(Reuters) - U.S. school children, accustomed to a steady diet of pizza and French fries, will find more fruits, vegetables and whole grains on their trays under new government rules announced on Wednesday.
As an example of a new meal, the USDA said an elementary school lunch could be whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce and a whole wheat roll, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, kiwi, low-t milk, low-t ranch dip and soft margarine.
The revamp comes just months after U.S. lawmakers protected pizzas status as a vegetable and killed proposed limits on weekly servings of starchy vegetables like potatoes.
The new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules aim to boost the nutritional quality of the federally funded meals consumed by roughly 32 million U.S. school children.
HHFKA provides more funding to schools to help cover the extra costs associated with the menu changes.
The Environmental Working GrMore fruits, veggies in school lunch rules diet for obese childrenoup said the adjustments could pack a financial punch since they may help reduce medical bills related to diabetes and other obesity-related chronic diseases.
FRIES WITH THAT?
Those actions, which caused a public uproar, won cheers from critics of the rules. They held up the changes as an example of overreach by the federal government, saying it should not meddle in the food decisions made by milies.
Trade associations representing frozen pizza sellers like ConAgra Foods Inc and Schwan Food Co as well as French fry sellers McCain Foods Ltd and J.R. Simplot Co were instrumental in blocking changes to rules affecting those items.
The rules represent the first major revision of school meal standards in more than 15 years and are intended to combat the nations childhood obesity crisis -- nearly one in three children in America is overweight or obese.
That lunch would replace a meal of a hot dog on a bun with ketchup, canned pears, raw celery and carrots with ranch dressing, and low-t chocolate milk.
The new standards will be largely phased in over time, starting in the 2012-13 school year. They are estimated to cost roughly $3.2 billion to implement over the next five years, starting in the 2012-13 school year.
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A healthier population will save billions of dollars in future healthcare costs, said Dawn Undurraga,diet for obese children EWGs staff nutritionist.
They ll under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA), which was championed by first lady Michelle Obama. President Barack Obama approved the measure in late 2010.
Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director for the non-profit Center For Science in the Public Interest, said that the new standards were a big improvement despite food industry lobbying and the congressional revamp.
What we are announcing today are science-based rules and regulations that are going to substantially improve the meal qualities across the United States for children, USDA Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon said on a conference call.
Unfortunately the food industry runs the school lunch program, and feeds our kids pre-processed garbage. You get the same food as from the McDonald&8217;s drive-through, full of sodium, t and corn syrup.
div class=commentsBodyI had to laugh when they said that Pizza is a vegetable&8230; I support keeping it because it is delicious, not nutritious, but don&8217;t lie about it.
In addition to doubling produce servings, the new guidelines call for serving only t-free and low t milk, child-appropriate portion sizes and reductions in sodium, saturated t and trans t.
More fruits, veggies in school lunch rules diet for obese children,Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
ByIan SimpsonandLisa Baertlein
As part of the new standards, USDA will increase the number of inspections of school menus.
div class=commentsBodyFrench fries can be healthful if they&8217;re made from sweet potatoes, or fresh cut right from the spud.
div class=commentsBodyit&8217;s a step in the right direction, but low-t and t-free milk are unnatural processed foods and not as healthy as whole milk. and margarine?!?! commercial french fries will surely have been fried in vegetable oil, which means they&8217;ll contain trans t because vegetable oil isn&8217;t stable when heated. there&8217;s still a long way to go&8230;
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The new school meal standards are one of the most important advances in nutrition in decades, she said in a statement.
(Reporting By Ian Simpson in Washington and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing byPaul Thomaschand Steve Orlofsky)
Lawmakers altered the school lunch guidelines in November, when they barred the USDA from limiting the weekly servings of French fries and ensured that pizza counted as a vegetable portion because of its tomato paste.
First Lady Michelle Obama has lunch with students at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia January 25, 2012.
The USDA gives school districts funds for meals through its National School Lunch and School Breakst programs.
