School Lunches: Part 1

(Courtesy of yourbestfitnesscoah.blogspot.com and written by Rick Copley)

School Lunches: Part 1, Rick does lunch

I remember school lunch was as a time to be social and stuff my face with as much food as time would allow. I honestly have no idea what I ate for lunch was I was in elementary and middle school. I remember liking it though so it must have been bad for me. I do remember a teacher once telling me that pizza was the healthiest food in the world because it had the all the food groups. Oh boy…

I remember exactly what I ate in high school.

Of course I drank milk. Why in the world would they serve pasteurized cow milk to kids in school? Are we insane? Are out kids calfs? Do we really NEED to fatten them up?

The low grade milk that we serve our kids at lunch is ridiculously unhealthy.

OK, milk to drink. Then it was some sort of steakum type, thin mystery meat dealio with 2 packets of mayonnaise. I’m pretty sure I had two of those. Awesome. I believe I put pepper on it as well. Oh that is so gross. Yep. That is that I ate five days per week for 4 years.

But wait there is more.

That cost a buck twenty five. Oh what to do with my 3 quarters left over?

You know it. I bought three nutty bars.

Really? Are there nuts in those things?

OK, look at what I had for lunch. Any nutrition there? Nope. I was an athlete. You’d think I would have had a clue. Apparently not.

Lots of calories. Good for me as an athlete but what about people that weren’t athletes. I was in high school in the late 80’s and early 90’s. This is about the time that the obesity levels started to sky rocket.

Nutty bars or an apple. Hmmmm…

I wanted taste and quantity. I made horrific choices because I could. Do you think your kids are making better choices? You tell me. SEE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Simon Says: - Now this hits home with me. I was also the kid that stuffed his face without thought or concern. When you're a kid and are given a free range of food choices with few boundaries, little education/knowledge of what is healthy eating or why it's important; these things coupled with the all important maturity that only arrives later in life (usually brought on by the disastrous and self destructive choices we've made in our youth), then quite honestly kids haven't got much of a chance it would seem.

My parents did their best to make sure we ate healthily at home. However, then there was school lunch, my choice was always chips with something brown and meaty (before I became a vegetarian), not vegetables, why would I waste my money on those when I could get 3 desserts instead? (I think my record was 10 desserts - doh!!!)

My point is that kids are not great at making good choices for themselves, they simply haven't developed the tools (many adults too for that matter). So this is where parents need to take charge. They may not easily be able to control what their kids eat at school but they can ensure that they eat healthily at home.

They can see if their kids are getting fat and they can do something about it before it's too late. *YES I DO BLAME THE PARENTS, they're the ones in charge, they have the maturity and the experience to help guide their kids to a healthy lifestyle - isn't that what parenting is all about - good guidance?

*I'm adding a caveat here. On reflection I BLAME PARENTS OF THE CURRENT INFORMATION AGE. With knowledge and accessibility to knowledge there comes responsibility and if you fail to honour that responsibility then you deserve the blame. I accept that widespread knowledge of the damaging effects of such things as obesity and smoking are only recent developments - yes we can say with the benefit of hindsight "wasn't it obvious?". I say "No it wasn't, but now it is!"

My greatest fear is that this lost generation of obese children will become obese parents (if they live long enough) and then I can't blame them as they have already been let down themselves, they won't have the tools, the knowledge or the habits to guide their children.

Postscript: - There's probably nothing worse than a reformed smoker or a reformed Previous Fat Guy (PFG) - I was never a smoker but was a whale not so many years ago. I was a healthy kid who turned into a fat teenager and then an obese adult, now I'm bit of a healthy triathlete and Ironman but still enjoy my beers and life. What upsets me the most is I've seen it all, healthy, fat, obese and super fit and I can honestly say that I am infinitely happier, more engaged and get more out of life since I've been fit. I fear that much of today's McDonalds society will only ever have one sad, blobby lethargic perspective and will never realise there's another wonderful alternative.