Friday, September 30, 2011

Lunch Wars!

I was invited to review Lunch Wars: How to Start a School Food Revolution and Win the Battle for Our Children's Healthby Amy Kalafa as part of the BlogHer Book Club.

And thanks to Ms. Kalafa's informative and eye-opening book, I now feel completely overwhelmed and waaaaay behind.

Sure, my son is only in preschool and hasn't even begun to eat any of the 3,000 school meals that the average child eats between kindergarten and 12th grade. But Kalafa paints a picture of a school food system that is so broken and so in need of parental involvement that I finished the book feeling exhausted and, yes, quite behind.

After all, since my son doesn't yet eat any meals at school, who is the lunch lady in his life? That's right: I am. Me. I'm the lunch lady. And what have I  been feeding him? Mostly healthy stuff but also some of the same crap that Kalafa rails against schools for serving. Some healthy lunch lady I am . . .

But that's me. I often feel like I'm standing at the bottom of an enormous mountain when I read about what I should be doing to maximize my kids' health and wellness.

Aside from freaking me out a bit, I found Lunch Wars to be an excellent book. It was full of interesting -- and scary -- facts. As in, "Holy crap, my kid is going to be served pet-food grade 'spent-hen meat'?" (from page 19). Um, that's gross. And not cool.

Also on the not cool list:

  • "American's spend $200 billion per year in diet-related health-care costs; twice as much per person than any other developed nation.
  • One quarter of children ages five to 10 have elevated blood cholesterol or high blood pressure -- early warning signs for heart disease.
  • Twelve percent of American children currently have type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes."
Kalafa shares tons of facts like these to bolster her case that we should be concerned about the foods served in schools. After all, we pay for part of the food (as tax payers) and then, she posits, we pay for the health problems down the road. 

Her arguments are valid but I did find the overall tone of the book a bit, perhaps, overly emotional. I don't know -- reading the book, I felt myself getting all riled up and I felt that that was the point. She wanted me to get riled up. And, OK, fair enough. The system is probably a rotten one and feeding our kids crap is a problem. So riling up moms is a good way to get things done. I just don't like feeling that I'm killing my kid if he eats some Keebler cookie or if I don't join the revolution.

Fortunately, Kalafa provides a lot of instruction on how to step into the revolution to whatever degree you are comfortable with. I appreciated her guidelines on how to get involved on a small level at your local school to taking it to Big Food and trying to make Big Changes. Her lists of things you can do, questions to ask, places to go, and people to see are all helpful and would make fighting for good food for our kids easier for anyone who wants to go for it.

So, check it out. If you liked Michael Pollan's books (like In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) I think you'll like Lunch Wars.

And while you're at it, you can check out the discussion about Lunch Wars on BlogHer.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~ Felice




Review disclosure: This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

3 comments:

Casey said...

This is great! It's on my list, now.

It's good to know about this sort of stuff, but you always kid of wish you didn't. Or at least I do. I just read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and wrote a review that will be posted on 10/27. Some of the same topics are discussed.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the review. I know for sure that's something I am very concerned about and I might be taking my son food at lunch time even in the day care.

Anonymous said...

Trend sense varies working day by day. It' s unattainable to confine it into a range. Men and women who are mindful of this are usually trendsetters. This helps make perception on gifted designers. They are the very first to perceive essentially just about every new signal unveiled from the trend house and expectation from the general public. With creativeness and some very hard work, they constantly fully grasp people' s dreams with obvious and tangible garments, sneakers and equipment.

There are genuinely heaps of procedures for most people to be conscious of the latest mainstream. Manner magazines, attire reveals and information disperse by the 1000's miles of cables all assist you a great deal. Persons who are mindful of vogue pattern will have to notice the fashion house was hit fiercely by the emergence of Australian sheepskin boots several years in the past. The easiest seems to be were demonstrated, setting a new craze on fashion footwear from then on.

It does not issue if you would like to call earlier mentioned sneakers as UGG or sheepskin boots for brief. Just as the name implies, they are crafted from Australian sheepskin. A lot more specifically speaking, it' s merino in twin faces, which is considerably classier. After great-stop innovation [url=http://www.uggsbootsoutletonline.co.uk]Ugg Boots UK[/url] and processing, it' s completely unique with the material on before wool footwear [url=http://www.uggsbootsukoutlet.co.uk]ugg sale[/url] for Aussie adult males or US surfers.



The arrival of UGG sheepskin boots throws most vogue shoes into the shade. So countless people today hurrah for these understated variations. But what folks truly applaud for is certainly a lot more than individuals trendy appears to be like, but also ideally suited practicality detected underneath individuals simple appearances.

Australian sheepskin boots will [url=http://www.uggbootsoutletinuk.co.uk]Ugg Boots UK[/url] be great wardrobe goods. Artists abandon deluxe ornaments and make them only fashionable. They will match up completely with most of your suits. Lengthy shafts can be folded down, earning unique appears to be like for you. Beneath beautiful seems, a dry and snug area is identified. It' s not convinced regardless of whether you will reside your life to the max with these boots. But it' s correct you will hardly ever agonize more than strolling out to feel the freezing environment because of to coldness and humidity.

UGG will make aspiration footwear for all persons. UGG vintage tall boots Canada and UGG vintage quick boots Canada are the newest editions from it. Just take a glimpse.
[url=http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?showTitle=0&showNav=0&showDate=0&showPrint=0&showTabs=0&showCalendars=0&showTz=0&mode=AGENDA&height=220&wkst=2&hl=da&bgcolor=%23ffffff&src=1ctkph4c0d028i0gs3pn0lrts4%40group.calendar.google.com&color=%23182C57&ctz=Europe%2FCopenhagen] Celebrity Look-a-like In Uggs[/url]
[url=http://www.texasgunclassifieds.com/0/images/af82c4d736301059d427698d3b4f0aeb/9.html] UGG Wintry climate Footwear -- Ideally suited Accentuation to Stylize a stylish Overall look[/url]
[url=http://unnan-road.co.jp/inquiry.htm] Iphone insurance policy- Compressive cover for your pricey gadget[/url]

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...