BELFAST, Maine — With 80 farmers growing fruits, vegetables and raising meat within 30 miles of RSU 20, the Belfast-area school district, a group of concerned parents thought it was a shame that most of what gets dished out in the cafeterias of local schools arrived via food trucks from major distributors.

Just two percent of the district’s $450,000 food budget, or $9,000, was spent last year on locally grown products. But that number will be creeping up to three percent, or $13,000, in the next school year, which many hope is the beginning of a shift toward local, healthier eating and healthier children.

“We’re making some good progress,” Thierry Bonneville, a member of the parent group RSU 20 Healthy Kids, said this week. “We’re working to improve the quality of food and reduce childhood obesity, which is very high in Waldo County.”

Waldo County children have the highest obesity levels in the state, with 36 percent of kids who live there considered obese, and Maine has one of the highest obesity levels in the nation, according to RSU 20 officials.

Ultimately, the parent advocacy group would like the school district to spend 20 percent of its food budget locally. That number would bring the nine-town district more in line with other communities around the state, according to Linda Hartkopf, the district’s school health coordinator.

Portland spends 20 percent of its budget locally, and neighboring RSU 3, in the western part of Waldo County, spends 40 percent of its budget locally. That figure includes the purchase of three whole cows from a farm close to Mount View High School in Thorndike.

Sugar is the toxin responsible for most of today's health problems, a California endocrinologist who conducts research for the American Heart Association, told the television magazine program 60 Minutes Sunday.

The University of California's Dr. Robert Lustig said obesity, type II diabetes, hypertension and heart disease can all be blamed on Americans consuming too much sugar.

The 60 Minutes segment, with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta playing the part of the on-air reporter, said new research is "starting to find that sugar, the way many people are eating it today, is toxic and could be a driving force behind some of this country's leading killers, including heart disease."

An ongoing, five-year research project at the University of California - Davis, by nutritional biologist Kimber Stanhope, also got mention because it appears to be showing that high fructose corn syrup intake is linked to heart disease and stroke.  Midway through, the research also suggests calories from added sugars differ from other calories.

Gupta said the belief that a calorie is a calorie is a "mantra" of nutritionists. He also said the scientists involved in the research are personally eliminating all added sugar from their diets. Added sugars are sweeteners added to processed and prepared foods and beverages.

Examples of added sugars include white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, high fructose corn syrup, malt syrup, maple syrup, pancake syrup, fructose sweetener, liquid fructose, honey, molasses, anhydrous dextrose, crystal dextrose and dextrin.

Published on New York Times on March 27, 2012 | Read full article

Article written by Mark Bitman

The First Amendment to the Constitution, which tops our Bill of Rights, guarantees — theoretically, at least — things we all care about. So much is here: freedom of religion, of the press, of speech, the right to assemble and more. Yet it’s stealthily and  incredibly being invoked to safeguard the nearly unimpeded “right” of a handful of powerful corporations to market junk food to children.

(...)

It’s easy to get lost in the Constitution and forget that we’re talking about children being bombarded by propaganda so clever and sophisticated that it amounts to brainwashing, for products that can and do make them sick. Which brings me to this: an article published in the journal Health Affairs called “Government Can Regulate Food Advertising To Children Because Cognitive Research Shows That It Is Inherently Misleading.” (Journals are not known for tabloid-like headlines, but this does get the point across.)

(...)

Nine states currently allow advertising on school buses, and 11 more, plus the District of Columbia, are considering it this year; nowhere is there language that prohibits food or beverage ads. Maine is the only state with a law prohibiting junk food marketing in schools, but according to a recent report, 85 percent of that state’s schools visited were noncompliant, and most were wholly unaware of the law.

The U.S.D.A.’s much-improved school meals guidelines recently received kudos (even from me). But how in the name of the founding fathers can we justify feeding kids healthy food, while at the same time — and in the same place — encouraging them to eat junk?

Read the full article on the NYT

Published on BDN on March 15, 2012 | Read full article

Source: The Associated Press

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Pingree says the Agriculture Department should stop buying ground beef that contains pink slime, which she describes as an “industrial slurry of beef scraps and connective tissue.”

Pingree says fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s and Burger King have stopped using the byproduct, and that school cafeterias should, too.

The USDA is set to announce Thursday that schools will be able to choose whether or not they buy ground beef that contains the ammonia-treated filler.

Read full article and related articles on BDN

Article by Sarah B. Weir | Yahoo News
Published on March 8, 2012 | Read full article

McDonald's and Taco Bell have banned it, but now the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is buying 7 million pounds of beef containing ammonium hydroxide-treated ground connective tissue and meat scraps and serving it up to America's school kids. If you thought cafeteria food was gross before….

According to TheDaily.com, the term "pink slime" was coined by microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein, formerly of the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service. He first saw it being mixed into burger meat when he was touring a Beef Products Inc (BPI) facility in 2002 after an outbreak of salmonella. "Scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval," Zirnstein told The Daily.

"Pink slime," which is officially called "Lean Beef Trimmings," is banned for human consumption in the United Kingdom. It is commonly used in dog and chicken food. Celebrity chef and safe food advocate Jamie Oliver featured the substance and called for its ban on the April 12, 2011 episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which may have influenced McDonald's to stop using beef patties containing the filler.

Read full article on Yahoo News

Robyn O'Brien is a nationally recognized author, speaker and consultant.

She is also a Texas native who ate her fair share of Twinkies and PoBoys as a kid, was recruited by Enron out of business school, and went to work as a financial analyst who covered the food industry.  She then traded her briefcase for a diaper bag and had four children.

In other words, she is an unlikely crusader for cleaning up the food supply, but her work has been praised by Ted Turner, Dr. Oz, Erin Brockovich, CEOs and seen in the New York Times, on CNN, the Today Show and other media.

Robyn is the founder of the AllergyKids Foundation and Do Good, a small consulting company that works with non-profits and other organizations to inspire leadership and a new dialogue around health. She has delivered TEDx talks as well as inspiring messages to thousands of people around the country, including entrepreneurs, Congressional offices, corporate professionals, mothers' groups, schools and universities.  Her detailed research and heartfelt personal story shed light on policy, the American food system and its financially-driven incentive structure that has allowed additives into the U.S. food supply that have either been banned or labeled from foods in other developed countries, especially the food served to children.  Her financial insight and work as a children's health advocate is often cited in the press.

More information about Robyn O'Brien can be found on her website: www.robynobrien.com

Article by Emily Senoff | Columbia Missourian
Published on February 16, 2012 | Read full article

COLUMBIA — Brad Faith, head chef for Columbia Public Schools, has been spending a lot of time talking with kids about what they want to eat.

Faith is doing more than talking. He's testing out new foods to see what portion sizes work for the kids and how easy or difficult the recipes are for the kitchen staff.

New federal nutrition standards for school lunches set to take effect this fall are designed to create healthier diets for children and address the obesity epidemic. Faith continues to experiment with ways to create dishes that will be enjoyed by his student diners and fit into the new standards.

He plans to experiment with more ethnic dishes, including tacos, fajitas and Asian and Mediterranean cuisines. These types of dishes incorporate vegetables in a new way so kids will get the required servings.

There’s “not a lot that’s different, it's just how you approach the recipes,” Faith said.

Efforts by Columbia Public Schools to improve the nutritional value of lunches has been an ongoing process. Schools are already serving low-fat and fat-free milk and have been serving fresh fruits and vegetables for at least 10 years.

Cooking from scratch will allow the cooks rather than the manufacturers to control the amount of sodium, Fullum said.

Making It Work

To make scratch cooking possible, Columbia Public Schools is working to streamline  food production, Fullum said.

This means the food would be cooked in three or five regional kitchens. Trucks would take the food to other schools where the only preparation would be reheating, she said.

Read full article on Columbia Missourian

Source: Truth in Labelling (website)

Names of ingredients that contain processed free glutamic acid (MSG)

Glutamic acid found in unadulterated protein does not cause adverse reactions.  To cause adverse reactions, the glutamic acid must have been processed/manufactured or come from protein that has been fermented.

Everyone knows that some people get reactions after eating the food ingredient monosodium glutamate --reactions that include migraine headaches, upset stomach, fuzzy thinking, diarrhea, heart irregularities, asthma, and/or mood swings.  What many don’t know, is that more than 40 different ingredients contain the chemical in monosodium glutamate (processed free glutamic acid) that causes these reactions.  The following list of ingredients that contain processed free glutamic acid has been compiled over the last 20 years from consumers’ reports of adverse reactions and information provided by manufacturers and food technologists.

Names of ingredients that ALWAYS contain processed free glutamic acid:

Glutamic acid (E 620)²,  Glutamate (E 620), Monosodium glutamate (E 621), Monopotassium glutamate (E 622), Calcium glutamate (E 623), Monoammonium glutamate (E 624), Magnesium glutamate (E 625), Natrium glutamate, Yeast extract, Anything “hydrolyzed”, Any “hydrolyzed protein”, Calcium caseinate,  Sodium caseinate, Yeast food, Yeast nutrient, Autolyzed yeast, Gelatin, Textured protein, Soy protein, soy protein concentrate, Soy protein isolate, Whey protein, whey protein concentrate, Whey protein isolate, Anything “…protein”, Vetsin, Ajinomoto

Names of ingredients that OFTEN contain or produce processed free glutamic acid:

Carrageenan (E 407), Bouillon and broth, Stock, Any “flavors” or “flavoring”, Maltodextrin, Citric acid, Citrate (E 330), Anything “ultra-pasteurized”, Barley malt, Pectin (E 440), Protease, Anything “enzyme modified”, Anything containing “enzymes”, Malt extract, Soy sauce, Soy sauce extract, Anything “protein fortified”, Anything “fermented”, Seasonings

The following are ingredients suspected of containing or creating sufficient processed free glutamic acid to serve as MSG-reaction triggers in HIGHLY SENSITIVE people:

Corn starch, Corn syrup, Modified food starch  , Lipolyzed butter fat, Dextrose, Rice syrup, Brown rice syrup, Milk powder, Reduced fat milk (skim; 1%; 2%), most things low fat or no fat, anything Enriched, anything Vitamin enriched

Remember: By food industry definition, all MSG is "naturally occurring." "Natural" doesn't mean "safe."  "Natural" only means that the ingredient started out in nature, like arsenic and hydrochloric acid.

Article written by David R. Just and Brian Wansink | LA Times
Published on February 3, 2012 | Read full article

As the federal government plans to improve nutrition in school lunchrooms, it's important to look at what works, and what doesn't.

Last fall, Los Angeles took a hard line on school nutrition. In an attempt to mold better eating habits in kids, the Los Angeles Unified School District eliminated flavored milk, chicken nuggets and other longtime childhood favorites. But instead of making kids healthier, the changes sent students fleeing from school cafeterias. There have been reports of a thriving trade in black-market junk food, of pizzas delivered to side doors and of family-sized bags of chips being brought from home. Garbage cans are filling up with the more nutritious food, even if kids aren't.

The lesson? We cannot simply bully kids into eating healthful foods and take their lunch money.

As the federal government prepares to launch a similar, though less sweeping, effort to cleanse lunchrooms of troublesome foods, it's important to analyze what works — and what doesn't — in trying to get kids to eat more nutritious food.

(...)

Children will choose their food no matter what we place in the lunch line, even if the choice is simply not to eat. If we impose too big a change, kids will simply bring their lunch from home or have pizza delivered at the side door. Or they may skip lunch altogether and wait for an after-school junk food binge.

In an environment where choice rules, we need to make the more healthful choice the more attractive choice, not the only choice.

Behavioral science shows this can be done at either no cost or very low cost. Heavy-handed measures might be effective at putting nutritious foods on the lunch tray, but it is crucial to remember this: It is not nutritious until it is eaten.

Better nutrition and happy kids at a low cost? That sounds like a smarter lunchroom.

After 15 years, the USDA has rewritten the rules for what must -- and can't -- be served as part of the federally subsidized school lunch program. Whole grains, once encouraged, will be required. Beans and peas, as well as dark greens and red vegetables, will become staples.

Come July 1, chocolate milk will go the way of the deep fat fryer.

But some Bay Area school districts, propelled by a growing healthful food movement and concerns about childhood obesity, plan to go beyond the new guidelines. Oakland's nutrition services director is proposing upgrades to dozens of kitchens and the development of a 44,000-square-foot central facility -- with a 1.5-acre organic farm outside. Richmond High School soon might have a salad bar stocked with produce harvested by students in the garden outside.

Soon, some Hayward schoolchildren might come face to face with "a sushi robot" that specializes in California rolls.

"When we talk about educating our children for life in the 21st century, we have to look at all aspects of what that means," said Rami Muth, superintendent of the Martinez school district, which plans to create an organic gardening and cooking class for junior high school students. "We have to look at helping young people develop patterns in their lives that will support a healthy lifestyle."

More than 70 percent of schoolchildren in Oakland qualify for federally subsidized meals, and many rely on those meals for a large part of their daily sustenance. That number rose, locally and statewide, after the economic downturn.

Read Full Article (Oakland Tribune)