Health care is one thing that would likely drastically improve if it were taken off the profit model. No longer would their be an incentive to make money by keeping people sick.
@@ninjacats1647 change what gives them profit. In addition health insurance companies have a lot of regulations that protect them. Really the market isn't open so people get forced into plans and you can only get on a plan during a limited part of the year forcing you into it for the whole year even if it ends up not being a good match. There's lots of changes that can be made without moving towards a system similar to the kind that introduced MAID: medical assistance in dying. That's literally a government ran assisted suicide program
What a delightfully pessimistic outlook on this. This, the goal of getting a nation to change its accepted standard of education facility provided lunches.
As a kid in the US, my mother was very health conscious, so ever since middle school onwards she insisted I would only ever have a home packed lunch. For me this often meant a tossed salad with chicken and nuts, and a side of more fruits and vegetables. But this also meant I very quickly noticed the disparity between kids stuck with school lunches and my packed lunch. Some kids would stare at me wide eyed at all the produce I had on the table when walking by. I was able to ignore it over time by just focusing on my friends and paying the people walking by no mind. But one day as punishment the principal decided to shuffle around our seating places so that we couldn’t sit next to our friends-some weird failed attempt to fix bullying by blaming it on cliques. And I ended up sitting with kids who were dependent on free school lunch. Some just, stared at me, hungrily, whenever I started to eat, commenting on how good all my vegetables and salad looked. They didn’t even talk, just stared at me and my lunch like it was a mukbang TH-cam channel despite them having their own free lunch. It was pretty clear which one they preferred, and I felt bad thinking they probably rarely ever got to eat actual fruits and vegetables, but I mostly wanted the staring to stop. It was uncomfortable regardless and they did it in such a way that I thought they might try to swipe my lunch entirely. I managed to change seats around a couple times until I found a group that didn’t stare. I made a new friend, and since she was dependent on school lunch as well, I made a habit of sharing my berries and carrots with her. I also learned from her that since she was very poor, she never had produce at home because her mom bought the highest calorie foods she could find just to ensure they were getting enough calories. So yeah, candy for breakfast lunch and dinner, basically, but she was still very thin.
I love how in recent years they've had the stop bullying campaigns & whatnot but they conveniently tiptoe around the fact that parents play a major role in it simply by how they raise or don't raise their kids🤨...A lot of kids 🏃♀️ wild while all the adults are busy all the ⌚ so a big chunk of them don't know how to act unfortunately😔.Anyway it really makes a big difference in a child's health when they have homemade lunches & meals,those healthy eating patterns tend to stick for the long-term.I was lucky to have a homemaker mother from birth to adulthood & she's always been a health-nut so she made healthy meals for me and I still have these good eating patterns even as a adult.It's a really precious gift to give a child when you teach them about the importance of health from a early age😊.
When I was a kid I ate a mix of both school lunch, and homemade lunch especially in elementary to middle school. My high school thankfully had pretty good food, so it wasn’t as bad of a problem. Glad you understood why they were staring, and why they were generally jealous. I really wish they made food that benefited us, versus benefiting their pockets on k-12 students.
@@malwads1836 please, try to not talk in hieroglyphics, i know you put the label after the hieroglyphic, but it make it quite hard to read, a single comment should limit itself to one single hieroglyphic at the end.
It is also possible to be thin because the body is not able to utilise the calories - for that you need actual nutrients, like protein, minerals and catalysts for chemical reactions (vitamins).
In 2006 when I graduated high school, I immediately dropped 40 pounds, and the only difference was that I was no longer eating school lunches. And I'm not a junk food addict either, but there had to be so much sugar, salt, carbs and fat piped into those meals that no amount of salads or home cooked, healthy meals at home could at the time combat them.
I am honestly confused by this because while the food was not healthy by any means, the meals were not that big either. Like the portions were quite small. Idk where you went to school but typically lunch for me consisted of a main like burger, pizza, nuggets, pasta or chicken sandwich and it didn't always come with fries or tator tots. They'd offer a side of fruit sometimes gross boiled veggies (honestly never bothered to even try them most of the time) and a carton of milk. The cold food line offered sandwiches or salads. There were also vending machines and a snack line. Now I graduated high school 10 years ago so maybe things had changed by that point. But yeah I don't feel like my lunch food was enough to make me gain anything.
@@ramblingmillennial1560 I had two things against me. One, my school had a LOT of fried or fatty items, things that were often preferable to the deplorable vegetables. The mashed potatoes were often like hair gel, just really vile texture, and the greens would be like mush. Second, I have a metabolism like a medieval peasant that thinks that I need to be plump to survive the coming winter famine.
It was the other way for me the school lunches were so bad I didn't eat breakfast or lunch so when I graduated I gained about 10 lbs in a year because I could eat what I wanted.
I agree that added sugar needs to be reduced. But as someone who is intolerant to artificial sweeteners I don't think it needs to be swapped out. I could also see them reducing fruit and veggies because of sugar. Sugar itself isn't a problem it's added sugar
Not really there is no difference between natural sugar and added sugar it’s just that the sugar in fruits and veggies also have healthy stuff while added sugars tend not to
I grew up in Puerto Rico and aside from the occasional chef boyardee we got some great school lunches, beans and rice with some kind of protein being the most served during a week. I actually miss eating lunch at school, those lunch ladies really knew how to cook!
That sounds great, I grew up on American school food and I ended up obese even though my parents fed me a normal amount, I would over eat on the unhealthy, junk food that the schools will give such as pizza, breakfast pizza, breadsticks, goldfish, candy, bread, nachos, I could keep on going, but you already know that there’s gonna be a bunch of other unhealthy food. I am now no longer obese, but I still get cravings all the time for unhealthy food and try to fight hard against these cravings. I hope to one day put my kids in a better school with actual good and healthy food, but to do that here in the US, I need to put them in a private or highly funded school, which is very unfair to the majority of kids. Hoping for changes on the school food laws for the better, all of our future kids deserve it!
It's amazing how good black beans & brown rice can be when it's cooked right😁.Whenever I cook stuff like this I'll do healthy versions of 🇲🇽 food without all the salt,added sugar,or high saturated fat...It puts places like Taco Bell & Chipotle to shame because I use a lot of various spices in it😋.That junk just can't compete with a good homemade meal.
I knew that school food in US wasn't always the most nutritious, but these examples are just crazy to me! I grew up in Finland and all schools have a free lunch. It's just normal food, typically includes a salad, some bread, water or (normal) milk to drink. Why isn't the US, the richest country on earth, able to feed kids normal, basic food? Oh yeah, corporate profits
hahaha im at 2:50 and that milk study is really relatable. i legit thought i didnt like plain milk for most of my life bc the plain milk at school always tasted like it was seconds away from being spoiled. then when i moved to the UK for uni i suddenly was like, "wait a second... plain milk can taste good?!?"
Yeah, and it was no wonder it tasted like that. In my elementary school, if you were given a frozen milk and went to a teacher about it, they fully opened the carton, handed you a spoon, and said “eat it.” After that, if you tried to throw it away, the same teacher would be hang out by the trashcan and say “don’t be wasteful” 🤡 ah yes, spoiled frozen milk, the epitome of nutrition. I stopped buying milk at school in 2nd grade-there was just way too much difference between their rotting spoiled carton milk and the milk my mom brought home.
I went to school in the 60s. The cooks came in early in the morning to cook lunch from scratch. There was no breakfast option at that time. When my children went to school in the 80s, I was shocked. The schools had a choice of prepackaged processed microwave food, for the free lunches or lunch tickets; or fast food for paying
@@merrymata2547 If you read the comments they now have uncrustable brand sandwiches. My American online friends have never mentioned this from the 2000s.
it’s corporations fault just like most fucked up things in america. cheaper to get it all packaged in a factory than to get fresh ingredients and do it right
As a kid, I loved milk, even plain milk, but at school I always went for the chocolate milk because at my school the milk always sat out for who knows how long and was always just slightly below room temperature, yuck! For me, even the chocolate milk was tough to choke down at that temperature. I do hope these new rules pass.
I'm glad ours was kept in sort of a chest freezer kind of thing. They would slide back a large glass lid and you take out your milk, the ladies closing it again when the line ended that lunch shift. But in one elementary school, I went to, they totally used to put all the cartons on trays and the milk was always luke and gross.
My school used to make us get milk with all of our lunches. Most of the time it was fine, but sometimes it would be partially frozen or even be past its expiration date.
I'm from a third world country, but I schooled for the most part in a school which was the most expensive in my city. Most people brought their own lunches their parents or house help cooked for them. Our canteen served lunches for 1 USD each it was different every day with proteins and vegetables and rice- pasta on fridays. During highschool it was students who would cook the lunches and decide the menu but it still followed that format of proteins, veg and carbs usually rice or as in tradition pasta on fridays sometimes desserts were served too. It was interesting to learn the food preferences of my peers. We also had to balance our classes with cooking when our groups were in charge. For highschool, you'd have to pay 5 USD for the the next week before friday ends as the kitchen crew would buy this in the market during saturday and our menu had to be budgeted for the amount of students and teachers there were and type of dishes being served.
Our food industry is, well, completely industrialized. Processed, packaged, augmented, enhanced, fluffed, puffed, etc. Many poorer people ironically eat more processed food. Richer people tend to focus more on better quality food and spend a lot more for it. I am grateful for having learned how to cook from my family.
The stuff he talked about was actually quite nice. At least compared to my school lunches. As an elementary student way back I would have been lucky to have protein more than three days a week and when we did get protein it was covered in sugar, cheese and various fattening or other wise unhealthy products. Don’t even get me started on the vegetables when “salads” were available all they had were either iceberg lettuce with some cherry tomatoes shredded carrots or cabbage or a packaged fruit-salad that was always soggy and sickeningly sweet. All our foods came pre packaged. The only “cooking” than went on in the kitchen was heating the pre packaged food even then the food would still sometimes come out partially frozen or soggy.
No wonder they become adult and end up only eating this crap, I’m from Portugal and school lunch wasn’t good but it wasn’t unhealthy , the only way to eat unhealthy foods was for snack and the school doesn’t choose for you, and they sell a limit selection of foods.
I remember in high school we were given the option of milks (came with the lunch price) or an 8 oz mini water that was $1 extra. So many students would shell out the dollar every single day for a water that would be gone in 2 sips while those who couldn’t afford it wouldn’t drink anything at all. Even as high schoolers in 2013 we thought it was ridiculous to have lunch with milk 🤢
My classmates love the milk, but most of them have grown up drinking milk straight from the tank. If we get actual good milk like whole (sadly raw will never happen) kids would drink it.
As a teacher at a school that tries our best to provide better lunches and breakfasts than the usual fare, and has a healthy food policy thanks for shedding light on this! It is really wild when I think about the sorts of food I ate as a kid/teen.
By the way... At the end for the sponsor you talked about US news sites blocking EU viewers, you know why? Because otherwise they need to comply with EU/UK data protection regulations. (GDPR) "Should we disclose the data we're collecting? Nah, just block countries which require us to do that" Land of the free! Freedom to collect whatever data you like.
The USDA menu is so carb heavy. I would like to see the menu to include more filling protein options. Also the breakfast options are so sugar heavy and then we wonder why there are so many behavior issues.🙄
It’s not about carbs vs proteins It’s about sugar and sodium We need more veggies and fruits which are carbs…and less processed foods that have tons of added sugar and salt They already have protein in all their meals in the form of meat and cheese lmao Protein or carbs is not the issue at all Americans obsession with protein is so weird
@@kalystaortiz3701 for me the protein keeps the kids fuller and longer so that they can concentrate and be focused on learning. It's really frustrating when they are having meltdowns when they are clearly hungry and have to wait. I really think the USDA menu needs an overhaul.
@@SherriLyle80s The issue is more in line with processed sugar. Otherwise they'd have to ban most fruits in schools due to the carbs they contain. Plus, the whole grain bread they serve now is honestly pretty bad, so I might actually be okay if they stopped giving *that* to kids.
I actually feel like a lot more kids would choose salad than most people think, i have a friend that is allergic to so many things that a large chunk of her diet is salads. Also, it'd be nice to have something other than the same like 8 things to eat. Almost everyday I get a spicy chicken sandwich (which they very recently changed to real chicken instead of a grey chicken patty) bc the other options are a soggy, reheated, single packaged burrito, or an uncrustable which is just more sugar, or very meh mushy pizza. Idk, I would appreciate fresh fruits and veggies at school over what we get currently. Only two good meals are the some-sort-of-asian sauce chicken and rice, and frito pie. Most of my friends debate even getting lunch at all every other day. Our breakfast options are usually reheated packages of mini pancakes or chocolate covered mini whole grain donuts and juice. One lunch lady has a stand that sells doritos and mini donuts and poptarts and stuff for like a dollar, dollar 50 each for some extra money. School lunch really needs better regulations and funding.
Salads are way more popular than you'd think at my old secondary school the food was pretty hit or miss and nothing in between Taste wise (and still is according to my siblings, and I didnt even have to eat there often, like most of the non boarding students I brought my own lunch for the days I had afternoon classes, but the boarders often complained) they still cooked themselves. Some meals were just sooo good I'd kill to eat them again and some days you were stuck with a weird gooey dark green soup with different kinds of sausage pieces floating about (Beware of "students choice" days thats just code for we found some shit at the back of the fridge or the bottom of some pot and threw that in a random order into a new pot also dont expect the good stuff on Mondays or Wednesdays thats the days where most students have afternoon classes so they dont serve the more expensive better options that they make less profit on, the price of the meal is fixed and you also get seconds (and thirds if there are few students eating that day)). But the salad bar was always there for you and pretty popular even on days with Apfelstrudel or the holy grail of chicken: chicken with nut/flake panade? (Not sure on the english word for that). But a meal was usually main, dessert and salad bar you could choose between the veggies and meat option each day except for veggie days where they didnt offer a meat dish and theyd give you water to drink everything else you'd have to buy extra or bring from home.
I've seen kids at school salad bars before, and there is a very real demographic that would just get a bowl of croutons or cucumber slices with ranch dressing. The school tried to police it, which mostly just led to those kids not getting anything from the bar at all. Which is kind of the other half of the problem, a lot of kids will just go without, and the school can certainly try to police that too, but it never ends well. Obviously you shouldn't just offer them garbage, but the solutions aren't necessarily simple.
depends on the age group because elementary age kids aren’t gonna pick salad if they can get fried stuff and sugary snacks. however i’m in high school and people i know do get salad for lunch
School menus have certainly changed over the years. I still remember lunches that were served in high school - tasty meals such as fish patty with parsley potatoes and stewed tomatoes, salisbury steak with gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans, halupki (stuffed cabbage) with mashed potatoes, spaghetti with meatballs and a salad . What in the world happened in the last 50 years? By the way, we didn't have school lunches in elementary school because we all went home for lunch. Yeah, that was the dark ages. Even so, I taught in public school and the lunches were still better than what was shown here and that was a little over 10 years ago. American children have such poor eating habits, it's no wonder that there is an obesity problem.
my school sucked, we had nothing like that lol. my schooling was from 90's - early 2000's. Mostly fast food type items. My fave day was turkey/gravy day
When I went to school before 2006, the mashed potatoes always had a disgusting consistency like hair gel and the meat was ghastly. Overcooked vegetables, chewy cheese, stark white bread and a fine layer of grease. Meals were not enjoyable.
Big business decided that there were massive profits to be made from feeding kids crap. The old system had seasonal local produce turned into tasty, nutritious meals by women who took pride in what they did and there was very little waste. Big business took over and mass catering with cheap, processed ingredients made in giant processing plants to be reheated by whoever and standards are cut by crooked politicians so now kids don't know what real food is and go for what they like. Result is kids eating junk food and throwing away salads and fresh fruit. Massive waste, but shareholders are happy.
I graduated high school in 2011, and yes I remember some decent options but over half were very unhealthy options like the ones he mentioned. And you could add bag of chips, chocolate ice cream, packaged muffins, etc every day if you wanted.
Folks, don't misunderstand, there were some unhealthy options on school menus back in the early '70s. I remember how popular the ice cream sandwiches were, and also the chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Though we only had white and chocolate milk.. Still, a lot of students would bring their lunch rather than buy it.
Thank you, Evan, for this information and for your positive impact on improving school nutrition. It is appalling to know that this is happening. As an RN at a large public health facility, I am disappointed at what is served at my job, but public schools are far worse in my opinion. I have submitted my comments on the matter by using your link.
Thanks for the link. Son was in public school til halfway through 3rd grade, he had breakfast at home and still was ravenous for his packed lunch with sandwich, veg, fruit and yogurt with milk as he didn't want the "cardboard" food. When I brought him home to school was so happy no one made fun of what he ate daily. Think is hugely ignorant to think kids don't eat at home, no parent, no matter how poor doesn't feed their kid.
@@ramblingmillennial1560 there are many parents who don't eat so kids do. Have worked inner city hospitals and truly understand poverty,pride and hopelessness.
I’m a real life person Evan and you are such hilarious man, you could easily be a stand up comedian and all the theatre halls would be filled and filled with laughter from your excellent humour, even though what your talking about is important you bring so much humour into it and that’s why I love watching your videos, your so funny and a real entertainer. Thanks for cheering me up. 👍👍✅
During covid, my school system got rid of all our healthier food options (salad bar, soup + cold sandwiches) because they were unhygienic. So many kids in my class were disappointed. They also switched over to pre-packaged government meals, and stopped having kids who could afford to pay for their lunches pay. Meals just got worse and more unhealthy, and I don't think they're going to get back to where they were in the future.
I think you underestimate how willing kids are to eat salad. My primary school had a salad bar until I was in about P4 (8/9y/o) and most kids who got school dinners loved it. You could have as much salad as you want, 1 serving of protein (usually ham, chicken, tuna or boiled eggs), some cheese/coleslaw and a bit of bread. I think at some point they got a new head cook who decided she didn't want the salad bar and then it disappeared, which a lot of us were upset about.
As a kid about to graduate highschool I have never, In my 11 years of being in school, gotten any meal from the school that wasn’t frozen and then microwaved or thawed, etc Like the idea that we get food that looks like what you’d get outside of school is just weird to me. Everything is like specially made to have less fat or less sugar, or be whole wheat, so a lot of it gets wasted because it’s hard to eat, unappetizing, and frankly boring. Instead of introducing us to healthy foods at a good quality, they just make “healthier” versions of junk food and call it a day. Which just makes us want the real thing outside of school because, let’s be honest, it tastes really bad at school. They also require us to take milk and a set amount of whatever they put out for us, so a lot (and I mean A LOT) of food gets wasted. At least at my school it’s free, so I can eat at least something.
It's actually shocking to me that PB&J is still being served in public schools. What with the increased incidence of allergies recently (though, even in my school days ~25 years ago, a LOT of people had food allergies), I was under the impression that most schools had basically banned nuts and nut products entirely from their premises.
At all of the schools I've been to in the last few years, allergies are pretty much a non-issue. In elementary, there is usually one peanut-free room per grade and maybe ~10 seats in the cafeteria reserved for those with extreme allergies (usually completely empty). I've never seen any of these restrictions in middle/high schools.
@@phoneheaded Wow. I student-taught in a couple schools in 2010 and 2011 (wanted to be a teacher, but eventually decided against it...I think I made the right call, in hindsight), and neither school allowed any student or staff-member to bring in any product containing either peanuts or tree nuts (products made in facilities that also handled those nuts were fine - I guess traces of nuts were fine, but a known nut ingredient was not). One was a high school, the other a private, K-12 school, so it included all ages.
basically yes, although a gram doesn't directly translate to a ml, especially when you consider the sugar dissolves into the water in the milk. For example, you can have 200 grams of pure water and thats 200ml, then you add sugar, which dissolves completely, it'd still take up 200 ml of space but it would weigh more.
@@megasin1 well, that can't be true, you're adding sugar to 200ml, the volume is bound to increase at least a little bit when you add something to it, but yeah, the volume wouldn't incease on a 1:1 ratio with the weight in grams ;) just stating the obvious and being nitpicky lol even 200ml water only precisely weighs 200 grams at exactly 4 degrees celcius, that's weight in our earthly athmosphere ofcourse, deviation isn't much until you start freezing it or evaporating it :D mass ofcourse is a measure that is agnostic to earthly gravitational forces, but water having both the capability freezing and evaporating in realistic reach, even the mass of changes when it either freezes or tursns gaseous too, even without the same rules to gravity
I REALLY hope this law is passed so that kids can get healthier meals. America is one of the most over weight if not the most over weight country in the world. Things REALLY need to change ASAP.
@@HomeWorkouts_LS 14th is still pretty high so “my one of the most” still counts. Such a shame that it’s taken this long for even a suggestion of such a law to come up.
It’s not even just about that, many americans are deficient in certain vitamins and minerals. That can negatively impact growing kids even more that adults! Especially those with no other stable food source
@@alexreid1173 agreed. I was out in america last year for 2 weeks at Disney. I got constipated after a few days and after a week I got really I’ll getting the shivers, feeling sick, difficulty keeping food down, loss of appetite and overall feeling really unwell. I had to literally cut out all sugar and it took a week or two after I got home to feel well. I was craving vegetable and only healthy food for the time I was unwell.
I commented on the USDA form! I also think that keeping healthier foods out of school lunches is another way of enforcing a class barrier. Rich parents have the time and money to pack school lunches, but those kids who need assistance shouldn’t have the same healthy options - rather just the cheapest sugary stuff they’re used to (right?) blugh Curious to hear about British school lunches!
My high school had salads as an option, and I would choose them about half the time because...I'm a picky eater. That's my only reason. If I didn't like what they had for lunch that day, I'd go with a salad (if I didn't feel like waiting for a pizza to be "cooked").
Describe to me what salad items are to an American. I feel like it’s something totally different in the UK. I feel like you use the word ‘salad’ in far too many items
@@antonliverpool1 What my school had was a plastic container that contained lettuce, shredded carrots, purple cabbage, sliced hardboiled egg, and shredded cheese with 4 other vegetables (this could be either: Broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, or sliced zucchini). We were also offered salad dressing (either ranch or Italian). There was also a baggy of flat bread in there with garlic butter or something on it, but I only ate it about 1/4 the time since it was usually stale. Sometimes they had slices of cooked chicken, but I never wanted those specific salads.
@@antonliverpool1 The absolute worst "entre" we had at my school was a mini banana bread loaf (prepackaged), a Danimals yogurt, and a stick of string cheese. The fruit parfaits also weren't really a good "entre," but I have to put them as 2nd worst since they had actual fruit in them 2/3 of the time and the yogurt they used in those felt more like yogurt than the Danimals. Sadly, I ended up needing to get those as my lunch on multiple occasions since the cafeteria would run out of food during my lunch period (and all the "better" food was chosen by the other two lunch periods).
@@supersmilyface1 That’s actually outrageous. So their budgeting system is so shocking that they’re knowing depriving the third lunch period of food. If this was endemic to the school for whatever reason, the should have alternated the lunch period throughout the week. P.s I’m pretty sure it’s common for all students and teachers to take their lunch at the same time in UK schools.
I hope this passes before my toddler goes to school. If not i'll be packing a lot of lunches. My only hope is that they don't replace everything with sugar substitutes..... just let kids get used to less sweet foods dammit. I'm horribly sensitive to artificial sweeteners. Yogurt, fruits and breads, cereal and juice are the main sources of added sugar right now and those are all the things I have to read labels carefully at the grocery store because manufacturers will frequently toss some aspartame or Splenda in there so they can lower the calorie count. If I'm not careful when buying these things, I'll end up with a migraine or ibs flare-up.
Artificial sweeteners are the worst! Let us just have things that aren't so very sweet? Artificial sweeteners are cheaper than sugar IIRC, in the UK the "Sugar tax" means every soda is mixed both sugar up to the legal limit, then extra sweeteners on top. Sucks for everyone, doesn't make the soda diabetic-friendly, still overly-sweet tasting, and horrible if you're sensitive to artificial sweeteners!
@@hkandm4s23 Okay thanks! For a moment I was worried they're adding sweeteners straight into fresh fruit by now, as that's what we were always served at school. An apple, a pear, a banana etc. with peels and all.
Be prepared to pack a lunch, and that everything will probably need to be peanut free. And that all the rewards, treats, and snacks given will be candy. It's a hard battle to fight as a parent when m&m's are given for reading a sentence correctly by the school.
Submitted a comment! Thanks for talking about this. As a mom of two toddlers who will be entering school in a few years I would love to see them having better options than the pizza, frozen chicken patties and pop tarts we had daily in the 90’s-2000s.
"Tasting History with Max Miller" covered School lunches this week! I'm not sure that going back to the depression-era recipe he made would be a success though. Personally I'm no fan of artificial sweeteners in everything, but just - have things a bit less sweet? Have chocolate milk but chocolate milk that isn't SO sugary. The trouble is sugar and salt DO have functions in food beyond flavour enhancement - they both work as preservatives, strongly sugary or salty foods last longer, therefore are cheaper. Reducing the levels of salt and sugar means either higher spoilage rates and therefore higher costs, or other preservatives being used which could well be even worse for health. Basically - it ain't cheap!
i sometimes like me some cola, but i usually think it's a bit on the sweet side i just lace it with some lager beer of the more watery kind lol and it makes the lemon/citrus flavors in the cola come out a ot more, it's like you threw lemon in it, but it's already in the cola, it's just masked by the overly sweet presetation on the front as-is, putting some beer in that bitch really gives you flavors you otherwise would hardly taste, if at all. lol this is a pretty german thing, and i'm not even german, but dutch, though they do call us swamp germans sometimes
The cost is not the problem. We could easily choose to deprive billionaires of one of their yachts, or build fewer overpriced weapons to go get blown up in Eastern Europe. But as always, corporate interests win in America. Our “common sense” is inhuman capitalism, like the village worshipping a dragon.
The sugar lobby lady does actually make a good point... You know they aren't going to do the reasonable thing and make the food less sweet. Instead they are going to add some more artificial sweeteners. :(
Back when I was in school if the school cafeteria was serving something we thought was gross, we would just sneak out to vending machines and get snacks / sodas. Not sure how many kids would be willing to do that type of thing, but if this law were passed that's probably what I would have done as a kid. Not that it's smart to do, obviously eating the healthier food would be better, but I've never seen somebody below 20 years old make healthy eating decisions on purpose.
Healthy food could be good, but the schools don’t have enough money do that and make them healthy it’s one or the other but right now I would say they are unhealthy and bad.
It's not a completely invalid point to make that kids tend to prefer eating nothing over the "healthy" options. I was in high school during the early Obama years when there was a big initiative to push healthy eating in schools, and all I noticed was the food going from bad to unpalatable. Unseasoned green beans and carrots that were boiled for over an hour literally became a staple of every lunch, replacing the french fries that were seemingly also boiled and that I rarely ate anyways. What health conscious adult, let alone kid that eats fast food after school every day is going to want to eat that? School lunches definitely worsened my relationship with food, and initiatives that only addressed the nutrition without addressing the overall quality only made things worse. I was healthy and at a normal weight at the time, but only because I was young and active, and it wasn't until my mid 20s that poor eating habits caught up to me. Now obviously, the solution isn't to continue serving unhealthy food because kids won't eat healthy food. However, in my opinion, increasing the quality of the food served, as well as teaching kids more practical nutrition skills, such as how to cook for themselves, and WHY some foods are healthier than others, would be so, so much more effective than putting restrictions on sugar and salt. Unfortunately, I don't see these solutions as all that practical, given that it'd require even more of an already stressed educational budget.
I’m currently doing my internship in school foods. One of the reasons why school foods are cheap is because that’s what the budget allows for. In the county I’m at we sell the meals to make 1 dollar in profit. This used to buy the ingredients and pay the cafeteria workers.
@@dutchdykefinger It is sarcasm. The US is so capitalist centric that it permeates through every part of society. In the above example, profit is used as the mechanism to pay for the running of school meal provision. This runs concurrent with a limited set of health policies and food safety standards. The result is an emphasis on the profit margin leading to a poor food quality offer. In other countries like the UK there are a set of robust policies around school food quality and most schools pay staff out of separate budget with provision of food coming from a different budget. Trying to generate a profit to facilitate the feeding of children in educational establishments is somewhat perverse to other nations. We’re nourishing our children. The next generation. The focus shouldn’t be on the bottom line. It should be on good quality meals. P.s I’m not saying the UK is perfect, but the US is shocking.
I was lucky enough to usually get home-made lunch to bring in. Considering my health issues, I am very glad that I was able to get that. I basically get the flu ever time I have red 40.
My school had a dessert line where they would make fresh funnel cake. And there were slushy machines as well as a cake wall. You werent allowed to buy any of it with free lunch. Never stopped anyone from using their 2 dallors to buy cake instead of lunch.
Not having food at home gets brought up a few times and I have no idea how big of a problem this is, but surely it's better to at least improve school lunches for everyone else instead of doing nothing at all
In UK the policy about providing healthy school meals was justified largely on the basis of evidence showing that many kids can't rely on being properly fed at home.
@@Phiyedough in all fairness, the UK did adopt the fat people thing a bit earlier and more than we did here in the netherlands can't blame them though, i fucking fancy a full english msyelf too lol
Healthier school lunch would be better for all. High calorie junk foods are cheaper than healthy options, so poor families buy more junk food. Which means those kids are getting tons of salt and sugar. What they don't get is things like fruits or vegetables.
Lots of kids will say that there is nothing to eat at home when they really mean is that there is nothing they will touch with a yardstick at home. I was a child once, and I remember what a bigot I could be about food.
Thanks for giving us a way to help. I grew up in NY and was never allowed to get school lunch except occasionally for Friday rectangle pizza as a special treat.
Thank you for posting the link to the comment section on this proposed nutrition rule by the way...I immediately left my comment in favor of it😉.It doesn't go far enough in my honest opinion but it's STILL a big win for public health.
Love watching this as I was watching another creator Tasting History with Max Miller who just did a video of the History of School Lunches from around the world. He also mentions how lobbyists influence what is on the menu in the US...
If they actually cooked in US schools instead of defrosting prepackaged and opening cans and boxes then I would have jumped on the healthy options every time. School food, aside from stuffed crust pizza were pretty gross. Though I hope they keep peanut butter squares. Those were my childhood lol.
It's cost. Spend a dollar a day on school meals, and you're already looking at a bill north of $200 per student-year. Schools don't get that type of money, so they have to serve the cheapest meals they can - which means buying factory-made meals that just need heating by barely-trained cooks, made from the lowest cost ingredients like government-subsidised cheese. There's only one area that manages to serve meals cheaper than schools: Prisons. The food there is sometimes so poor that prisoners develop nutritional deficiencies, but the public has no sympathy and actively wants them to suffer, so no-one in power has reason to care.
Glad your video about this popped up! I left a comment on there. I wish US schools had amazing school meals like in Japanese & Korean schools who still have pretty strict nutrient guidelines so hope this passes since this seems like a step in the right direction to cut back on some sugar and sodium.
It would be about time that meals at school are healthier. As a mom of 2 boys that isn't able to pack lunches for them every day, it would make the battle to get them to eat more healthy at home much easier. It is hard when what they eat at school doesn't really match what they have at home, and it is tirering for the parents to constantly battle to try to get their kids to be healthier.
I grew up in New Zealand, and in my rural High School, we didn't have any meals provided. Either you brought your own, or you could purchase from the Canteen aka Tuck Shop, or order from the local Fish and Chip shop. So unhealthy foods were available, but they did apply limits on what was made available, and always provided much healthier foods too, including fruit, sandwiches, and juice. We did, however, have a pastry shop in our town, that made the best mutton pies ever made, so that was a grease-filled bonus.
Evan thank you so much for making this video. This law is specifically for children who were in my position and will only benefit them. The only food available to me was school food. I got free lunch and breakfast and that's all I had for the rest of the day. And the sugary breakfast foods that were supposed to give me fuel physically made me sick. But do you know what happens when a child doesn't want to eat something but knows they'll starve if they don't? They eat it anyways. I forced myself to eat those sugary cereals because it was ALL I HAD. And I rejoiced on days where there were slightly healthier options. Children can make choices. They can make choices that will benefit them, but can only do so if that choice is available. As an adult I've finally had the chance to give myself the diet I needed then, and it's impacted my life tremendously.
A big applause, Evan! It sounds like many American schools teach the kids to always choose the fast food. Wonder if the diabetic kids can get any low GI (glycemic index) food?
Well,.. it certainly explains why cops in the US keep shooting people in the back. You can't expect those lardasses to run after some suspect now can you? Nor will they have to in general, but they'll even blast the guy in the wheelchair just for fun, so it's not just physical inability to perform a task.
I remember when I started going to the vocational school affiliated with my high school, the coolest thing was having a little salad bar available. I started bringing my own lunch at some point to help save money (my parents divorced when I was a teenager and I lived with my mom, who only barely made above the reduced lunch limit, and me making a sandwich or some rice with a bit of meat and cheese on the side cost significantly less per portion) but would still sometimes bring 75 cents with me so I could get a little fresh salad with my lunch (it only cost extra if you weren’t getting school lunch already, mind you). If it’s available, normalized and not treated as a novelty item (my main high school had “salads” but they were little cups of ice burg lettuce and tomato that cost an extra dollar) kids will want it, and kids will eat it. Frankly milk is probably a poor example in part because reduced fat/1% milk tastes like rubbish. I drank regular milk pretty regularly in school before they made only 1% available, and that’s around when chocolate milk (or better, the occasional carton of orange juice) became my drink of choice when I bought school lunch.
Whole milk is so much better for a person than sweetened chocolate fat free milk. Yet they managed to wage a war on the fats industry painting that as the bad guy and replaced it with sugars.
Since I was a kid I always thought that they should give us salt and pepper packets. I believe the primary reason kids are pushing so heavily into the unhealthy foods is because they taste awful, never seasoned with no option to do so, and many of the veggies were cooked like an hour ago so they already taste like bad veggies. I believe we should add salt and pepper packets, reduce the frequency of high sodium foods, and especially this one, incorporate vegetables into the main meals! Vegetables are always the side dish and never included in the main dishes. Even just mushrooms or bell peppers on pizza would be amazing, or have the option for nachos loaded with tomatos.
I now see why no one is leaving their personal information on the comments of the "Government" website: I wrote this at the end of my post: "This site needs to allow posting using real names and emails without worries of 3rd party non-governmental entities getting our information, otherwise it's just a bunch of bots with no verifiable information. I wanted to leave my name to prove I am real - but the warnings at the end before submitting made it very clear I should not do that. "
The PB&J one always annoyed the hell out of me because peanut allergies are the most common food allergy. There's more people allergic to peanuts than there are in about 10 different states.
I’m from the US and in my late 20’s. On the rare occasion I would get the school lunch I would ask for no vegetable but the lunch lady would tell me she was legally obligated to give it to me so I just ended up throwing it out. And I like vegetables! I ate tons of fruit and veggies at home. But the legally required school lunch vegetables was always canned boiled green beans with literally nothing else on it. No seasoning at all. They couldn’t be bothered to prepare a palatable vegetable. And when fruit was available it was always sad, mealy apples. I don’t think I ever saw a kid eat the vegetable. They were simply legally required to waste green beans.
Meanwhile in my old Elementary school the same April week of 2022 here in Sweden: Monday: chicken tikka with bulgur Tuesday : Spaghetti with vegetarian "bolognese" Wednesday: Basil an garlic gratinated fish and boiled potatoes Thursday: Asparagus soup with housemate bread and an assortment of bread toppings such as cheese, ham, etc. Friday they were out so no lunch, but the Friday before it was pasta sallad with chorizo or soup of the day to choose from. There is also always a sallad buffet to choose 8-10 veggies and sallads freely from including usually 2 pasta sallads, and hard bread and butter.
I've known not to touch anything dairy based as half the time it was spoiled, and we all knew the foods were utter shit. So after a few years I've moved to packed lunches and have only been getting school lunches (ie: the certain foods I know won't make me sick) when I was still hungry
Also fun fact: By the energy requirements of the brain if it ran only on sugar you’d die of brain damage from not eating sugary foods every day. It actually uses a combination of sugars (created in the liver without eating any btw in a process called glycogenesis) and ketones, which last longer by several hours, and come from fat. For instance, while just sleeping the body in total uses mostly ketones as every other system is in near stasis. But somehow nobody seems to know about this energy the body needs that it gets from fat? I wonder why? *glares at sugar companies*
Thanks for sharing. I wouldn't have known about this so I'm glad I was able to go comment on it to try and fight the bots. I hope every viewer can jump in and help fight for our kids' health.
My US middle school had a salad bar back in the 1980’s. I, and my skinny-obsessed classmates were quite happy to load up on iceberg lettuce with cucumbers for lunch. We discovered that you could feel full while eating nearly zero calories. This is probably why the salad bar was removed as eating disorders among teen girls was a major concern in the 1980’s. Sorry about that.
as someone who suffered from anorexia during high school i would’ve loved a salad bar. we did have packaged salads everyday that were usually gone by the time i got there so i often ended up just skipping lunch completely
Nah, it's because corporations stepped in to reduce costs in schools and make everything more institutionalized 😒 I distinctly remember when my high school added a vending machine and I switched from crappy free lunch to eating one GIANT cookie all day because I could get 550 calories for $1.25
Not your fault society was encouraging you to have unhealthy eating habits at a young age in the opposite direction to what Evan's talking about (But... It's more likely the expense of having a salad bar that did them in)
Growing up in middle class Canada, we always brought our own school lunches. My Elementary and Junior High schools did not have lunchrooms. My High school and University had cafeterias and I occasionally bought my lunches there, but mostly continued to "brown bag" it.
It's not even about just obesity. Food like that is nutrient poor: not only it can cause hyperactivity in children (and adults) but also lower attainment (IQ) in developing children. There were lots of reports showing that when children's meals were changed to healthy ones, their overall behaviour and concentration improved and they got up to 5 more points in exams - the biggest change was predictably among the poorest children who didn't receive healthy meals at home. A study among prison inmates produced comparable results: less violent outbreaks, better commucation & problem solving skills.
I am confident that the US Army cooks could prepare more food better quality and faster than the school system. Having experienced both, I’d pick the army food every time.
Here in Hong Kong rules concerning provided school lunches have changed - Primary school students get a lunch which is supposed to be one half veggies, one quater a protein and one quater a starch - usually rice or pasta. Of course some of the kids want more meat/fish/tou fu, but I think most parents are happy with this programme.
This is entirely anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt. But from personal experience discussing this with school lunch directors, there is also a lot of food waste because kids eat unhealthy at home and turn their nose up at school lunches for making small changes like using whole wheat bread instead of white bread. There's also the caveat that lunch programs are subsidized by the USDA, and school districts have to make sure they are in compliance with whatever the current guidelines are if they want to continue to receive funding. Most school districts are totally dependent on this federal funding in order to operate their lunchrooms. It doesn't change the fact that we need real change in our school lunch program. Just that it's going to be a challenge at all levels.
NE Scotland here, My son's school has recently started a breakfast club, they are very restricted as to what they are allowed to serve by the council. Options are Weetabix, cornflakes (Kellogg's only as they need to have x amount of fibre that own brands don't offer) and brown toast. If they want to serve something remotely sweet, like pancakes, they have to make sure the pudding at lunchtime isn't too high in sugar. The woman who runs it says parents say their kids won't eat any of that but she's never had someone not eat. Choice is nice, why not have two or even 3 options that are near enough equal. Problem solved.
I'm the same age as Evan and my public school in California did have a salad bar. The funny thing is I don't think anyone actually ate the salad, but hoarding the croutons was super common. Whatever was in crouton seasoning was super addicting, so guys would regularly have napkins filled with croutons in their pockets
I still remember my first year of elementary school every day we had cookies n cream milk as an option, saddest day every was the day I learned we weren’t getting them anymore.
This is the first time I’m seeing any of your videos but this infuriated me so much I went and left a comment! Thanks for talking about this dismal subject of our governments appalling behavior with a light attitude that made it entertaining as well as informative
I have 2 school age children in the Midwest region of the US. The whole country is a mess so why anyone is surprised at this? For our situation, we homeschool. I am currently doing my own research on food, chemicals, toxins, water, etc and making my own decisions. We don’t use artificial sweeteners. But I do limit sugar to within reason. My kids eat candy, cookies, etc. just not every meal and every day. Moderation is the key.
this is beyond insane. Thanks for pointing on the problem. I just read some of the comments on .gov page, unbelievable.. As European living in USA, its insanity to me what is happening to food, heathcare and agriculture here...
So Evan kept his poptarts and sold them. And i broke into school storage room and handed out all the rulers and pens we had not been given yet. The school was deliberately holding them back so that parents would buy their kids those things, and they could push the inventory to the next calendar year. It had been a clear rift between students and teachers, cause we knew we were suppose to get them. Nothing came from it, no one tattled of who did it and teachers did not even talk about it. I also changed school rules about detention, out school was handing out 3 hour detention when 2 hours was the maximum. They started handing out 2+1 hours, so that it was spread over two days. But it was still better than sitting 3 hours without a break, which i had to do a LOT...
Austrian here. At my kids' school the menu is always a soup of the day and a main dish with sides, and it's a normal nutritious meal that's similar to what I'd cook at home. They even serve spinach occasionally, knowing full well that not all children like it. So what do my kids do when spinach is on the menu? My older kid has actually started eating spinach (at least a little bit) and my younger kid eats the soup first, and then egg and potatoes (without the spinach), and also doesn't go hungry. If you present kids with foods they don't know or don't particularly enjoy, they still won't starve. They'll either try the food or only eat the parts of it that they like. And at my kids' school, they can always have fruit and a Butterbrot later (that's brown bread and butter, much less sugar than in American bread).
My schools always had a really nice hot breakfast. My mom fed us at home, but I was always low key jealous of the kids who got the school’s hot breakfast. They got things like eggs, pancakes, sausage, fruit cups. Most days I had cereal at home because that’s what we had time for with 4 kids trying to get to different schools by 7:30 AM.
I don't know. Our school lunches weren't too bad once we got in 3rd/4th grade (for some reason, before that they were REALLY bad). There was kind of a mixture of healthy/unhealthy items. I looked forward to certain days of the week when they'd have my favorites. In high school we even had a salad bar, which I really liked. (It was fairly popular.) There was a really good documentary-style youtube video about a school in the US that switched to healthy school breakfasts and lunches (it should be noted, I don't believe it cost that much more at all). They showed that due to the change there were better grades and less disciplinary issues with the students. For the life of me, though, I've tried to find that video again, and haven't been able to locate it.
30 seconds in and I'm thinking he's Canadian. In what god forsaken country is mozzarella sticks a FULL MEAL?!? Even as a kid that was an appetizer. And pancakes for lunch? I'd probably have them for dinner more often than lunch.
I was an adult before I realized the acid reflux I suffered from as a child was caused, or at least aggravated, by sugary cereals at breakfast. Excess sugar has a lot of crappy side effects. But I still love it 😢
Posted a comment on their official site. Mentioned in the comment (aside from my opinion being in favor of the limitations) that if they want a genuine sample of people's opinions they would be better off letting people like the parents know about it. I can only assume that since the vast majority of comments on there are sugar lobby supporting than those are the only people that know about it. I didn't until I saw your video. Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention.
When I was in school, the mothers and grandmothers of the students cooked and served the school lunches and NO junk food was allowed and my sons school has the same food I had way back in the 1960’s to 1980.
The US sugar lobby’s tactics here are worryingly similar to the tactics used by cigarette companies in the 60s and 70s. They know the issue exists, but choose to point fingers at other industries and competitors, trying to find ways that those are also bad, rather than help solve the problems with their own products.
When my daughter was about 14 she had an school exchange with a school in New York State. Had a lovely time etc. etc. except for the food. Everything frozen or prepackaged! On the last day was a goodbye dinner and all the German kids descended on the table with raw foods: celery, carrots, salads etc.
I like the thought of lower salt and sugar but I'm a little worried how it'll effect some food choices. Like do they just cut all the stuff making it so you never get something good, or give you less food to meet the limit. A.K.A I don't trust school cause who the hell thinks mozzarella stick is a meal? It needs to be more then just 'don't go over the limit'. Schools need certified dietary professionals.
Good. Fricking. God. That wonderful way with words they have. So flowery and poetic. So genuine. Such utterly heartfelt concern. Oh, those Lobbyists and their ilk. One has to wonder about just how far your nation of birth could have come if it wasn't for them. And how much more it could have achieved.
![กี่หมื่นฟ้า | Your Sky Series EP.1 [1/4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vLGjxFL6U_I/mqdefault.jpg)
When a country runs their healthcare system like a business, why on earth would they want their citizens to be healthy?
Health care is one thing that would likely drastically improve if it were taken off the profit model. No longer would their be an incentive to make money by keeping people sick.
💯
@@ninjacats1647 change what gives them profit. In addition health insurance companies have a lot of regulations that protect them. Really the market isn't open so people get forced into plans and you can only get on a plan during a limited part of the year forcing you into it for the whole year even if it ends up not being a good match. There's lots of changes that can be made without moving towards a system similar to the kind that introduced MAID: medical assistance in dying. That's literally a government ran assisted suicide program
What a delightfully pessimistic outlook on this.
This, the goal of getting a nation to change its accepted standard of education facility provided lunches.
@@lwardrop2453 I mean, where are the positives when it comes to food regulations in the US?
As a kid in the US, my mother was very health conscious, so ever since middle school onwards she insisted I would only ever have a home packed lunch. For me this often meant a tossed salad with chicken and nuts, and a side of more fruits and vegetables. But this also meant I very quickly noticed the disparity between kids stuck with school lunches and my packed lunch. Some kids would stare at me wide eyed at all the produce I had on the table when walking by. I was able to ignore it over time by just focusing on my friends and paying the people walking by no mind. But one day as punishment the principal decided to shuffle around our seating places so that we couldn’t sit next to our friends-some weird failed attempt to fix bullying by blaming it on cliques. And I ended up sitting with kids who were dependent on free school lunch. Some just, stared at me, hungrily, whenever I started to eat, commenting on how good all my vegetables and salad looked. They didn’t even talk, just stared at me and my lunch like it was a mukbang TH-cam channel despite them having their own free lunch. It was pretty clear which one they preferred, and I felt bad thinking they probably rarely ever got to eat actual fruits and vegetables, but I mostly wanted the staring to stop. It was uncomfortable regardless and they did it in such a way that I thought they might try to swipe my lunch entirely. I managed to change seats around a couple times until I found a group that didn’t stare. I made a new friend, and since she was dependent on school lunch as well, I made a habit of sharing my berries and carrots with her. I also learned from her that since she was very poor, she never had produce at home because her mom bought the highest calorie foods she could find just to ensure they were getting enough calories. So yeah, candy for breakfast lunch and dinner, basically, but she was still very thin.
I love how in recent years they've had the stop bullying campaigns & whatnot but they conveniently tiptoe around the fact that parents play a major role in it simply by how they raise or don't raise their kids🤨...A lot of kids 🏃♀️ wild while all the adults are busy all the ⌚ so a big chunk of them don't know how to act unfortunately😔.Anyway it really makes a big difference in a child's health when they have homemade lunches & meals,those healthy eating patterns tend to stick for the long-term.I was lucky to have a homemaker mother from birth to adulthood & she's always been a health-nut so she made healthy meals for me and I still have these good eating patterns even as a adult.It's a really precious gift to give a child when you teach them about the importance of health from a early age😊.
When I was a kid I ate a mix of both school lunch, and homemade lunch especially in elementary to middle school. My high school thankfully had pretty good food, so it wasn’t as bad of a problem. Glad you understood why they were staring, and why they were generally jealous. I really wish they made food that benefited us, versus benefiting their pockets on k-12 students.
@@malwads1836 please, try to not talk in hieroglyphics, i know you put the label after the hieroglyphic, but it make it quite hard to read, a single comment should limit itself to one single hieroglyphic at the end.
@@diablo.the.cheater run wild, all the time... very obvious emoji that anyone can read with no effort. Also they are pictograms not heiroglyphs.
It is also possible to be thin because the body is not able to utilise the calories - for that you need actual nutrients, like protein, minerals and catalysts for chemical reactions (vitamins).
In 2006 when I graduated high school, I immediately dropped 40 pounds, and the only difference was that I was no longer eating school lunches. And I'm not a junk food addict either, but there had to be so much sugar, salt, carbs and fat piped into those meals that no amount of salads or home cooked, healthy meals at home could at the time combat them.
I am honestly confused by this because while the food was not healthy by any means, the meals were not that big either. Like the portions were quite small. Idk where you went to school but typically lunch for me consisted of a main like burger, pizza, nuggets, pasta or chicken sandwich and it didn't always come with fries or tator tots. They'd offer a side of fruit sometimes gross boiled veggies (honestly never bothered to even try them most of the time) and a carton of milk. The cold food line offered sandwiches or salads. There were also vending machines and a snack line. Now I graduated high school 10 years ago so maybe things had changed by that point. But yeah I don't feel like my lunch food was enough to make me gain anything.
@@ramblingmillennial1560 I had two things against me. One, my school had a LOT of fried or fatty items, things that were often preferable to the deplorable vegetables. The mashed potatoes were often like hair gel, just really vile texture, and the greens would be like mush. Second, I have a metabolism like a medieval peasant that thinks that I need to be plump to survive the coming winter famine.
@@robertgronewold3326 "metabolism like a medieval peasant that thinks that I need to be plump to survive the coming winter famine." lmao ok
It was the other way for me the school lunches were so bad I didn't eat breakfast or lunch so when I graduated I gained about 10 lbs in a year because I could eat what I wanted.
Saturated fat has nothing to do with your weight gain. The excess carbs and calories in those school lunches are the cause of your obesity in school.
I agree that added sugar needs to be reduced. But as someone who is intolerant to artificial sweeteners I don't think it needs to be swapped out. I could also see them reducing fruit and veggies because of sugar. Sugar itself isn't a problem it's added sugar
They only mentioned swapping it out because they refuse to serve things with less sweetness, aka mess addictive.
And you know it going to be the cheapest possible
i would ask nicely for them to rely more on stuff like honey as substitute sugar...like at least its natural.
@@liz_violet The honey they would use in the USA is far from natural...
There's videos about that scam industry.
Not really there is no difference between natural sugar and added sugar it’s just that the sugar in fruits and veggies also have healthy stuff while added sugars tend not to
I grew up in Puerto Rico and aside from the occasional chef boyardee we got some great school lunches, beans and rice with some kind of protein being the most served during a week. I actually miss eating lunch at school, those lunch ladies really knew how to cook!
That sounds great, I grew up on American school food and I ended up obese even though my parents fed me a normal amount, I would over eat on the unhealthy, junk food that the schools will give such as pizza, breakfast pizza, breadsticks, goldfish, candy, bread, nachos, I could keep on going, but you already know that there’s gonna be a bunch of other unhealthy food. I am now no longer obese, but I still get cravings all the time for unhealthy food and try to fight hard against these cravings. I hope to one day put my kids in a better school with actual good and healthy food, but to do that here in the US, I need to put them in a private or highly funded school, which is very unfair to the majority of kids. Hoping for changes on the school food laws for the better, all of our future kids deserve it!
It's amazing how good black beans & brown rice can be when it's cooked right😁.Whenever I cook stuff like this I'll do healthy versions of 🇲🇽 food without all the salt,added sugar,or high saturated fat...It puts places like Taco Bell & Chipotle to shame because I use a lot of various spices in it😋.That junk just can't compete with a good homemade meal.
Lucky you!
cb en que escuela estudiaste tú que te gustaba la comida
@@frankalonso5899 Berwind Intermedia y Superior. Esas señoras cocinaban bien cabrón. Eso fue entre el 2001-2006 so no sé si cambio después de eso.
I knew that school food in US wasn't always the most nutritious, but these examples are just crazy to me! I grew up in Finland and all schools have a free lunch. It's just normal food, typically includes a salad, some bread, water or (normal) milk to drink. Why isn't the US, the richest country on earth, able to feed kids normal, basic food? Oh yeah, corporate profits
Precisely. We care more about profits than people 🤷♀️ looking at you, Healthcare
hahaha im at 2:50 and that milk study is really relatable. i legit thought i didnt like plain milk for most of my life bc the plain milk at school always tasted like it was seconds away from being spoiled. then when i moved to the UK for uni i suddenly was like, "wait a second... plain milk can taste good?!?"
We don’t call it plain milk in the UK. We call it milk. Chocolate and Strawberry milk is called milkshake.
@@antonliverpool1 what do you call ice cream mixed w/ milk?
@@thecunninlynguist depends what the fat content is.
Yeah, and it was no wonder it tasted like that. In my elementary school, if you were given a frozen milk and went to a teacher about it, they fully opened the carton, handed you a spoon, and said “eat it.” After that, if you tried to throw it away, the same teacher would be hang out by the trashcan and say “don’t be wasteful” 🤡 ah yes, spoiled frozen milk, the epitome of nutrition. I stopped buying milk at school in 2nd grade-there was just way too much difference between their rotting spoiled carton milk and the milk my mom brought home.
I have a feeling that a lot of this added sugar and salt is just about covering up the taste of the base ingredients.
I went to school in the 60s. The cooks came in early in the morning to cook lunch from scratch. There was no breakfast option at that time.
When my children went to school in the 80s, I was shocked. The schools had a choice of prepackaged processed microwave food, for the free lunches or lunch tickets; or fast food for paying
I'm getting the impression it's even worse now
@@merrymata2547
If you read the comments they now have uncrustable brand sandwiches. My American online friends have never mentioned this from the 2000s.
it’s corporations fault just like most fucked up things in america. cheaper to get it all packaged in a factory than to get fresh ingredients and do it right
Each generation is being treated worse and worse.
@@alienvomitsexin ny and california the situation is much better than it was in the 60s. They are very health obsessed.
Hey Evan! As someone who is old enough to vote and an American this is the first I have heard about this. Thank you for using your platform for good!
As a kid, I loved milk, even plain milk, but at school I always went for the chocolate milk because at my school the milk always sat out for who knows how long and was always just slightly below room temperature, yuck! For me, even the chocolate milk was tough to choke down at that temperature. I do hope these new rules pass.
I'm glad ours was kept in sort of a chest freezer kind of thing. They would slide back a large glass lid and you take out your milk, the ladies closing it again when the line ended that lunch shift. But in one elementary school, I went to, they totally used to put all the cartons on trays and the milk was always luke and gross.
My school used to make us get milk with all of our lunches. Most of the time it was fine, but sometimes it would be partially frozen or even be past its expiration date.
i feel you on that one, i prefer the milk to be so cold it actually hurts your throat a bit lol
I'm from a third world country, but I schooled for the most part in a school which was the most expensive in my city. Most people brought their own lunches their parents or house help cooked for them. Our canteen served lunches for 1 USD each it was different every day with proteins and vegetables and rice- pasta on fridays. During highschool it was students who would cook the lunches and decide the menu but it still followed that format of proteins, veg and carbs usually rice or as in tradition pasta on fridays sometimes desserts were served too. It was interesting to learn the food preferences of my peers. We also had to balance our classes with cooking when our groups were in charge. For highschool, you'd have to pay 5 USD for the the next week before friday ends as the kitchen crew would buy this in the market during saturday and our menu had to be budgeted for the amount of students and teachers there were and type of dishes being served.
Our food industry is, well, completely industrialized. Processed, packaged, augmented, enhanced, fluffed, puffed, etc. Many poorer people ironically eat more processed food. Richer people tend to focus more on better quality food and spend a lot more for it. I am grateful for having learned how to cook from my family.
The actual menu from your school is insane.
British school food wasn't great when I was in school, but it was nowhere near as unhealthy as that!
Yeah. How the heck do these kids keep going with so little protein and veg
The stuff he talked about was actually quite nice. At least compared to my school lunches. As an elementary student way back I would have been lucky to have protein more than three days a week and when we did get protein it was covered in sugar, cheese and various fattening or other wise unhealthy products. Don’t even get me started on the vegetables when “salads” were available all they had were either iceberg lettuce with some cherry tomatoes shredded carrots or cabbage or a packaged fruit-salad that was always soggy and sickeningly sweet. All our foods came pre packaged. The only “cooking” than went on in the kitchen was heating the pre packaged food even then the food would still sometimes come out partially frozen or soggy.
No wonder they become adult and end up only eating this crap, I’m from Portugal and school lunch wasn’t good but it wasn’t unhealthy , the only way to eat unhealthy foods was for snack and the school doesn’t choose for you, and they sell a limit selection of foods.
Yeah, I'm starting to realise that I'm lucky to have faced baked beans and rice pudding.
I remember in high school we were given the option of milks (came with the lunch price) or an 8 oz mini water that was $1 extra. So many students would shell out the dollar every single day for a water that would be gone in 2 sips while those who couldn’t afford it wouldn’t drink anything at all. Even as high schoolers in 2013 we thought it was ridiculous to have lunch with milk 🤢
My classmates love the milk, but most of them have grown up drinking milk straight from the tank. If we get actual good milk like whole (sadly raw will never happen) kids would drink it.
As a teacher at a school that tries our best to provide better lunches and breakfasts than the usual fare, and has a healthy food policy thanks for shedding light on this! It is really wild when I think about the sorts of food I ate as a kid/teen.
By the way... At the end for the sponsor you talked about US news sites blocking EU viewers, you know why? Because otherwise they need to comply with EU/UK data protection regulations. (GDPR)
"Should we disclose the data we're collecting? Nah, just block countries which require us to do that"
Land of the free! Freedom to collect whatever data you like.
The USDA menu is so carb heavy. I would like to see the menu to include more filling protein options. Also the breakfast options are so sugar heavy and then we wonder why there are so many behavior issues.🙄
It’s not about carbs vs proteins
It’s about sugar and sodium
We need more veggies and fruits which are carbs…and less processed foods that have tons of added sugar and salt
They already have protein in all their meals in the form of meat and cheese lmao
Protein or carbs is not the issue at all
Americans obsession with protein is so weird
@@kalystaortiz3701 But... Carbs turn into sugar. So their opinion about carbs is valid.
@@kalystaortiz3701 Veggies really aren't considered carbs moreso something else entirely
@@kalystaortiz3701 for me the protein keeps the kids fuller and longer so that they can concentrate and be focused on learning. It's really frustrating when they are having meltdowns when they are clearly hungry and have to wait. I really think the USDA menu needs an overhaul.
@@SherriLyle80s The issue is more in line with processed sugar. Otherwise they'd have to ban most fruits in schools due to the carbs they contain. Plus, the whole grain bread they serve now is honestly pretty bad, so I might actually be okay if they stopped giving *that* to kids.
I actually feel like a lot more kids would choose salad than most people think, i have a friend that is allergic to so many things that a large chunk of her diet is salads. Also, it'd be nice to have something other than the same like 8 things to eat. Almost everyday I get a spicy chicken sandwich (which they very recently changed to real chicken instead of a grey chicken patty) bc the other options are a soggy, reheated, single packaged burrito, or an uncrustable which is just more sugar, or very meh mushy pizza. Idk, I would appreciate fresh fruits and veggies at school over what we get currently. Only two good meals are the some-sort-of-asian sauce chicken and rice, and frito pie. Most of my friends debate even getting lunch at all every other day. Our breakfast options are usually reheated packages of mini pancakes or chocolate covered mini whole grain donuts and juice. One lunch lady has a stand that sells doritos and mini donuts and poptarts and stuff for like a dollar, dollar 50 each for some extra money. School lunch really needs better regulations and funding.
Salads are way more popular than you'd think at my old secondary school the food was pretty hit or miss and nothing in between Taste wise (and still is according to my siblings, and I didnt even have to eat there often, like most of the non boarding students I brought my own lunch for the days I had afternoon classes, but the boarders often complained) they still cooked themselves. Some meals were just sooo good I'd kill to eat them again and some days you were stuck with a weird gooey dark green soup with different kinds of sausage pieces floating about (Beware of "students choice" days thats just code for we found some shit at the back of the fridge or the bottom of some pot and threw that in a random order into a new pot also dont expect the good stuff on Mondays or Wednesdays thats the days where most students have afternoon classes so they dont serve the more expensive better options that they make less profit on, the price of the meal is fixed and you also get seconds (and thirds if there are few students eating that day)). But the salad bar was always there for you and pretty popular even on days with Apfelstrudel or the holy grail of chicken: chicken with nut/flake panade? (Not sure on the english word for that). But a meal was usually main, dessert and salad bar you could choose between the veggies and meat option each day except for veggie days where they didnt offer a meat dish and theyd give you water to drink everything else you'd have to buy extra or bring from home.
At my high school people look forward to salad day
I've seen kids at school salad bars before, and there is a very real demographic that would just get a bowl of croutons or cucumber slices with ranch dressing. The school tried to police it, which mostly just led to those kids not getting anything from the bar at all. Which is kind of the other half of the problem, a lot of kids will just go without, and the school can certainly try to police that too, but it never ends well. Obviously you shouldn't just offer them garbage, but the solutions aren't necessarily simple.
depends on the age group because elementary age kids aren’t gonna pick salad if they can get fried stuff and sugary snacks. however i’m in high school and people i know do get salad for lunch
School menus have certainly changed over the years. I still remember lunches that were served in high school - tasty meals such as fish patty with parsley potatoes and stewed tomatoes, salisbury steak with gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans, halupki (stuffed cabbage) with mashed potatoes, spaghetti with meatballs and a salad . What in the world happened in the last 50 years? By the way, we didn't have school lunches in elementary school because we all went home for lunch. Yeah, that was the dark ages.
Even so, I taught in public school and the lunches were still better than what was shown here and that was a little over 10 years ago. American children have such poor eating habits, it's no wonder that there is an obesity problem.
my school sucked, we had nothing like that lol. my schooling was from 90's - early 2000's. Mostly fast food type items. My fave day was turkey/gravy day
When I went to school before 2006, the mashed potatoes always had a disgusting consistency like hair gel and the meat was ghastly. Overcooked vegetables, chewy cheese, stark white bread and a fine layer of grease. Meals were not enjoyable.
Big business decided that there were massive profits to be made from feeding kids crap. The old system had seasonal local produce turned into tasty, nutritious meals by women who took pride in what they did and there was very little waste.
Big business took over and mass catering with cheap, processed ingredients made in giant processing plants to be reheated by whoever and standards are cut by crooked politicians so now kids don't know what real food is and go for what they like. Result is kids eating junk food and throwing away salads and fresh fruit. Massive waste, but shareholders are happy.
I graduated high school in 2011, and yes I remember some decent options but over half were very unhealthy options like the ones he mentioned. And you could add bag of chips, chocolate ice cream, packaged muffins, etc every day if you wanted.
Folks, don't misunderstand, there were some unhealthy options on school menus back in the early '70s. I remember how popular the ice cream sandwiches were, and also the chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Though we only had white and chocolate milk.. Still, a lot of students would bring their lunch rather than buy it.
Thank you, Evan, for this information and for your positive impact on improving school nutrition. It is appalling to know that this is happening. As an RN at a large public health facility, I am disappointed at what is served at my job, but public schools are far worse in my opinion. I have submitted my comments on the matter by using your link.
Thanks for the link. Son was in public school til halfway through 3rd grade, he had breakfast at home and still was ravenous for his packed lunch with sandwich, veg, fruit and yogurt with milk as he didn't want the "cardboard" food. When I brought him home to school was so happy no one made fun of what he ate daily. Think is hugely ignorant to think kids don't eat at home, no parent, no matter how poor doesn't feed their kid.
You'd really think that but there are a lot of people who honestly cannot afford to feed their kids consistently.
@@ramblingmillennial1560 there are many parents who don't eat so kids do. Have worked inner city hospitals and truly understand poverty,pride and hopelessness.
@@ramblingmillennial1560 wtf
I’m a real life person Evan and you are such hilarious man, you could easily be a stand up comedian and all the theatre halls would be filled and filled with laughter from your excellent humour, even though what your talking about is important you bring so much humour into it and that’s why I love watching your videos, your so funny and a real entertainer. Thanks for cheering me up. 👍👍✅
During covid, my school system got rid of all our healthier food options (salad bar, soup + cold sandwiches) because they were unhygienic. So many kids in my class were disappointed. They also switched over to pre-packaged government meals, and stopped having kids who could afford to pay for their lunches pay. Meals just got worse and more unhealthy, and I don't think they're going to get back to where they were in the future.
I think you underestimate how willing kids are to eat salad. My primary school had a salad bar until I was in about P4 (8/9y/o) and most kids who got school dinners loved it. You could have as much salad as you want, 1 serving of protein (usually ham, chicken, tuna or boiled eggs), some cheese/coleslaw and a bit of bread. I think at some point they got a new head cook who decided she didn't want the salad bar and then it disappeared, which a lot of us were upset about.
As a kid about to graduate highschool
I have never, In my 11 years of being in school, gotten any meal from the school that wasn’t frozen and then microwaved or thawed, etc
Like the idea that we get food that looks like what you’d get outside of school is just weird to me. Everything is like specially made to have less fat or less sugar, or be whole wheat, so a lot of it gets wasted because it’s hard to eat, unappetizing, and frankly boring. Instead of introducing us to healthy foods at a good quality, they just make “healthier” versions of junk food and call it a day. Which just makes us want the real thing outside of school because, let’s be honest, it tastes really bad at school.
They also require us to take milk and a set amount of whatever they put out for us, so a lot (and I mean A LOT) of food gets wasted.
At least at my school it’s free, so I can eat at least something.
It's actually shocking to me that PB&J is still being served in public schools. What with the increased incidence of allergies recently (though, even in my school days ~25 years ago, a LOT of people had food allergies), I was under the impression that most schools had basically banned nuts and nut products entirely from their premises.
i think the ones with nuts can now identify as women to circumvent this pesky problem
Peanuts are actually a type of legume, and as such are not closely related to 'tree' nuts (walnuts, almonds, etc).
At all of the schools I've been to in the last few years, allergies are pretty much a non-issue. In elementary, there is usually one peanut-free room per grade and maybe ~10 seats in the cafeteria reserved for those with extreme allergies (usually completely empty). I've never seen any of these restrictions in middle/high schools.
@@phoneheaded Wow. I student-taught in a couple schools in 2010 and 2011 (wanted to be a teacher, but eventually decided against it...I think I made the right call, in hindsight), and neither school allowed any student or staff-member to bring in any product containing either peanuts or tree nuts (products made in facilities that also handled those nuts were fine - I guess traces of nuts were fine, but a known nut ingredient was not). One was a high school, the other a private, K-12 school, so it included all ages.
I thought they stopped. my kids pre school didnt even let kids bring their own food because someone else could be allergic.
Wait.... Are those small cartons containing 20g of added sugar?? 10%!!!!
basically yes, although a gram doesn't directly translate to a ml, especially when you consider the sugar dissolves into the water in the milk. For example, you can have 200 grams of pure water and thats 200ml, then you add sugar, which dissolves completely, it'd still take up 200 ml of space but it would weigh more.
@@megasin1 It was more that that's around 40g total sugar in that half a pint!
@@megasin1 well, that can't be true, you're adding sugar to 200ml, the volume is bound to increase at least a little bit when you add something to it, but yeah, the volume wouldn't incease on a 1:1 ratio with the weight in grams ;)
just stating the obvious and being nitpicky lol
even 200ml water only precisely weighs 200 grams at exactly 4 degrees celcius, that's weight in our earthly athmosphere
ofcourse, deviation isn't much until you start freezing it or evaporating it :D
mass ofcourse is a measure that is agnostic to earthly gravitational forces, but water having both the capability freezing and evaporating in realistic reach, even the mass of changes when it either freezes or tursns gaseous too, even without the same rules to gravity
I REALLY hope this law is passed so that kids can get healthier meals. America is one of the most over weight if not the most over weight country in the world. Things REALLY need to change ASAP.
The US is around #14 most obese country in the world so yes definitely needs regulations like this in schools!!
@@HomeWorkouts_LS 14th is still pretty high so “my one of the most” still counts. Such a shame that it’s taken this long for even a suggestion of such a law to come up.
It’s not even just about that, many americans are deficient in certain vitamins and minerals. That can negatively impact growing kids even more that adults! Especially those with no other stable food source
@@alexreid1173 agreed. I was out in america last year for 2 weeks at Disney. I got constipated after a few days and after a week I got really I’ll getting the shivers, feeling sick, difficulty keeping food down, loss of appetite and overall feeling really unwell. I had to literally cut out all sugar and it took a week or two after I got home to feel well. I was craving vegetable and only healthy food for the time I was unwell.
A country so overweight it plagues the rest of the world with it. Rip Mexico, polynesia, etc.
I commented on the USDA form! I also think that keeping healthier foods out of school lunches is another way of enforcing a class barrier. Rich parents have the time and money to pack school lunches, but those kids who need assistance shouldn’t have the same healthy options - rather just the cheapest sugary stuff they’re used to (right?) blugh
Curious to hear about British school lunches!
And some schools ban homemade lunches forcing kids to eat the garbage the school sells which is ridiculous.
My high school had salads as an option, and I would choose them about half the time because...I'm a picky eater. That's my only reason. If I didn't like what they had for lunch that day, I'd go with a salad (if I didn't feel like waiting for a pizza to be "cooked").
Describe to me what salad items are to an American. I feel like it’s something totally different in the UK. I feel like you use the word ‘salad’ in far too many items
@@antonliverpool1 What my school had was a plastic container that contained lettuce, shredded carrots, purple cabbage, sliced hardboiled egg, and shredded cheese with 4 other vegetables (this could be either: Broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, or sliced zucchini). We were also offered salad dressing (either ranch or Italian). There was also a baggy of flat bread in there with garlic butter or something on it, but I only ate it about 1/4 the time since it was usually stale. Sometimes they had slices of cooked chicken, but I never wanted those specific salads.
@@supersmilyface1 That sounds quite similar. I guess you’re lucky you had that given some of the horrific foods I’ve seen on American school menus.
@@antonliverpool1 The absolute worst "entre" we had at my school was a mini banana bread loaf (prepackaged), a Danimals yogurt, and a stick of string cheese. The fruit parfaits also weren't really a good "entre," but I have to put them as 2nd worst since they had actual fruit in them 2/3 of the time and the yogurt they used in those felt more like yogurt than the Danimals. Sadly, I ended up needing to get those as my lunch on multiple occasions since the cafeteria would run out of food during my lunch period (and all the "better" food was chosen by the other two lunch periods).
@@supersmilyface1 That’s actually outrageous. So their budgeting system is so shocking that they’re knowing depriving the third lunch period of food. If this was endemic to the school for whatever reason, the should have alternated the lunch period throughout the week. P.s I’m pretty sure it’s common for all students and teachers to take their lunch at the same time in UK schools.
I hope this passes before my toddler goes to school. If not i'll be packing a lot of lunches. My only hope is that they don't replace everything with sugar substitutes..... just let kids get used to less sweet foods dammit. I'm horribly sensitive to artificial sweeteners. Yogurt, fruits and breads, cereal and juice are the main sources of added sugar right now and those are all the things I have to read labels carefully at the grocery store because manufacturers will frequently toss some aspartame or Splenda in there so they can lower the calorie count. If I'm not careful when buying these things, I'll end up with a migraine or ibs flare-up.
Artificial sweeteners are the worst! Let us just have things that aren't so very sweet? Artificial sweeteners are cheaper than sugar IIRC, in the UK the "Sugar tax" means every soda is mixed both sugar up to the legal limit, then extra sweeteners on top. Sucks for everyone, doesn't make the soda diabetic-friendly, still overly-sweet tasting, and horrible if you're sensitive to artificial sweeteners!
Added sugar in fruit? Are we talking about some canned fruit or what?
@durabelle yeah..... canned fruits and fruit cocktail often have it mixed in which is what is typically served in kids lunch rooms.
@@hkandm4s23 Okay thanks! For a moment I was worried they're adding sweeteners straight into fresh fruit by now, as that's what we were always served at school. An apple, a pear, a banana etc. with peels and all.
Be prepared to pack a lunch, and that everything will probably need to be peanut free. And that all the rewards, treats, and snacks given will be candy. It's a hard battle to fight as a parent when m&m's are given for reading a sentence correctly by the school.
Are they going to sugarcoat the new guidelines to make it more palatable or is it to be taken with a pinch of salt?
Submitted a comment! Thanks for talking about this. As a mom of two toddlers who will be entering school in a few years I would love to see them having better options than the pizza, frozen chicken patties and pop tarts we had daily in the 90’s-2000s.
All that food is much healthier than what kids actually get in school
"Tasting History with Max Miller" covered School lunches this week! I'm not sure that going back to the depression-era recipe he made would be a success though.
Personally I'm no fan of artificial sweeteners in everything, but just - have things a bit less sweet? Have chocolate milk but chocolate milk that isn't SO sugary. The trouble is sugar and salt DO have functions in food beyond flavour enhancement - they both work as preservatives, strongly sugary or salty foods last longer, therefore are cheaper. Reducing the levels of salt and sugar means either higher spoilage rates and therefore higher costs, or other preservatives being used which could well be even worse for health. Basically - it ain't cheap!
i sometimes like me some cola, but i usually think it's a bit on the sweet side
i just lace it with some lager beer of the more watery kind lol and it makes the lemon/citrus flavors in the cola come out a ot more, it's like you threw lemon in it, but it's already in the cola, it's just masked by the overly sweet presetation on the front as-is, putting some beer in that bitch really gives you flavors you otherwise would hardly taste, if at all.
lol this is a pretty german thing, and i'm not even german, but dutch, though they do call us swamp germans sometimes
The cost is not the problem. We could easily choose to deprive billionaires of one of their yachts, or build fewer overpriced weapons to go get blown up in Eastern Europe.
But as always, corporate interests win in America. Our “common sense” is inhuman capitalism, like the village worshipping a dragon.
The sugar lobby lady does actually make a good point... You know they aren't going to do the reasonable thing and make the food less sweet. Instead they are going to add some more artificial sweeteners. :(
You could just ban both
@@oofman4572 Oh come on now, let's not do anything that drastic, I mean sensible.
Those are banned under the new rules proposals.
Back when I was in school if the school cafeteria was serving something we thought was gross, we would just sneak out to vending machines and get snacks / sodas. Not sure how many kids would be willing to do that type of thing, but if this law were passed that's probably what I would have done as a kid. Not that it's smart to do, obviously eating the healthier food would be better, but I've never seen somebody below 20 years old make healthy eating decisions on purpose.
My school has vending machines in the cafeteria, so if kids didn't want lunch, they could just buy chips and sodas anyway.
Healthy food could be good, but the schools don’t have enough money do that and make them healthy it’s one or the other but right now I would say they are unhealthy and bad.
It's not a completely invalid point to make that kids tend to prefer eating nothing over the "healthy" options. I was in high school during the early Obama years when there was a big initiative to push healthy eating in schools, and all I noticed was the food going from bad to unpalatable. Unseasoned green beans and carrots that were boiled for over an hour literally became a staple of every lunch, replacing the french fries that were seemingly also boiled and that I rarely ate anyways. What health conscious adult, let alone kid that eats fast food after school every day is going to want to eat that? School lunches definitely worsened my relationship with food, and initiatives that only addressed the nutrition without addressing the overall quality only made things worse. I was healthy and at a normal weight at the time, but only because I was young and active, and it wasn't until my mid 20s that poor eating habits caught up to me.
Now obviously, the solution isn't to continue serving unhealthy food because kids won't eat healthy food. However, in my opinion, increasing the quality of the food served, as well as teaching kids more practical nutrition skills, such as how to cook for themselves, and WHY some foods are healthier than others, would be so, so much more effective than putting restrictions on sugar and salt. Unfortunately, I don't see these solutions as all that practical, given that it'd require even more of an already stressed educational budget.
I’m currently doing my internship in school foods. One of the reasons why school foods are cheap is because that’s what the budget allows for. In the county I’m at we sell the meals to make 1 dollar in profit. This used to buy the ingredients and pay the cafeteria workers.
And yet in the other ‘non wealthiest nations in the world, ever’ they seem to struggle through with healthier options.
@@antonliverpool1come again?
i didn't really get how i should interpret that sentence, let alone try and fish out potential sarcasm
@@dutchdykefinger It is sarcasm. The US is so capitalist centric that it permeates through every part of society. In the above example, profit is used as the mechanism to pay for the running of school meal provision. This runs concurrent with a limited set of health policies and food safety standards. The result is an emphasis on the profit margin leading to a poor food quality offer. In other countries like the UK there are a set of robust policies around school food quality and most schools pay staff out of separate budget with provision of food coming from a different budget. Trying to generate a profit to facilitate the feeding of children in educational establishments is somewhat perverse to other nations. We’re nourishing our children. The next generation. The focus shouldn’t be on the bottom line. It should be on good quality meals.
P.s I’m not saying the UK is perfect, but the US is shocking.
I was lucky enough to usually get home-made lunch to bring in. Considering my health issues, I am very glad that I was able to get that.
I basically get the flu ever time I have red 40.
You’re changing the world!! I had no idea this comment section for the government even existed!! Thank you!!
My school had a dessert line where they would make fresh funnel cake. And there were slushy machines as well as a cake wall. You werent allowed to buy any of it with free lunch. Never stopped anyone from using their 2 dallors to buy cake instead of lunch.
Not having food at home gets brought up a few times and I have no idea how big of a problem this is, but surely it's better to at least improve school lunches for everyone else instead of doing nothing at all
I knew a few kids who needed to eat lunch at school since they didn't have enough money for food at home.
In UK the policy about providing healthy school meals was justified largely on the basis of evidence showing that many kids can't rely on being properly fed at home.
@@Phiyedough in all fairness, the UK did adopt the fat people thing a bit earlier and more than we did here in the netherlands
can't blame them though, i fucking fancy a full english msyelf too lol
Healthier school lunch would be better for all. High calorie junk foods are cheaper than healthy options, so poor families buy more junk food. Which means those kids are getting tons of salt and sugar.
What they don't get is things like fruits or vegetables.
Lots of kids will say that there is nothing to eat at home when they really mean is that there is nothing they will touch with a yardstick at home.
I was a child once, and I remember what a bigot I could be about food.
Thanks for giving us a way to help. I grew up in NY and was never allowed to get school lunch except occasionally for Friday rectangle pizza as a special treat.
Thank you for posting the link to the comment section on this proposed nutrition rule by the way...I immediately left my comment in favor of it😉.It doesn't go far enough in my honest opinion but it's STILL a big win for public health.
Love watching this as I was watching another creator Tasting History with Max Miller who just did a video of the History of School Lunches from around the world. He also mentions how lobbyists influence what is on the menu in the US...
If they actually cooked in US schools instead of defrosting prepackaged and opening cans and boxes then I would have jumped on the healthy options every time. School food, aside from stuffed crust pizza were pretty gross. Though I hope they keep peanut butter squares. Those were my childhood lol.
It's cost. Spend a dollar a day on school meals, and you're already looking at a bill north of $200 per student-year. Schools don't get that type of money, so they have to serve the cheapest meals they can - which means buying factory-made meals that just need heating by barely-trained cooks, made from the lowest cost ingredients like government-subsidised cheese.
There's only one area that manages to serve meals cheaper than schools: Prisons. The food there is sometimes so poor that prisoners develop nutritional deficiencies, but the public has no sympathy and actively wants them to suffer, so no-one in power has reason to care.
Glad your video about this popped up! I left a comment on there. I wish US schools had amazing school meals like in Japanese & Korean schools who still have pretty strict nutrient guidelines so hope this passes since this seems like a step in the right direction to cut back on some sugar and sodium.
It would be about time that meals at school are healthier. As a mom of 2 boys that isn't able to pack lunches for them every day, it would make the battle to get them to eat more healthy at home much easier. It is hard when what they eat at school doesn't really match what they have at home, and it is tirering for the parents to constantly battle to try to get their kids to be healthier.
They're not getting healthier, they're just gonna start serving lunchables now...I can't say that I'm surprised
I grew up in New Zealand, and in my rural High School, we didn't have any meals provided. Either you brought your own, or you could purchase from the Canteen aka Tuck Shop, or order from the local Fish and Chip shop. So unhealthy foods were available, but they did apply limits on what was made available, and always provided much healthier foods too, including fruit, sandwiches, and juice.
We did, however, have a pastry shop in our town, that made the best mutton pies ever made, so that was a grease-filled bonus.
Evan thank you so much for making this video. This law is specifically for children who were in my position and will only benefit them. The only food available to me was school food. I got free lunch and breakfast and that's all I had for the rest of the day. And the sugary breakfast foods that were supposed to give me fuel physically made me sick. But do you know what happens when a child doesn't want to eat something but knows they'll starve if they don't? They eat it anyways. I forced myself to eat those sugary cereals because it was ALL I HAD. And I rejoiced on days where there were slightly healthier options. Children can make choices. They can make choices that will benefit them, but can only do so if that choice is available. As an adult I've finally had the chance to give myself the diet I needed then, and it's impacted my life tremendously.
considering the normal price for public school lunch being $2.25, it would be easier to just tie in those costs to normal taxes
A big applause, Evan! It sounds like many American schools teach the kids to always choose the fast food. Wonder if the diabetic kids can get any low GI (glycemic index) food?
73% of adults in America are overweight? That's truly shocking. I knew it was high, but not THAT high! Wow!
Well,.. it certainly explains why cops in the US keep shooting people in the back. You can't expect those lardasses to run after some suspect now can you? Nor will they have to in general, but they'll even blast the guy in the wheelchair just for fun, so it's not just physical inability to perform a task.
I would have thought 50% maybe 60% at the highest.
In 2004 the "Super size me" film by Morgan Spurlock quoted as more than 60% of all US adults being overweight or obese.
It's not quite that high, but it turns out that most European Countries are not all that far behind, unfortunately.
Turkey & cheese sandwich they can reduce amount of salt & sugar in it just by changing the bread & not the filling
I remember when I started going to the vocational school affiliated with my high school, the coolest thing was having a little salad bar available. I started bringing my own lunch at some point to help save money (my parents divorced when I was a teenager and I lived with my mom, who only barely made above the reduced lunch limit, and me making a sandwich or some rice with a bit of meat and cheese on the side cost significantly less per portion) but would still sometimes bring 75 cents with me so I could get a little fresh salad with my lunch (it only cost extra if you weren’t getting school lunch already, mind you). If it’s available, normalized and not treated as a novelty item (my main high school had “salads” but they were little cups of ice burg lettuce and tomato that cost an extra dollar) kids will want it, and kids will eat it.
Frankly milk is probably a poor example in part because reduced fat/1% milk tastes like rubbish. I drank regular milk pretty regularly in school before they made only 1% available, and that’s around when chocolate milk (or better, the occasional carton of orange juice) became my drink of choice when I bought school lunch.
Nutritionally speaking, orange juice is little better than soda.
Whole milk is so much better for a person than sweetened chocolate fat free milk. Yet they managed to wage a war on the fats industry painting that as the bad guy and replaced it with sugars.
Since I was a kid I always thought that they should give us salt and pepper packets. I believe the primary reason kids are pushing so heavily into the unhealthy foods is because they taste awful, never seasoned with no option to do so, and many of the veggies were cooked like an hour ago so they already taste like bad veggies.
I believe we should add salt and pepper packets, reduce the frequency of high sodium foods, and especially this one, incorporate vegetables into the main meals! Vegetables are always the side dish and never included in the main dishes. Even just mushrooms or bell peppers on pizza would be amazing, or have the option for nachos loaded with tomatos.
I now see why no one is leaving their personal information on the comments of the "Government" website: I wrote this at the end of my post:
"This site needs to allow posting using real names and emails without worries of 3rd party non-governmental entities getting our information, otherwise it's just a bunch of bots with no verifiable information. I wanted to leave my name to prove I am real - but the warnings at the end before submitting made it very clear I should not do that. "
The PB&J one always annoyed the hell out of me because peanut allergies are the most common food allergy. There's more people allergic to peanuts than there are in about 10 different states.
I’m from the US and in my late 20’s. On the rare occasion I would get the school lunch I would ask for no vegetable but the lunch lady would tell me she was legally obligated to give it to me so I just ended up throwing it out. And I like vegetables! I ate tons of fruit and veggies at home. But the legally required school lunch vegetables was always canned boiled green beans with literally nothing else on it. No seasoning at all. They couldn’t be bothered to prepare a palatable vegetable. And when fruit was available it was always sad, mealy apples. I don’t think I ever saw a kid eat the vegetable. They were simply legally required to waste green beans.
Meanwhile in my old Elementary school the same April week of 2022 here in Sweden:
Monday: chicken tikka with bulgur
Tuesday : Spaghetti with vegetarian "bolognese"
Wednesday: Basil an garlic gratinated fish and boiled potatoes
Thursday: Asparagus soup with housemate bread and an assortment of bread toppings such as cheese, ham, etc.
Friday they were out so no lunch, but the Friday before it was pasta sallad with chorizo or soup of the day to choose from.
There is also always a sallad buffet to choose 8-10 veggies and sallads freely from including usually 2 pasta sallads, and hard bread and butter.
America is so messed up man, its insane.
I've known not to touch anything dairy based as half the time it was spoiled, and we all knew the foods were utter shit. So after a few years I've moved to packed lunches and have only been getting school lunches (ie: the certain foods I know won't make me sick) when I was still hungry
Also fun fact: By the energy requirements of the brain if it ran only on sugar you’d die of brain damage from not eating sugary foods every day.
It actually uses a combination of sugars (created in the liver without eating any btw in a process called glycogenesis) and ketones, which last longer by several hours, and come from fat. For instance, while just sleeping the body in total uses mostly ketones as every other system is in near stasis. But somehow nobody seems to know about this energy the body needs that it gets from fat? I wonder why? *glares at sugar companies*
Thanks for sharing. I wouldn't have known about this so I'm glad I was able to go comment on it to try and fight the bots. I hope every viewer can jump in and help fight for our kids' health.
My US middle school had a salad bar back in the 1980’s. I, and my skinny-obsessed classmates were quite happy to load up on iceberg lettuce with cucumbers for lunch. We discovered that you could feel full while eating nearly zero calories.
This is probably why the salad bar was removed as eating disorders among teen girls was a major concern in the 1980’s.
Sorry about that.
as someone who suffered from anorexia during high school i would’ve loved a salad bar. we did have packaged salads everyday that were usually gone by the time i got there so i often ended up just skipping lunch completely
Don't apologize. Patriarchy set the expectation and you were just a kid.
Nah, it's because corporations stepped in to reduce costs in schools and make everything more institutionalized 😒
I distinctly remember when my high school added a vending machine and I switched from crappy free lunch to eating one GIANT cookie all day because I could get 550 calories for $1.25
Nah, salad bars were removed because it’s hard and expensive to keep fresh produce, way cheaper to do the canned versions
Not your fault society was encouraging you to have unhealthy eating habits at a young age in the opposite direction to what Evan's talking about (But... It's more likely the expense of having a salad bar that did them in)
Growing up in middle class Canada, we always brought our own school lunches. My Elementary and Junior High schools did not have lunchrooms. My High school and University had cafeterias and I occasionally bought my lunches there, but mostly continued to "brown bag" it.
Thank you! I will be sharing and encouraging folks to leave a comment.
It's not even about just obesity. Food like that is nutrient poor: not only it can cause hyperactivity in children (and adults) but also lower attainment (IQ) in developing children. There were lots of reports showing that when children's meals were changed to healthy ones, their overall behaviour and concentration improved and they got up to 5 more points in exams - the biggest change was predictably among the poorest children who didn't receive healthy meals at home. A study among prison inmates produced comparable results: less violent outbreaks, better commucation & problem solving skills.
It would be wise to revisit this video, because apparently their including lunchables in school meals at a FEDERAL LEVEL.
I am confident that the US Army cooks could prepare more food better quality and faster than the school system. Having experienced both, I’d pick the army food every time.
Here in Hong Kong rules concerning provided school lunches have changed - Primary school students get a lunch which is supposed to be one half veggies, one quater a protein and one quater a starch - usually rice or pasta. Of course some of the kids want more meat/fish/tou fu, but I think most parents are happy with this programme.
This is entirely anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt. But from personal experience discussing this with school lunch directors, there is also a lot of food waste because kids eat unhealthy at home and turn their nose up at school lunches for making small changes like using whole wheat bread instead of white bread. There's also the caveat that lunch programs are subsidized by the USDA, and school districts have to make sure they are in compliance with whatever the current guidelines are if they want to continue to receive funding. Most school districts are totally dependent on this federal funding in order to operate their lunchrooms.
It doesn't change the fact that we need real change in our school lunch program. Just that it's going to be a challenge at all levels.
NE Scotland here, My son's school has recently started a breakfast club, they are very restricted as to what they are allowed to serve by the council.
Options are Weetabix, cornflakes (Kellogg's only as they need to have x amount of fibre that own brands don't offer) and brown toast. If they want to serve something remotely sweet, like pancakes, they have to make sure the pudding at lunchtime isn't too high in sugar. The woman who runs it says parents say their kids won't eat any of that but she's never had someone not eat.
Choice is nice, why not have two or even 3 options that are near enough equal. Problem solved.
I'm the same age as Evan and my public school in California did have a salad bar. The funny thing is I don't think anyone actually ate the salad, but hoarding the croutons was super common.
Whatever was in crouton seasoning was super addicting, so guys would regularly have napkins filled with croutons in their pockets
I still remember my first year of elementary school every day we had cookies n cream milk as an option, saddest day every was the day I learned we weren’t getting them anymore.
This is the first time I’m seeing any of your videos but this infuriated me so much I went and left a comment! Thanks for talking about this dismal subject of our governments appalling behavior with a light attitude that made it entertaining as well as informative
Welcome!!
Run for office! You know lots about laws and government nuances. You are likable and arguably patriotic!
He'd have to run for office in the UK since he's become a citizen there.
I have 2 school age children in the Midwest region of the US. The whole country is a mess so why anyone is surprised at this? For our situation, we homeschool. I am currently doing my own research on food, chemicals, toxins, water, etc and making my own decisions. We don’t use artificial sweeteners. But I do limit sugar to within reason. My kids eat candy, cookies, etc. just not every meal and every day. Moderation is the key.
Have you heard the thing about Lunchables going to schools though. We can go from (only) inedible and not nutritious to fake food.
this is beyond insane. Thanks for pointing on the problem. I just read some of the comments on .gov page, unbelievable.. As European living in USA, its insanity to me what is happening to food, heathcare and agriculture here...
So Evan kept his poptarts and sold them. And i broke into school storage room and handed out all the rulers and pens we had not been given yet. The school was deliberately holding them back so that parents would buy their kids those things, and they could push the inventory to the next calendar year. It had been a clear rift between students and teachers, cause we knew we were suppose to get them. Nothing came from it, no one tattled of who did it and teachers did not even talk about it. I also changed school rules about detention, out school was handing out 3 hour detention when 2 hours was the maximum. They started handing out 2+1 hours, so that it was spread over two days. But it was still better than sitting 3 hours without a break, which i had to do a LOT...
I left a comment. Thanks for bringing attention to this.
Austrian here. At my kids' school the menu is always a soup of the day and a main dish with sides, and it's a normal nutritious meal that's similar to what I'd cook at home. They even serve spinach occasionally, knowing full well that not all children like it. So what do my kids do when spinach is on the menu? My older kid has actually started eating spinach (at least a little bit) and my younger kid eats the soup first, and then egg and potatoes (without the spinach), and also doesn't go hungry. If you present kids with foods they don't know or don't particularly enjoy, they still won't starve. They'll either try the food or only eat the parts of it that they like. And at my kids' school, they can always have fruit and a Butterbrot later (that's brown bread and butter, much less sugar than in American bread).
My schools always had a really nice hot breakfast. My mom fed us at home, but I was always low key jealous of the kids who got the school’s hot breakfast. They got things like eggs, pancakes, sausage, fruit cups. Most days I had cereal at home because that’s what we had time for with 4 kids trying to get to different schools by 7:30 AM.
I don't know. Our school lunches weren't too bad once we got in 3rd/4th grade (for some reason, before that they were REALLY bad). There was kind of a mixture of healthy/unhealthy items. I looked forward to certain days of the week when they'd have my favorites. In high school we even had a salad bar, which I really liked. (It was fairly popular.)
There was a really good documentary-style youtube video about a school in the US that switched to healthy school breakfasts and lunches (it should be noted, I don't believe it cost that much more at all). They showed that due to the change there were better grades and less disciplinary issues with the students. For the life of me, though, I've tried to find that video again, and haven't been able to locate it.
Respect for making this video, Evan!
Good job covering this, Evan. I hope you get a lot of great comments and feedback.
30 seconds in and I'm thinking he's Canadian. In what god forsaken country is mozzarella sticks a FULL MEAL?!? Even as a kid that was an appetizer. And pancakes for lunch? I'd probably have them for dinner more often than lunch.
I was an adult before I realized the acid reflux I suffered from as a child was caused, or at least aggravated, by sugary cereals at breakfast. Excess sugar has a lot of crappy side effects. But I still love it 😢
Posted a comment on their official site. Mentioned in the comment (aside from my opinion being in favor of the limitations) that if they want a genuine sample of people's opinions they would be better off letting people like the parents know about it. I can only assume that since the vast majority of comments on there are sugar lobby supporting than those are the only people that know about it. I didn't until I saw your video. Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention.
When I was in school, the mothers and grandmothers of the students cooked and served the school lunches and NO junk food was allowed and my sons school has the same food I had way back in the 1960’s to 1980.
The US sugar lobby’s tactics here are worryingly similar to the tactics used by cigarette companies in the 60s and 70s. They know the issue exists, but choose to point fingers at other industries and competitors, trying to find ways that those are also bad, rather than help solve the problems with their own products.
This is heart-breaking. But perhaps it will turn out well. Thank you for the video!
When my daughter was about 14 she had an school exchange with a school in New York State.
Had a lovely time etc. etc. except for the food.
Everything frozen or prepackaged! On the last day was a goodbye dinner and all the German kids descended on the table with raw foods: celery, carrots, salads etc.
Children aren't as stupid as to starve themselves just because they're not used to less salty and sweetened food.
Thanks for the link to comments on the US government website. ❤
Old lunch lady here, had to get rid of the salad bar because the kids kept putting condoms in the salad dressing!
I like the thought of lower salt and sugar but I'm a little worried how it'll effect some food choices. Like do they just cut all the stuff making it so you never get something good, or give you less food to meet the limit.
A.K.A I don't trust school cause who the hell thinks mozzarella stick is a meal? It needs to be more then just 'don't go over the limit'. Schools need certified dietary professionals.
Good. Fricking. God.
That wonderful way with words they have. So flowery and poetic. So genuine. Such utterly heartfelt concern.
Oh, those Lobbyists and their ilk. One has to wonder about just how far your nation of birth could have come if it wasn't for them. And how much more it could have achieved.
Holy shit I never knew American school food was this bad