New rules would limit sugar in school meals for first time | AP News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
U.S. agriculture officials on Friday proposed new nutrition standards for school meals, including the first limits on added sugars, with a focus on sweetened foods such as cereals, yogurt, flavored milk and breakfast pastries.
The plan announced by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also seeks to significantly decrease sodium in the meals served to the nation's schoolkids by 2029, while making the rules for foods made with whole grains more flexible.
The goal is to improve nutrition and align with U.S. dietary guidelines in the program that serves breakfast to more than 15 million children and lunch to nearly 30 million children every day, Vilsack said.
"School meals happen to be the meals with the highest nutritional value of any meal that children can get outside the home," Vilsack said in an interview.
The first limits on added sugars would be required in the 2025-2026 school year, starting with high-sugar foods such as sweetened cereals, yogurts and flavored milks.
Under the plan, for instance, an 8-ounce container of chocolate milk could contain no more than 10 grams of sugar. Some popular flavored milks now contain twice that amount. The plan also limits sugary grain desserts, such as muffins or doughnuts, to no more than twice a week at breakfast.
By the fall of 2027, added sugars in school meals would be limited to less than 10% of the total calories per week for breakfasts and lunches.
The proposal also would reduce sodium in school meals by 30% by the fall of 2029. They would gradually be reduced to align with federal guidelines, which recommend Americans aged 14 and older limit sodium to about 2,300 milligrams a day, with less for younger children.
Levels would drop, for instance, from an average of about 1,280 milligrams of sodium allowed now per lunch for kids in grades 9 to 12 to about 935 milligrams. For comparison, a typical turkey sandwich with mustard and cheese might contain 1,500 milligrams of sodium.
Health experts say cutting back on sugar and salt can help decrease the risk of disease in kids, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other problems that often continue into adulthood.
The plan, detailed in a 280-page document, drew mixed reactions. Katie Wilson, executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance, said the changes are "necessary to help America's children lead healthier lives."
But Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association, a trade group, said school meals are already healthier than they were a decade ago and that increased regulations are a burden, especially for small and rural school districts.
"School meal programs are at a breaking point," she said. "These programs are simply not equipped to meet additional rules."
Vilsack emphasized that the plan phases changes in over the next six years to allow schools and food manufacturers time to adjust to the new standards. He said in a press conference Friday that the USDA will also fund grants of up to $150,000 to help small and rural schools make the changes.
"Our hope is that many school districts and food providers accelerate the timeline on their own," he said.
Courtney Gaine, president of the Sugar Association, said the proposal ignores the "many functional roles" sugar plays in food beyond sweetness and encourages the use of sugar substitutes, which have not been fully studied in children. Sugar substitutes are allowed under the new standards, Vilsack said.
As part of the plan, agriculture officials are seeking feedback about a proposal that would continue to require that 80% of all grains offered in a week must be whole grains. But it would allow schools to serve non-whole grain foods, such as white-flour tortillas, one day a week to vary their menus.
Another option suggests serving unflavored nonfat and lowfat milk to the youngest children and reserving chocolate and other flavored milks for high school kids.
A 60-day public comment period on the plan opens Feb. 7.
Shiriki Kumanyika, a community health expert at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health said if they're done right some of the changes will be hard for kids to notice: "They'll see things that they like to eat, but those foods will be healthier," she said.
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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling the president of the Sugar Association. It is Courtney Gaine, not Courtney Gaines.
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AP Videojournalist Shelby Lum and AP Science Writer Maddie Burakoff contributed to this report.
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I wonder if the increasing number of students who exhibit ADHD will begin to decline?
We had Coffee milk in the 70's in grade school lunch room, chocolate too. In the 80's JR and SR High the sports teams raised money through the sale of soda, snacks, and chocolate bars. They sold soda and chips in the lunchrooms and kids would carry tote boxes full of candy to class and you could buy candy bars in just about any class you were in, or in the hall or before and after school (I loved the caramel filled chocolate bars).
We people selling candy, too. I did for honor society so I could go to NYC. But we weren't allowed to sell them in the lunch room
We weren't allowed to sell cookies to raise funds for chorus in the lunch room, either.
And we had a vending machine for fruit juices only - no soda. Eventually, we got vending machines that sold soda and snacks, but they had automatic timers that preventing them from operating during school hours.
We had a "Pop Room" with soda machines but it and Ice cream room did not get opened until lunch line closed and there were soda machines in the locker rooms.
The vending machines were in the building where the cafeteria, band room, and choir room were housed. It was separate from the main building. It was usually open after the main building was locked, to allow for choir and band rehearsals, and because we had to walk through it to get to the student parking lot and gym, if we had after-school sports. When we sold cookies for fundraisers, it was in the hallway outside of the lunch room. There was a line for the vending machines at 3:30, which is when the dismissal bell rang.
Speaking of sports, band, and choir that's part of the problem, too. I think something like 60% of our student body participated in school sports - some kids played multiple sports. And the choir and band were large, too, for a school our size. For choir, we did choreography, so it was a fair bit of exercise. And the band kids marched for hours after school. We worked our lunches off. There were quite a few nights when I rushed between softball practice and a choir rehearsal - I didn't stop moving from the time school let out until I got home at 8 or so. The kids who went to band camp said they worked off several pounds during that week in summer. I don't think as many kids play sports now, and not nearly as many participate in choir or band.
I had a high metabolism when I was young so I could eat as much as my dad but never get to his size. I also had chores which kept me active
I had a job all the way thru high school, that I received credits for.
I gave up sugar over 15 years ago. there's enough in processed foods already. I put honey in my coffee.
... 75 lbs. ago. I don't do any artificial sweeteners either.
I'm wearing the same size levi's I wore in high school now...
Men!
they actually fit better now that I'm not 17 and suffering from 50+ boners per day...
I'm really glad I was finished with my coffee before I read this.
unfortunately the successful resolution rate of that particular problem wasn't represented by a full percentage point during that time period.
Read a book called Sugar Blues once. Have been curtailing my use of sugar ever since.
37 million Americans have diabetes around 10% of the population and diabetes leads to other serious health issues. It's about time that sugar was limited in our schools.
Ron Desantis signs law requiring more sugar in school lunches in 5... 4... 3...
Donuts at every meal!
That's Florida's future right there. Remember that Florida is a sugar producing state.
Donuts are cool as long as they are wrapped in bacon.
there's already too many fat cops...
you're a sick man
I mean that in a nice way...but I don't want bacon on my donuts
it's actually really good. there's a couple shops here that make them.
I'll take your word for it
cake donut, maple syrup frosting, crispy bacon bits on top...
While proper dietary guidelines are important, I can't help but remember back to the Obama era school nutrition programs that called for more fruit and vegetables, whole grains and fat-free or low-fat milk. And over time the USDA changed the guidelines to allow more of the old ways back as it was reported so much of the school lunches were being thrown away uneaten. Are we in for a repeat of that?
You are only remembering 1/2 of the story, the "convenient" half.
Schools that were seeing this happen were largely schools that refused to intellectually invest in the new dietary guidelines, so were serving poorly prepared lunches. Basically they were having untrained people trying to cook restaurant level food. The resulting meals were unpalatable.
Other schools, who embraced the new guidelines, had no such issues.
List the half of US schools who didn't have these issues
the ones that didn't have a cross on the roof...
I don't think the problem is school lunches, I think it's what they eat at home and the sedentary lifestyle kids live today. A kid will not eat food they don't like at school since there is no parent there to force them. School lunches weren't that healthy back when I grew up, the ravioli was basically chef Boyardee, the pizza was like Ellio's plain pizza, we'd have pork pie or Salisbury steak, potatoes and vegetables and pudding or some other desert. The thing that's changed is what kids eat at home, I never ate a chicken nugget or patty, pizza bite, or hot pocket till I was living on my own but kids today are raised on this crap.
I agree with you. They once tried serving turkey tetrazzini at school. It got tossed in the trash. They learned that we would eat pizza and burgers and that's pretty much what we got.
My mom was a good cook and made sure there was always a salad and a vegetable at dinner. I don't think chicken nuggets were invented yet when I was a kid
You're 39?
I think the last school lunch I ever bought cost like 35 or 50 cents.
I wish
I think I spent 75 cents on my last school lunch
cheap date...
According to a Pentagon study 71% of 18 to 24-year-olds are not qualified to join the military. Health reasons and overweight are the largest disqualifiers.
That's terrible. It means that added sugars represent more than 10% of calories right now! And why allow any added sugars at all?
Maybe for the same reason why cooks may add salt to what they are cooking. Some dishes need additional sugar or salt or whatever for taste. It's not as if students are just being given a sugar bowl and a spoon.
Where it can be reduced without negatively impacting the flavor of the food is a good thing but they should not just blindly follow orders.
Some cooks need to learn that salt is seasoning. I learned it the hard way
Will the kids like and eat the meals?
I don't really remember what we had in high school. Lunch time was when we were allowed to go to the smoking area.
I attended Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, NY.
We were not permitted to leave school grounds for lunch so I usually went to a pizzeria a block away for lunch. I always got a medium pizza and a pitcher of beer and sat in a dark corner of the place where I could see the door. One day when I was finishing my pitcher, four teachers came in they split a large pizza and got two pitchers of beer. When I saw that they were all drinking beer, I knew I wouldn't get in trouble for leaving the campus.
I strolled over to their table, beer in hand, and said, "This is the best pizza in Brooklyn." I finished my beer and put the empty mug on their table, "See ya in school..."
I did not get reported.
I hardly ever paid for lunch when I was in high school. I had weed.
traded...
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