Michelle Obama Wants to Get School Lunches Right

lunch timeBut she hasn’t yet succeeded.
The recent annual conference of the School Nutrition Association (SNA), which, along with various labor unions, represents our country’s 55,000 school food workers, was sponsored by Domino’s Pizza, PepsiCo, Tyson, General Mills, and AdvancePierre Foods, a pre-packaged sandwich provider, the largest in the nation. The exhibition hall was filled with over 500 vendors—which included Sara Lee, Kraft, Perdue, Uno, and Pizza Hut. Corporate mascots Chester the Cheetah (for Cheetos) and the Pillsbury Doughboy wandered the floor looking for photo opportunities.
Want samples? How about tater tots, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on white bread with crusts removed, toaster waffles with built-in syrup, and chicken tenders, chicken bites, chicken rings, chicken patties, and chicken nuggets. In other words, food that is easily dispensed, popular with kids, and processed to death.
This will come as no surprise to readers who have been following our coverage of all the crony capitalism imbedded in the school lunch program. This is why pizza as a vegetable, old meat, and mercury-laden fish can be served to our youngest and most vulnerable.
But private interests pressuring government to make literally rotten choices is not the whole story. The other problem is that government officials, unfortunately even including Mrs. Obama, do not adequately understand nutrition.
In a recent interview, Mrs. Obama said, “Before coming to the White House, I struggled, as a working parent with a traveling, busy husband, to figure out how to feed my kids healthy, and I didn’t get it right. I thought to myself, if a Princeton and Harvard-educated professional woman doesn’t know how to adequately feed her kids, then what are other parents going through who don’t have access to the information I have?”
We ourselves don’t see what being a Princeton or Harvard graduate has to do with understanding nutrition. Even the Harvard Medical School doesn’t know or teach much about nutrition. Moreover, you have to keep up. Only a few years ago, butter was condemned by the experts for its saturated fat. Now it is rightly recognized that saturated fat is not the villain in heart disease. Butter, which is rich in the vital vitamin K2, is potentially a health food.
Mrs. Obama has in particular tried to deal with burgeoning childhood obesity, but unfortunately with a badly flawed program including the following elements, none of which accord with the most up-to-date science:

  • Protein Restriction: The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act tried to limit protein intake in the school lunch program to between ten and twelve ounces per week. This would have given a high school jock the same absurdly small amount of protein as a second-grader! Thankfully, due to major pushbacks from parents, these limits were lifted earlier this year.
  • Calorie Restriction: The same ignorance of nutrition also came up with the notion that all kids should be subject to a strict limit of 850 calories. How ridiculous to set a one-size-fits-all limit on calories for kids of all ages and activity levels! Besides, many studies have shown that calorie reduction alone will not produce reliable and sustainable weight loss. You have to avoid carbs and sugar and eat the right things.
  • Lots of Carbohydrates: Guidelines call for 60% of calories from carbohydrates, without acknowledging the fact that a high-carb diet is what causes the obesity in the first place. Extra carbs are just converted into fat. One government recommendation (which comes directly from the sugar and processed food industries) is for kids to eat more cereal to get enough carbs, even though a report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) showed that many breakfast cereals contain more than 50% sugar by weight, with cereals marketed specifically to children among the worst offenders. Too much sugar in the blood has been shown to lead to cancer as well as diabetes.
  • Low Saturated Fat: Dr. Joseph A. Mercola notes that trans fats, not saturated fats, are to blame for heart disease—as are refined sugar and carbohydrates. In fact, kids need a good percentage of healthy fats to help their brains function properly: butter, olive oil, avocadoes, coconut oil, etc. Surprisingly, healthy fats are also needed to burn fat and thus keep a healthy weight.

What Mrs. Obama’s program does not address, besides sugar, is the high fructose corn syrup in sodas, one of the most damaging ingredients in young people’s diets. An overload of this mass-produced fructose not only produces fat—it also turns on a “fat switch” which tells your body to eat more and to store more fat.
Nor do diet sodas containing aspartame offer a good alternative. Aspartame is chemically linked to formaldehyde and can turn into it in sufficiently hot weather. It is a basically a poison which, if the FDA were doing its job, would not be allowed in commercial products.
Ironically, when Mrs. Obama’s representative—celebrity chef Sam Kass, her “food policy czar”—asked to speak at the SNA’s convention, he was turned down. “The rebuke shows how ugly the [school lunch] fight has become,” according to Politico.com.
Given the mess we have made of school lunches, the better choice is to pack a healthy lunch for one’s kids. But some school systems make it difficult for parents to opt out of the federal school lunch program or to choose a healthier alternative.
In Richmond, Virginia, the school system sent home notes to parents telling them that kids could bring their lunches from home only if they had a specific medical condition with a physician’s note as proof!
Something similar occurs in many Chicago public schools: principals, under pressure from unions, may ban kids from bringing lunches from home unless they have a medical excuse. They make the ridiculous claim that their lunches will be nutritionally superior to anything a parent can pack, and that it’s important they maintain control over these meals.
What really going on here is that school lunch employees are members of the powerful Service Employees International Union. The union wants more of these employees, not fewer, and also insists on benefits and wages that in many cases are bankrupting the schools.
Even when parents are allowed to pack nutritious lunches themselves, they can still run afoul of government mandates. The most recent story of this kind came from Canada. A mother in Manitoba was fined $10 (once for each of her kids) by her children’s daycare program for failing to provide “nutritionally balanced” lunches—that is, strictly conforming to the Canadian Food Guidelines. Mom had packed a lunch of leftover roast beef, carrots, potatoes, an orange, and milk, but she didn’t include the government-mandated serving of grain, so the daycare center supplemented the lunch with—a Ritz cracker!
This would be funny if it didn’t involve the health of innocent and vulnerable children.

76 comments

  1. School lunches are a thing of the past in our household. They weren’t much better then either. Fortunately, I didn’t have a problem sending a lunch with my kids. What is it about the climate in education these days? I read many ugly stories which make me question the maturity and aptitude of some of these teachers Parents are still ones who know best what their children should eat for heaven’s sake! Some of the articles I’ve read about teachers and schools paint a mediocre picture of the common sense and satisfaction of teachers and administrators in the profession they chose to follow. Maybe they should look elsewhere and let kids have the benefit of caring and connected adults in their school days .Everyone would benefit!

  2. School lunches are a thing of the past in our household. They weren’t much better then either. Fortunately, I didn’t have a problem sending a lunch with my kids. What is it about the climate in education these days? I read many ugly stories which make me question the maturity and aptitude of some of these teachers Parents are still ones who know best what their children should eat for heaven’s sake! Some of the articles I’ve read about teachers and schools paint a mediocre picture of the common sense and satisfaction of teachers and administrators in the profession they chose to follow. Maybe they should look elsewhere and let kids have the benefit of caring and connected adults in their school days .Everyone would benefit!

  3. Michelle Obama would be stopped and probably already has, in her tracks for going against big corporations as mentioned above. I am so lucky to have a primary physician who listens to his patients and even recommends alternative. Rather than put me on cholestrol statins, he recommended Red Yeast Rice capsules; his patients have done very well with this and the health store boasts of their customers with excellent results. I am on my pedestal every day trying to educate people; most are already are aware but havern’t changed their lifestyles yet…we need more media coverage but then they are paid off to shut up. Hopefully the day will come. In the meantime I have also discovered Amy’s Kitchen with lots of nongmo/nongluten little frozen meals which work for my lunches at the office…Target is the best prices for Amy’s…other supermarkets are gouging for healthy food!

  4. Michelle Obama would be stopped and probably already has, in her tracks for going against big corporations as mentioned above. I am so lucky to have a primary physician who listens to his patients and even recommends alternative. Rather than put me on cholestrol statins, he recommended Red Yeast Rice capsules; his patients have done very well with this and the health store boasts of their customers with excellent results. I am on my pedestal every day trying to educate people; most are already are aware but havern’t changed their lifestyles yet…we need more media coverage but then they are paid off to shut up. Hopefully the day will come. In the meantime I have also discovered Amy’s Kitchen with lots of nongmo/nongluten little frozen meals which work for my lunches at the office…Target is the best prices for Amy’s…other supermarkets are gouging for healthy food!

  5. HI, Gluten/dairy/soy/sugar/GMO food may hurt people. Good water…not tap water with F that may block thyroid may help. Gluten (wheat/barley/rye..oats) may make antibodies to the thyroid. Kids used to throw away soup/cheese/hollow peas that lost color and more. The kids maybe getting less calories, but not be healthy. American meat may not be healthy…,,may have arsenic and more in it. Meat/dairy/eggs may have antibiotics in them. GMO soy/canola oil/corn may also hurt. Asian/Mexcian/Indian etc may get hurt fast by gluten and white Americans. Kids should be allowed to bring their own food. The school lunch is not healthy. The grocery store with premade food is not healthy. Amercians don’t need Obama care as much as good food that would prevent health issues. Pesticides and more are not healthy.

  6. HI, Gluten/dairy/soy/sugar/GMO food may hurt people. Good water…not tap water with F that may block thyroid may help. Gluten (wheat/barley/rye..oats) may make antibodies to the thyroid. Kids used to throw away soup/cheese/hollow peas that lost color and more. The kids maybe getting less calories, but not be healthy. American meat may not be healthy…,,may have arsenic and more in it. Meat/dairy/eggs may have antibiotics in them. GMO soy/canola oil/corn may also hurt. Asian/Mexcian/Indian etc may get hurt fast by gluten and white Americans. Kids should be allowed to bring their own food. The school lunch is not healthy. The grocery store with premade food is not healthy. Amercians don’t need Obama care as much as good food that would prevent health issues. Pesticides and more are not healthy.

  7. Qualified nutritionists need to be brought into the mix. School food preparation centers should answer to those who have the proper credentials. Each school district should work together with the nutritionist(s) assigned to that area on creating a budget that fulfills the students’ nutritional needs, then see to it that they are carried out.

  8. Qualified nutritionists need to be brought into the mix. School food preparation centers should answer to those who have the proper credentials. Each school district should work together with the nutritionist(s) assigned to that area on creating a budget that fulfills the students’ nutritional needs, then see to it that they are carried out.

  9. Oh please
    Michele is from a privileged back round.
    Had everything handed to her.
    Michele doesn’t know the meaning of the word struggle.
    Michele’s hate for all white people is paulable
    Michele’s lunch program is failing, because kids don’t want
    to eat her forced lunches. Throwing it away.
    What a waste
    Clearly , Mr and Mrs O don’t follow her lunch program either.
    2016 can’t get here soon enough

  10. Oh please
    Michele is from a privileged back round.
    Had everything handed to her.
    Michele doesn’t know the meaning of the word struggle.
    Michele’s hate for all white people is paulable
    Michele’s lunch program is failing, because kids don’t want
    to eat her forced lunches. Throwing it away.
    What a waste
    Clearly , Mr and Mrs O don’t follow her lunch program either.
    2016 can’t get here soon enough

  11. It is most fortunate that parents didn’t put up with attempts to starve large groups of children in attempts to force weight loss upon a few…It would be difficult to find more blatant evidence that the road to Hell is paved by people who think that paving the road to Hell benefits transportation.
    We all make mistakes.
    Even the First Lady can make mistakes.
    We are fortunate that strong public pushback can correct mistakes.
    Please encourage people to exercise their power to do this,for we need this power.
    Forever and ever.
    Amen.

  12. It is most fortunate that parents didn’t put up with attempts to starve large groups of children in attempts to force weight loss upon a few…It would be difficult to find more blatant evidence that the road to Hell is paved by people who think that paving the road to Hell benefits transportation.
    We all make mistakes.
    Even the First Lady can make mistakes.
    We are fortunate that strong public pushback can correct mistakes.
    Please encourage people to exercise their power to do this,for we need this power.
    Forever and ever.
    Amen.

  13. Our kids (and adults) will never be healthy and nutritionally soundly fed unless the horrible foods served to them are thrown into the garbage pail. A diet of baked chicken breast or drumsticks with modest dressing, steamed vegetables of different hues, fresh or canned in its own juice fruit –any apples except Delicious which have about zero nutrition!, grapes, oranges, berries, melon, pineapple, etc., whole wheat bread or roll with butter or olive oil, and one cookie-preferably oatmeal raisin, will satisfy hunger and provide an attractive plate with all the nutrition any child needs. Let them come back for seconds! Give them a reward star for a clean plate! Give them other incentives! But, please, don’t train our kids to eat junk food so the big corporations can make $$$ at their expense.

  14. Our kids (and adults) will never be healthy and nutritionally soundly fed unless the horrible foods served to them are thrown into the garbage pail. A diet of baked chicken breast or drumsticks with modest dressing, steamed vegetables of different hues, fresh or canned in its own juice fruit –any apples except Delicious which have about zero nutrition!, grapes, oranges, berries, melon, pineapple, etc., whole wheat bread or roll with butter or olive oil, and one cookie-preferably oatmeal raisin, will satisfy hunger and provide an attractive plate with all the nutrition any child needs. Let them come back for seconds! Give them a reward star for a clean plate! Give them other incentives! But, please, don’t train our kids to eat junk food so the big corporations can make $$$ at their expense.

  15. They are incompetent in their judgement. If it something they disagree with, they don’t want to hear anything else. Who made them God? What they need to do is stop listening to all this crap and listen to others that have been in the field of working with food. They need to look further then their noses. One of the first things they need to know about where the food is grown and how its grown..
    They just want to make it sound good. We all have to start paying attention where are food comes from what is in it.

  16. They are incompetent in their judgement. If it something they disagree with, they don’t want to hear anything else. Who made them God? What they need to do is stop listening to all this crap and listen to others that have been in the field of working with food. They need to look further then their noses. One of the first things they need to know about where the food is grown and how its grown..
    They just want to make it sound good. We all have to start paying attention where are food comes from what is in it.

  17. Proper development and school achievement are directly linked to good nutrition. If we’re going to raise a nation of creative, productive citizens, we need to feed them right. Let’s get the garbage – and special interests – out of our schools.

  18. Proper development and school achievement are directly linked to good nutrition. If we’re going to raise a nation of creative, productive citizens, we need to feed them right. Let’s get the garbage – and special interests – out of our schools.

  19. This Government creating more problems…..instead of solutions for important issues. Michele Obama has not been what we hoped for…for whatever reasons, pressures……etc.

  20. This Government creating more problems…..instead of solutions for important issues. Michele Obama has not been what we hoped for…for whatever reasons, pressures……etc.

  21. Obesity is a specific medical case that physicians should write notes about –especially if hey have a nutritionist on their staff. In fact all of our kids should first go to see a nutritionist before they go to the medical doctor. Then get the doc and the nutritionist to talk. If they can’t communicate, find a doctor who can talk to the nutritionist.

  22. Obesity is a specific medical case that physicians should write notes about –especially if hey have a nutritionist on their staff. In fact all of our kids should first go to see a nutritionist before they go to the medical doctor. Then get the doc and the nutritionist to talk. If they can’t communicate, find a doctor who can talk to the nutritionist.

  23. This makes me angry beyond words. Both the Obamas and the unions are a threat to our children and our very country as well.

  24. This makes me angry beyond words. Both the Obamas and the unions are a threat to our children and our very country as well.

  25. It almost makes me cry to read about Mrs Obama’s attention to have Healthy School Lunches as her issue is not the REAL issue. I have emailed the White House about the alarming situation of FILTHY food per Google Link….Blood and Pus and Cancer Causing ingredients in Milk and all Dairy products but Big Bucks keep it bottled up…..FDA admits Cancer Causing ARSONIC in Chicken……Rodent Ufine, Rat Hair Roaches, Grain Insects above FDA Guiddlinesin Flour and Meal which that encoumpasses all bread products etc. …Hogs and Cows is FILTH too but can not cover it all as the information is vast and experts state our food the filtheist and unhealtheist in Human History and every bit s dangerous as Cigarettes. Why ob why can I not get anyones atyention.??I do not believe my dire concern will even be published and it is sad. The excruciating torture of Farm Animals. on Tyson and Purdue Garms is enough to nauciate me without eating their products. It is a sad day in America when the Meat etc is too filthy to eat.

  26. It almost makes me cry to read about Mrs Obama’s attention to have Healthy School Lunches as her issue is not the REAL issue. I have emailed the White House about the alarming situation of FILTHY food per Google Link….Blood and Pus and Cancer Causing ingredients in Milk and all Dairy products but Big Bucks keep it bottled up…..FDA admits Cancer Causing ARSONIC in Chicken……Rodent Ufine, Rat Hair Roaches, Grain Insects above FDA Guiddlinesin Flour and Meal which that encoumpasses all bread products etc. …Hogs and Cows is FILTH too but can not cover it all as the information is vast and experts state our food the filtheist and unhealtheist in Human History and every bit s dangerous as Cigarettes. Why ob why can I not get anyones atyention.??I do not believe my dire concern will even be published and it is sad. The excruciating torture of Farm Animals. on Tyson and Purdue Garms is enough to nauciate me without eating their products. It is a sad day in America when the Meat etc is too filthy to eat.

  27. In my previous comments on the Filthy , unhealthy state of our food, two very informative, authoritative Google. Links and videos is MEET YOUR MEAT …and…FOOD INC. I want to thank Mrs.Obama for her meal concerns but please take her investigation. to the Root of the problem.

  28. In my previous comments on the Filthy , unhealthy state of our food, two very informative, authoritative Google. Links and videos is MEET YOUR MEAT …and…FOOD INC. I want to thank Mrs.Obama for her meal concerns but please take her investigation. to the Root of the problem.

  29. Hard to believe how far government is taking this, any lunch made at home is better than the process devoid of nutrition lunches provided by the schools. They need to stay out of telling people how to live their lives, this has gone too far and would be laughable if it were a movie.

    1. I have seen parents pack fruit rollups and gummy’s as the fruit in their kids luches. Gogurt instead of healthy , real yogurt. Not to mention, that there are lots of kids that need low cost or free lunch programs. Guess who provides these, that’s right the government! Unfortunately, it is the big food companies who dictate what our kids eat, solely for their profit. We need the government, which means us, the parents, to control what our kids eat and that means keeping them healthy. Mrs Obama may need to improve and enlarge her focus, but at least she cares and is trying to do the right thing!!

  30. Hard to believe how far government is taking this, any lunch made at home is better than the process devoid of nutrition lunches provided by the schools. They need to stay out of telling people how to live their lives, this has gone too far and would be laughable if it were a movie.

    1. I have seen parents pack fruit rollups and gummy’s as the fruit in their kids luches. Gogurt instead of healthy , real yogurt. Not to mention, that there are lots of kids that need low cost or free lunch programs. Guess who provides these, that’s right the government! Unfortunately, it is the big food companies who dictate what our kids eat, solely for their profit. We need the government, which means us, the parents, to control what our kids eat and that means keeping them healthy. Mrs Obama may need to improve and enlarge her focus, but at least she cares and is trying to do the right thing!!

  31. I am wondering if Mrs. Obama is aware of Monsanto and how she feels about “frankenfood” being served to children in their school lunches? As for high fructose corn syrup, it is in more than just drinks. It is in pickles, ketchup, etc. I think that changing the school lunch diet is a good thing. (Chicken nuggets just isn’t my idea of a good lunch) however, as this article states it needs to be done in a manner in which all children will benefit to some extent by those changes.
    Thank you for reading.

  32. I am wondering if Mrs. Obama is aware of Monsanto and how she feels about “frankenfood” being served to children in their school lunches? As for high fructose corn syrup, it is in more than just drinks. It is in pickles, ketchup, etc. I think that changing the school lunch diet is a good thing. (Chicken nuggets just isn’t my idea of a good lunch) however, as this article states it needs to be done in a manner in which all children will benefit to some extent by those changes.
    Thank you for reading.

    1. If Michele Obama is a truly Honest and Passionate Human Being who really cares about our children eating healthy, then she should advocate for “Organic” foods ONLY and attempt to force the Government to get rid of all the Genetically modified “frankenfood” full of pesticides, herbicides, hormones, antibiotics etc.
      Yes, Michelle Obama should leave a legacy of being a truly “HONEST and CARING” First Lady and bring Satan’s Corporations like Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow, Dupont, GMA, FDA etc. down once and for all!
      I bet the Obama family only eats “Organic”!!

    1. If Michele Obama is a truly Honest and Passionate Human Being who really cares about our children eating healthy, then she should advocate for “Organic” foods ONLY and attempt to force the Government to get rid of all the Genetically modified “frankenfood” full of pesticides, herbicides, hormones, antibiotics etc.
      Yes, Michelle Obama should leave a legacy of being a truly “HONEST and CARING” First Lady and bring Satan’s Corporations like Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow, Dupont, GMA, FDA etc. down once and for all!
      I bet the Obama family only eats “Organic”!!

  33. On government nutritional mandates, Canada in this case, it’s debatable if cereal grains are necessary at all, and I can’t see any need for cereal grains at every meal. Eating two or three meals a day, one does not eat the same things at every meal, and individual meals need not always be nutritionally balanced. What counts is the longer-term nutritional pattern. Sometimes I feel like I need a break from starches or heavy proteins. Three “square” meals a day may exceed one’s digestive capacity.
    Comedy of errors in Canadian and USDA food guidelines strongly suggest that the government should not be allowed to mandate what children eat or do any more than make recommendations.

  34. On government nutritional mandates, Canada in this case, it’s debatable if cereal grains are necessary at all, and I can’t see any need for cereal grains at every meal. Eating two or three meals a day, one does not eat the same things at every meal, and individual meals need not always be nutritionally balanced. What counts is the longer-term nutritional pattern. Sometimes I feel like I need a break from starches or heavy proteins. Three “square” meals a day may exceed one’s digestive capacity.
    Comedy of errors in Canadian and USDA food guidelines strongly suggest that the government should not be allowed to mandate what children eat or do any more than make recommendations.

  35. You may or may not be correct in leaping to the conclusion that the school lunch program is so horrible because of the SEIU, although I doubt it because it seems an awful leap, but if it weren’t for the unions in America, we would all have been making $3 a day throughout the 20th Century instead of having been able to feed our children extraordinarily well from about 1950 through very recent times. The reason the country is now poor and stupid is because of the very wealthy forcing the vast majority to bend to their will, not because of the unions in general or any one of them in particular. Don’t fall into the Richs’ trap of blaming this miserable situation on ANYONE other than them; they did it to us and they still are.

  36. You may or may not be correct in leaping to the conclusion that the school lunch program is so horrible because of the SEIU, although I doubt it because it seems an awful leap, but if it weren’t for the unions in America, we would all have been making $3 a day throughout the 20th Century instead of having been able to feed our children extraordinarily well from about 1950 through very recent times. The reason the country is now poor and stupid is because of the very wealthy forcing the vast majority to bend to their will, not because of the unions in general or any one of them in particular. Don’t fall into the Richs’ trap of blaming this miserable situation on ANYONE other than them; they did it to us and they still are.

  37. Homeschool your kids. Its a grimm reality to face, but the public school system is finally providing definitive proof, over and over, that they cannot be trusted with children. Especially their nutrition.

  38. Homeschool your kids. Its a grimm reality to face, but the public school system is finally providing definitive proof, over and over, that they cannot be trusted with children. Especially their nutrition.

  39. It is very clear that Michele Obama knows extremely little about nutrition and thus should not have her hands in meddling with something so important. She also has not bothered to educate herself on this topic to be able to have an educated voice. She should stay out of this altogether.

  40. It is very clear that Michele Obama knows extremely little about nutrition and thus should not have her hands in meddling with something so important. She also has not bothered to educate herself on this topic to be able to have an educated voice. She should stay out of this altogether.

  41. School lunches if they are provided at school to children and youth should be consist of organic, nonGMO ingredients. Pesticides, herbicides, food additives, and anything genetically modified cause all sorts of cognitive, behavioral, and health problems in children. I always hear there is so little $ allocated for a “free” lunch in Title 1 schools (like where I work) — that is where Ms. Obama should focus — more federal funds for healthy food for our nation’s children. For those of you who might not know, the free-reduced free lunches in our schools represent big money for the industrial food system. What more important: profit for these companies or healthy kids?

  42. School lunches if they are provided at school to children and youth should be consist of organic, nonGMO ingredients. Pesticides, herbicides, food additives, and anything genetically modified cause all sorts of cognitive, behavioral, and health problems in children. I always hear there is so little $ allocated for a “free” lunch in Title 1 schools (like where I work) — that is where Ms. Obama should focus — more federal funds for healthy food for our nation’s children. For those of you who might not know, the free-reduced free lunches in our schools represent big money for the industrial food system. What more important: profit for these companies or healthy kids?

  43. Traditionally we ate what our ancestors ate, and those societies that ate appropriately over the centuries had populations that had the potential to live reasonably healthy lives when war, poverty and opulence didn’t interfere. In our modern Western society, we don’t know what healthy eating entails, not even most of the health gurus, unfortunately.
    The first and most pressing problem is to stop poisoning our children and ourselves with ingested toxic chemicals and non-toxic chemicals that when ingested form toxins within our bodies. This specifically includes chlorine, fluorine, mercury, aluminum and glyphosate (Roundup), plus a plethora of food additives and unhealthy foods in general.
    The second problem is to provide nutritious meals with proper protein to carbohydrate balance that doesn’t stress the body’s ability to control blood sugar. My personal research indicates that if sub-clinical or clinical manifestations of abnormal lipid and glucose metabolism are present as a result of chronic toxic poisonings, then ingesting either too much protein or too many carbs are both deleterious to health. This takes us back to toxins which appear to be the initial cause of much of the lipid and glucose metabolic upsets in our population. As indicated above, address these first and then worry about nutrient balance.
    My PhD is from Princeton in the physical sciences (class of 1968) and I’m in the process of writing a book on preventing, managing, and possibly correcting type 2 diabetes, which will include recipes for meals that enhance rather than slowly destroy health. I figure that if it takes someone with my education to sift through the truth, lies, misrepresentations and poorly designed research studies in order to figure out what healthy eating really entails, than recipes will be essential to make it simple and practical.

    1. Dr. Silverman is so correct about the toxins. In fact, in my past 7 years of removing toxins from my own body, I discovered that not only is the protein:carbohydrate ratio critical, it varies throughout the day, and from person to person, depending upon what their own personal chemical needs are. furthermore, as kaunas8 says, micronutrients are just as important as macronutrients. I found that the ratio of calcium:magnesium:boron was also important because our needs vary with physiology, age, and time of day. That ratio varies in the type of grain, the type of grain product, milk product, nut/seed, vegetable and fruit, and is influenced by the other micronutrients found in the food, e.g. bromine, sulfur, phosphate. That variation should dictate what we are in the mood to eat, but clearly, if we only define satisfaction as how full we feel, and not the chemical makeup of the food we eat, our own eating patterns will be flawed. I found that choosing what I ate in a meal by its chemical makeup and the chemical needs I had got rid of all cravings, kept my portion sizes reasonable, and gave me enough energy throughout the day that I would not crave any high energy food/drink like coffee, tea, soda, sweets, etc.
      Back to the topic of toxins. I wrote a blog post on Obesity and Pesticides (http://marthalhyde.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/obesity-and-pesticides/ ), finding evidence from peer-reviewed research that pesticides like fat, interferes with the metabolism of fat and might even be damaging fat cells. As an anatomist, I found a lot of evidence that the body encases foreign material (chemical elements that disrupt internal cellular activities are “foreign”) in connective tissue, from small sacs of parts of aponeurosis or epithelium surrounding tendons, muscles, and ligaments, to cysts and probably benign tumors, to sequestration inside the trabeculae of all bones. In fact, osteoporosis might be one outcome of doing the latter. Surgeons implanting prostheses or any other device have learned that the body naturally encapsulates it with an epithelium and connective tissue. No doubt because it has foreign material in it.
      The list I gave amounts to a progression, since the earliest steps to sequester tend to be messed up from movement and exercise (sacs break easily). That may be why exercise appears to help some lose weight, because it keeps the toxins moving around the body in the interstitial fluids. But once you sit down, stand still or lie down for any…

      1. This is a continuation. The comment box did not tell me that I was going over the limit.
        …length of time, the toxins pool, where they get sequestered. Thus, for many, joints can suffer from what we erroneously think is due to exercise (they call osteoarthritis the “wear and tear” type, when it may depend more on which toxin is there). Joints tend to have a large number of components that use sulfur. Sulfur attracts metals, so toxins composed of metals will be attracted to them. All pre-medical students, if they had physiology labs where surgery was done on live animals, learn that you can’t touch a nerve with a metal tool because metal irritates nerves.
        I found that 1) once you get rid of toxins attached to an area, it heals, and 2) most toxins travel just under the skin, doing damage to all hypodermal tissues, which includes most of the metabolizable fat that we desperately want to lose, as well as dermis and epidermis. This has remarkable effects on skin and its derivatives. I could finally lose weight when I got rid of a large amount of the toxins that were in me. I lost 30 lb over 2 months after the toxins that were dripping from my skull finally stopped. I had not changed my diet or did any exercise during this time. As Dr. Silverman is doing, I too am writing a book on my methods for removing toxins, what works, why it works, and all the problems associated with going the route I took.

  44. Traditionally we ate what our ancestors ate, and those societies that ate appropriately over the centuries had populations that had the potential to live reasonably healthy lives when war, poverty and opulence didn’t interfere. In our modern Western society, we don’t know what healthy eating entails, not even most of the health gurus, unfortunately.
    The first and most pressing problem is to stop poisoning our children and ourselves with ingested toxic chemicals and non-toxic chemicals that when ingested form toxins within our bodies. This specifically includes chlorine, fluorine, mercury, aluminum and glyphosate (Roundup), plus a plethora of food additives and unhealthy foods in general.
    The second problem is to provide nutritious meals with proper protein to carbohydrate balance that doesn’t stress the body’s ability to control blood sugar. My personal research indicates that if sub-clinical or clinical manifestations of abnormal lipid and glucose metabolism are present as a result of chronic toxic poisonings, then ingesting either too much protein or too many carbs are both deleterious to health. This takes us back to toxins which appear to be the initial cause of much of the lipid and glucose metabolic upsets in our population. As indicated above, address these first and then worry about nutrient balance.
    My PhD is from Princeton in the physical sciences (class of 1968) and I’m in the process of writing a book on preventing, managing, and possibly correcting type 2 diabetes, which will include recipes for meals that enhance rather than slowly destroy health. I figure that if it takes someone with my education to sift through the truth, lies, misrepresentations and poorly designed research studies in order to figure out what healthy eating really entails, than recipes will be essential to make it simple and practical.

    1. Dr. Silverman is so correct about the toxins. In fact, in my past 7 years of removing toxins from my own body, I discovered that not only is the protein:carbohydrate ratio critical, it varies throughout the day, and from person to person, depending upon what their own personal chemical needs are. furthermore, as kaunas8 says, micronutrients are just as important as macronutrients. I found that the ratio of calcium:magnesium:boron was also important because our needs vary with physiology, age, and time of day. That ratio varies in the type of grain, the type of grain product, milk product, nut/seed, vegetable and fruit, and is influenced by the other micronutrients found in the food, e.g. bromine, sulfur, phosphate. That variation should dictate what we are in the mood to eat, but clearly, if we only define satisfaction as how full we feel, and not the chemical makeup of the food we eat, our own eating patterns will be flawed. I found that choosing what I ate in a meal by its chemical makeup and the chemical needs I had got rid of all cravings, kept my portion sizes reasonable, and gave me enough energy throughout the day that I would not crave any high energy food/drink like coffee, tea, soda, sweets, etc.
      Back to the topic of toxins. I wrote a blog post on Obesity and Pesticides (http://marthalhyde.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/obesity-and-pesticides/ ), finding evidence from peer-reviewed research that pesticides like fat, interferes with the metabolism of fat and might even be damaging fat cells. As an anatomist, I found a lot of evidence that the body encases foreign material (chemical elements that disrupt internal cellular activities are “foreign”) in connective tissue, from small sacs of parts of aponeurosis or epithelium surrounding tendons, muscles, and ligaments, to cysts and probably benign tumors, to sequestration inside the trabeculae of all bones. In fact, osteoporosis might be one outcome of doing the latter. Surgeons implanting prostheses or any other device have learned that the body naturally encapsulates it with an epithelium and connective tissue. No doubt because it has foreign material in it.
      The list I gave amounts to a progression, since the earliest steps to sequester tend to be messed up from movement and exercise (sacs break easily). That may be why exercise appears to help some lose weight, because it keeps the toxins moving around the body in the interstitial fluids. But once you sit down, stand still or lie down for any…

      1. This is a continuation. The comment box did not tell me that I was going over the limit.
        …length of time, the toxins pool, where they get sequestered. Thus, for many, joints can suffer from what we erroneously think is due to exercise (they call osteoarthritis the “wear and tear” type, when it may depend more on which toxin is there). Joints tend to have a large number of components that use sulfur. Sulfur attracts metals, so toxins composed of metals will be attracted to them. All pre-medical students, if they had physiology labs where surgery was done on live animals, learn that you can’t touch a nerve with a metal tool because metal irritates nerves.
        I found that 1) once you get rid of toxins attached to an area, it heals, and 2) most toxins travel just under the skin, doing damage to all hypodermal tissues, which includes most of the metabolizable fat that we desperately want to lose, as well as dermis and epidermis. This has remarkable effects on skin and its derivatives. I could finally lose weight when I got rid of a large amount of the toxins that were in me. I lost 30 lb over 2 months after the toxins that were dripping from my skull finally stopped. I had not changed my diet or did any exercise during this time. As Dr. Silverman is doing, I too am writing a book on my methods for removing toxins, what works, why it works, and all the problems associated with going the route I took.

  45. Michelle is full of crap! it is not hard to feed your kids in a healthy way and we do not need big government forcing us to eat what they want! If you want to battle obesity in kids in schools get back to giving kids physical fitness in school like when we were kids. we played sports before school, during recess at lunch and during fitness classes and there was very little obesity then so if it worked then then go back to what worked. This is Michelle trying to carve herself a place in history other than the wife of the worst president in history but do not step on my freedom to do it!!

  46. Michelle is full of crap! it is not hard to feed your kids in a healthy way and we do not need big government forcing us to eat what they want! If you want to battle obesity in kids in schools get back to giving kids physical fitness in school like when we were kids. we played sports before school, during recess at lunch and during fitness classes and there was very little obesity then so if it worked then then go back to what worked. This is Michelle trying to carve herself a place in history other than the wife of the worst president in history but do not step on my freedom to do it!!

  47. I respect Mrs. Obama’s desire to improve the school lunch programs, for the health of our children. Education in nutrition needs to begin with the parents. There are affordable ways to feed our families that are nutritious and taste good. But parents have to be willing to learn about nutrition, grocery shopping, food preparation and health, and commit to a time of weaning the family off of sugar and white flour before the school lunch program will be accepted. It is parents responsibility, not the schools, to see to the health and welfare of their children!
    Mrs Obama has started the conversation; it needs to be continued and improved upon!

  48. I respect Mrs. Obama’s desire to improve the school lunch programs, for the health of our children. Education in nutrition needs to begin with the parents. There are affordable ways to feed our families that are nutritious and taste good. But parents have to be willing to learn about nutrition, grocery shopping, food preparation and health, and commit to a time of weaning the family off of sugar and white flour before the school lunch program will be accepted. It is parents responsibility, not the schools, to see to the health and welfare of their children!
    Mrs Obama has started the conversation; it needs to be continued and improved upon!

  49. I always suspected the integrity of Michelle Obama´s health program. Anything coming out of the corrupt Obama machine (and most other politicians as well) cannot be but riddled with compromises and corporate interests. It looks like just another slick empty public relations exercise by the Obamas, designed to look good but really changing little.
    I think that these nutritional standards only focus on macro nutrients, because getting more specific would require actually having to put healthy good on the table.

  50. I always suspected the integrity of Michelle Obama´s health program. Anything coming out of the corrupt Obama machine (and most other politicians as well) cannot be but riddled with compromises and corporate interests. It looks like just another slick empty public relations exercise by the Obamas, designed to look good but really changing little.
    I think that these nutritional standards only focus on macro nutrients, because getting more specific would require actually having to put healthy good on the table.

  51. #1: The SIEU is not bankrupting our schools, our federal government — which has endless money for wars and destabilization of other nations, see, e.g., the $5 billion spent to destabilize Ukraine — is bankrupting our schools. Don’t be so stupid.
    #2: Michelle Obama is a corporate idiot. I have only a high school degree and I know a great deal about nutrition and good eating. The first requirement for providing healthy food for one’s family is to learn outside the box. What one is told on TV or by doctors or by RDs is not to be depended upon; find good books about nutrition and use their information.

  52. #1: The SIEU is not bankrupting our schools, our federal government — which has endless money for wars and destabilization of other nations, see, e.g., the $5 billion spent to destabilize Ukraine — is bankrupting our schools. Don’t be so stupid.
    #2: Michelle Obama is a corporate idiot. I have only a high school degree and I know a great deal about nutrition and good eating. The first requirement for providing healthy food for one’s family is to learn outside the box. What one is told on TV or by doctors or by RDs is not to be depended upon; find good books about nutrition and use their information.

  53. I am shocked there are no comments
    On the filth and poison of our Meats . Bread and Milk. I assume the silence about the filth of food means no one cares and the Gov. Is aware of that so nothing is corrected. The American People just love to harp on Cigarettes when their Cancer Causing Food is just as unhealthy. The People are blind and is reason our Country is in a mess and corrupt. I bet majority never saw Movie 2016 as they dont want to know what is transpiring before their blind eyes. One day the blind will see but it will be too late.

  54. I am shocked there are no comments
    On the filth and poison of our Meats . Bread and Milk. I assume the silence about the filth of food means no one cares and the Gov. Is aware of that so nothing is corrected. The American People just love to harp on Cigarettes when their Cancer Causing Food is just as unhealthy. The People are blind and is reason our Country is in a mess and corrupt. I bet majority never saw Movie 2016 as they dont want to know what is transpiring before their blind eyes. One day the blind will see but it will be too late.

  55. Once again, our public schools are promoting idiocy. Educational reform, an end to standardized testing, a ban on commercial enterprises of all kinds (including fundraisers that feature chocolate bars, for example), and administrators who display some plain common sense are desperately needed. Teach our children civics, and teach them scientific method and thinking, and logic, too — we need an intelligent population to get us through the crises we are facing.

  56. Once again, our public schools are promoting idiocy. Educational reform, an end to standardized testing, a ban on commercial enterprises of all kinds (including fundraisers that feature chocolate bars, for example), and administrators who display some plain common sense are desperately needed. Teach our children civics, and teach them scientific method and thinking, and logic, too — we need an intelligent population to get us through the crises we are facing.

  57. Why not give Mrs. Obama credit for at least opening up a dialogue
    for better food ? Which of the other first ladies even bothered to
    discuss this? Mr. Obama said she did not have the answer but
    she is willing to work with someone who does. Which of you
    (who are so quick to criticize and blame her for this countries woes)
    are at least out there in the public, on the radio and tv——-
    doing what you can to make it known how bad the food is in the schools?
    Michele Obama has made it known——-how about you?
    Let whoever is doing his/her part for the nation cast the first stone.
    Or are you the type that would rather blame someone else for what
    you are not doing? Are you fighting at your own school for something
    other than tomato sauce and chicken we know nothing about? Are you?

  58. Why not give Mrs. Obama credit for at least opening up a dialogue
    for better food ? Which of the other first ladies even bothered to
    discuss this? Mr. Obama said she did not have the answer but
    she is willing to work with someone who does. Which of you
    (who are so quick to criticize and blame her for this countries woes)
    are at least out there in the public, on the radio and tv——-
    doing what you can to make it known how bad the food is in the schools?
    Michele Obama has made it known——-how about you?
    Let whoever is doing his/her part for the nation cast the first stone.
    Or are you the type that would rather blame someone else for what
    you are not doing? Are you fighting at your own school for something
    other than tomato sauce and chicken we know nothing about? Are you?

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