School lunch offers opportunity to learn

Eating habits are a learned behavior and we can learn to eat well or eat poorly. Our schools have the unique ability to model wellness and good eating habits while teaching science and enhancing the standard curriculum. Schools also have the opportunity to teach students to eat fast food, drink soda, and sports drink, eat cake like muffins and sugar cereal for breakfast and they do. Except for the current ban on sodas in schools; school breakfast and lunch expose children to high fat, high sugar foods teaching them to eat poorly, in a hurry and without alternatives. Change school lunch; change the American waist line measurement.

Kesslers's campaign

Dr. David Kessler writes about our drive to overeat and the mechanisms that encourage the behavior in his new book entitled, "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite."
See the article in the Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124084009832659309.html
We eat and continue to crave high fat, high sugar salty foods even when we are full. Kesseler asks why and investigates how to overcome these urges?
Kessler holds the food industry responsible but conceeds that The food industry gives consumers exactly what we want. Processed foods are designed as highly stimulating products, encouraging us as consumers to ask for more. High fat, highly salted and sugary foods stimulate the reward centers in our brains. To overcome the stimuli we must replace one desire for another. Fast food for exercise? It can be done but it is not easy which is another reason group support helps. We are not alone in this; our culture via the food industry drives an obsession with food that encourages overeating and weight gain. Reteaching is essential and we must start now with the children in the schools and adults in the health clubs. Kessler is calling for a public health campaign and as he led the way with tobacco he can lead the way with food to improve our health and well being.

Changing school lunch

We already teach children about food at school. We teach them by serving them fast food, that french fries and chicken nuggets are standard fare. We can change it by changing school meals and teaching children to cook, grow, and understand how to eat well. We eat what we see and know so if we clean up school lunch, we can teach our youth to eat well. This is how it works. Let's give them excellent, locally grown, nutritious food. Otherwise we fail.

School Recess Improves Behavior

Read Tara Pope Parker's piece on January 28, 2009 in the NYT entitled, School Recess Improves Behavior, and join me in saying, "duh! " and "no kidding." Recess, and movement are essential to a child's learning experience. Yet public schools make kids sit and write and read and think. And they should, but without exercise, release and movement many children can not absorb all that is necessary to learn. So I shake my head in disbelief and wonder, what next? Will we get rid of PE in schools and drive our children everywhere because it is unsafe or too cold. Oh Yea. We already do that. But thanks to the NYT and Parker who sites the experts and evidence we can start to discuss the situation. And when we are talking together and shaking our heads together, we work toward change. Groups have power. So read the article, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/school-recess-improves-behavior/ and have a good recess.