
urban school district right in the middle of New
England. And, thanks to the dedicated efforts of a
group of Rhode Island residents, students in the Pawtucket public
schools eat only healthy and highly nutritious foods during their
school day.
What happened in Pawtucket school lunchrooms
was the result of teamwork between the members of the Pawtucket school
district, the employees at the corporate food service company Sodexho,
and the leadership of Kids First, a non-profit organization whose
mission is to improve the nutritional and physical well being of
children. The conversion to all healthy foods, first at Jenks and
then eventually to the rest of the district, was just one of the
milestones reached during a three year project funded by the Rhode
Island Foundation to change school meals and food vending for the
better in Pawtucket schools.
 The
project - Transforming School Nutrition: Better Meals for
Pawtucket Students - set out to improve student health by improving
school food. As it progressed, the Transforming School Nutrition
project directly affected statewide school food legislation, expanded
the corporate channels of food distribution within Rhode Island schools
and helped to generate a comprehensive set of nutritional guidelines
and criteria for all food products consumed by Rhode Island
schoolchildren.
At its conclusion, the project went beyond the
implementation of healthier school food in Pawtucket. After three
active years, it provides a wealth of practical information, tested
strategies, and a series of positive partnerships statewide, that other
school districts can model so that every Rhode Island community has the
chance to improve student health by serving fresh and healthy foods to
the students in their schools.
For more information visit www.kidsfirst.org
If you have a story about changes taking place in your community, please write info@betterschoolfood.org
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Fats & Oils
by Cynthia Lair
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This has to be the most confusing ingredient to choose for most consumers.
For many years, Americans were told that hydrogenated fats like
margarine were better for us. Then polyunsaturated vegetable oils
were given the big thumbs up as an answer to high cholesterol. We
hear butter is good, then it is bad. So far no one has bashed
olive oil. What is right?
In
the Bastyr Nutrition Kitchen we prefer to cook with traditional fats
and oils that have nourished populations for thousands of years.
Historically, most cultures have cooked with saturated and
monounsaturated fats which are stable and less likely to go
rancid. Following are our top picks for use in the whole foods
cooking classes at Bastyr and for this book. Whenever possible,
organic is preferred.
Butter
is stable, has fewer rancidity problems and maintains its integrity
when cooked. Butter contains lauric acid, lecithin, vitamins A
& D and if the butter comes from cows allowed access to pasture,
the possible presence of omega 3 fatty acids increases.
Coconut oil
is a saturated fat that is solid at room temperatures lower than 76
degrees F. It's anti-fungal, anti-bacterial properties make it
the perfect fat for rapidly decomposing foods in tropics; it is
definitely not a local or seasonal food. Coconut oil has a long shelf
life and is a very stable fat. It works nicely in baked goods and
holds its integrity during medium temperature frying.
Cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil must
be mechanically produced with no heat according to standards set by
International Olive Oil Council of Madrid. Extra virgin oil comes
from the first pressing of the olives and is only 1% acid or less.
Olive oil contains monounsaturated fats which are cholesterol-free and
help with its stability. The deeper the color, the more intense
the flavor will be.
Unrefined sesame oil
is a traditional oil from the Asian culture. It is 46%
monounsaturated and 41% polyunsaturated. The poly part is
protected from rancidity by "sesamol" an antioxidant naturally present
in the seed. This oil has a distinct, delicious flavor.
Cold-pressed, unrefined oils
are fine for salad dressings and recipes that have low or no heat
involved. These oils are fragile making them unsuitable for
baking or high temperatures. They are also usually fairly
expensive. Rapunzel and other food companies produce high-quality
cold-pressed, unrefined oils from a variety of food sources; two
examples are example hazelnut oil and pumpkin seed oil.
For occasional high heat cooking I use refined, expeller pressed grape seed, safflower, sunflower or peanut oil.
I don't use or recommend refined vegetable oils for regular
consumption. Most of these oils employee solvents to help extract the
oil from the seed. The oil is filtered; refined with alkaline
chemicals, steam deodorized at 460 degrees and filtered again. This
creates oil with few nutrients, no aroma and very little taste that has
a long shelf life.
Excerpt from Feeding the Whole Family 3rded. by Cynthia Lair (Sasquatch Books, 2008) www.feedingfamily.com and www.cookusinterruptus.com
Cynthia Lair is a BSF Advisory Board member.
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Upcoming BSF Teleconferences
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May 15, 2008 @ 1:00pm EST
Wellness from within the School Administration 
The ins and outs of the evaluation and implementation of a Wellness Policy
Featured Guest Speaker: Laura Tolosi, Director of Wellness Programs, Yorktown Central School District
June 12, 2008 @ 1:00pm EST
How Sweet It Isn't! Sweeteners from A to Z
Agave, Aspartame, HFCS, Stevia and everything in between
Featured Guest Speaker: Geri Brewster, Nutritionist
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Disclaimer
Information in this newsletter is not intended as medical advice or
information to replace the services of a health care provider. Any
medical question, general or specific, should be addressed by a
qualified health care professional. Any application of the
recommendations set forth or implied is at the reader's discretion and
sole risk. Better School Food does not advocate any particular way of
eating. |
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Our Mission
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Is to raise awareness of the connection between food and children's health, behavior and learning.
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Support
Better School Food
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NEWS FLASH
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A new study by the Food Trust called the Nutrition Policy Initiative found that school- based intervention reduced the incidence of overweight kids by 50%. The study, published last month in The Journal of Pediatrics, shows that policy changes, nutrition education, social marketing, and parent outreach make a great impact.
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Ingredient Facts
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Top 5 reasons why diet sodas are bad:
1. Diet sodas contain high levels of phosphoric acid
which are bad for your bones and teeth. These sodas are even more
acidic than regular soda, they leach calcium out of your bones and
promote tooth decay.
2. Individuals with mood disorders such as anxiety or depression are particularly sensitive to the artificial sweeteners found in diet sodas.
3. Headache is another common side effect of diet sodas.
4. Diet sodas are highly addictive and create sweet cravings.
5. Diet sodas have been shown to increase the incidence of metabolic syndrome.
To read more about what ingedients to eliminate as well as other resources go to our website |
Coming Soon!
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FOOD FIGHT
Revolution Never Tasted So Good
This documentary gives a fascinating look at how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century.
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Links We Love
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The Cloud Institute is the premier organization that equips school systems K-12 and their
communities with the core content, competencies and habits of mind that
characterize education for a sustainable future. They do this by inspiring
teachers and engaging students through meaningful content and
student-centered instruction.
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Resource
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Would
you like to find out how your school can improve their health and
safety policies and programs? The CDC has developed this self-assesment
and planning guide called the:
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| The movie about the movement |
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About BSF
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About Better School Food
Founded
in 2005, The Coalition for Better School Food (BSF) is a nonprofit
organization dedicated to improving school food for a positive impact
on children's health, behavior and learning.
BSF founder Susan Rubin,
DMD, HHC, is a dentist, holistic nutritionist and parent of three who
has been advocating better school food for over a decade.
BSF gives parents inspiration, information, and resources to help improve school food. |
Contact info:
287 E. Main St. #231
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