Ready to Make some Changes?

[digitS']

In what you eat?

No, this isn't my Resolutions Part 2 . This is about the USDA and their updated guidelines for the American lunch (& dinner & breakfast ). They come out this month: 5 things you need to know LINK

Now, these guidelines are easy to ignore -- just show up in the aisles of any soopermarket! It looks to me that young women may be getting some important guidance on caffeine and pregnancy. Yeah. Walk away from that can of Monster whatever. Please!

Our daily diets? It probably won't make much difference unless you are a kid in a school with federal funding for your lunch program. What it may come down to mostly is trying to get added sugar lower in the average American diet. That's "added" as in tossed in to processed foods that do not have that additional sugar otherwise. It looks like we are getting about 50% more in our diets than the nutritionists would like to see.

No, that doesn't mean they are trying to take away our cupcake . They are saying 10% of our calories can be from the sprinkled-on white stuff, or slopped-on syrup ... We are now getting about 16%, on average.

Other good news, it may not effect too many of us personally. But, we all know ~ don't we ~ that these are only minimal tweaks that they are asking of us . Sure ... our fruits and many of our veggies are already 10% natural sugars. And, we are loving it, right?!

I used to be a community gardener and did some reading about that. Most of those folks are seniors but, quite a few are young, low-income parents . Anyway, the research that I was reading confirmed what you might hope for: households that participated in community gardening "consumed fruits and vegetables 1.4 more times per day than those who did not participate, and they were 3.5 times more likely to consume fruits and vegetables at least 5 times daily." Hey! LINK

With the seniors, I thought it was interesting what I just read in a U of Nevada study -- they were more inclined to use veggies and fruit from any source and became less likely to claim that some produce was outside of what they should be eating ...

In other words, oldsters were avoiding good foods and learned by gardening that they didn't need to. Shoot.

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

Sounds about right. I just went on a search for the address of The White House. On the site was a story of the president suggesting we all make New Year's resolutions to eat healthier. Healthier than what?

I haven't much listened to what he says since he suggested we all turn our thermostats down to 72 degrees for the winter. Was he kidding? I've never had mine set above 68 and that was when the grands were infants.

 

[digitS']

@Smart Red , I had to go all the way back to May of 2008 to find that 72° quote! Then, Michelle Malkin had quite a lot to say about it after his Chicago advisers comments about Obama in shirt sleeves in his first month in office, January 2009. That was Michelle Malkin not Michelle Obama.

If you would like to go back to May 17, 2008, here is what I find that candidate Obama had to say:

"We can’t drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times, whether we’re living in the desert or we’re living in the tundra and then just expect every other country is going to say 'OK, you know, you guys go ahead keep on using 25 percent of the world’s energy, even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us.' That’s not leadership."

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

He forgot to add flying AF1 all over the globe for golf vacations.

 

[digitS']

This is the lo-cal cheese change,

. . . again?

.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

I'm curious about how many regular people will actually read or care what the feds are telling us to do with our diets.

I know that that's not the first place I'm likely to look to for nutrition information.

Sorry if we have left the intended track of your thread Steve.

 

[so lucky]

Well, from this article, it looks like they are trying to say "stop eating so much processed food of any kind" without actually saying that. If people cooked their own more, it would cut out the added sugar, salt and fat. But this also means they could not use those convenient "cooking sauces" that promise to make a home cooked meal in 3 minutes.

And cutting back or cutting out soft drinks is a no-brainer.

When the government starts talking about sustainability, it scares me, because I doubt if they mean the same thing I do when speaking of sustainability.

 

[digitS']

The USDA has provided dietary guidelines since 1916.

The federal school lunch program provides funds and direction for 31 million children's meals, each school day. link It has been around since 1946.

Eve Essery Stoody, PhD is the program director for both the Office of Nutrition Guidance and Analysis and the Office of Nutrition Marketing and Communication. She has said that "sustainability" issues are not a part of the nutritional guidelines. link More research on my part should have been made before linking that CBS/Associated Press story. The guidelines won't be out until the end of January.

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

The federal guidelines for schools were changed three(?) years ago -- about the time their doctor told the Obama girls to lose weight -- to reduce caloric intake and increase whole foods. That gives a kindergarten child 3 chicken nuggets and a high school senior 4 chicken nuggets for a lunch meal. There was an increase in whole grain breads that resulted in more waste than food value. Perhaps, if they had made the change more gradually the students would have adapted better to the whole grain breads.

Fresh veggies and fruit are available to about the first quarter of students in each grade. For the late-comers, such things as apple sauce, pineapple bits, and thawed peas or beans make up the "fresh" choices that are left.

My stick-shaped 90-pound weakling of a 13-year old grandson (in wrestling) is constantly hungry after lunch at school.

On the other hand: I really do need to effect a change in diet. DH wants to eat out all the time -- to get out of the house, he says -- and that means I have fresh food spoiling and little need for grocery shopping. I would much prefer to cook at home and plan a menu that uses the foods I have on hand. I think I am a good cook!

 

[digitS']

The federal guidelines for schools were changed three(?) years ago -- about the time their doctor told the Obama girls to lose weight -

Done