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Editorial
USDA banning junk food from public schools
Friday, June 28, 2013
Your mom always told you to eat healthy food; now Washington is dong it, too.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued new rules Thursday under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which will ban most surgary, greasy, salty -- and popular -- snacks in schools.
Sports drinks will be gone, as will sodas that have more than 60 calories in a 12-ounce serving.
Elementary and middle schools will be able to sell only water, carbonated water, 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice and low-fat and fat-free milk, including nonfat flavored milks.
While regular lunch and breakfast lines have already been made healthier, the new rules will expand to force "a la carte" lines to offer healthier versions of pizza, low-fat hamburgers, fruit cups or yogurt and other foods.
New rules will also allow states to regulate bake sales in schools.
Next year, 2014-15, foods to be banned from vending machines will include candy, snack cakes, most cookies, pretzels, high-calorie sodas, high-calorie sports drinks, juice drinks that are not 100 percent juice, most ice cream and ice cream treats, high-fat chips and snacks, greasy pizza, and deep-fried, high-fat foods.
We can only imagine what would happen if the USDA would start regulating offerings on the grounds of the state fair.
Coincidentally, a study came out on the same day suggesting that sugary snacks like cookies, cakes and chips stimulate the pleasure center of the brain to the point that kids can get just as addicted to them as they do to drugs.
None of us like to see tighter controls on our personal lives dictated from Washington, but such is the price we pay for accepting federal funds in the form of school food subsidies.
Looking around at our friends and neighbors, it's hard to argue that obesity is not a problem in our society, and with more and more federal involvement in healthcare, it is increasingly everyone's problem.
Until we take learn to make more responsible healthy choices for ourselves and our families, we can expect more examples of government stepping in.