[Chicago Sandy]

Why is this any more outrageous than declaring ketchup a vegetable for the purpose of nutritionally-balanced school lunches? (That was done under an Admin. of the opposite party). Look, it has NOTHING to do with politics, but everything to do with flailing about aimlessly in an attempt to address the latest health and nutrition news. (Remember when dietary fat, especially all saturated fats, were instruments of the Apocalypse)? The First Lady is on the right track in encouraging schools to have kids plant veggie gardens and to have more produce and less processed stuff in school lunches, but the above kind of overreaction happens at the local level--which, as was pointed out a couple of posts earlier, consists of school boards; local school boards are usually elected by--and many are comprised of--parents.

I know at some schools kids aren't allowed to bring cupcakes or a birthday cake to celebrate their birthdays. And the daily cookie-and-mini-carton of whole milk of our youth has long given way to skim milk and fruit (and if the kids wanna live really dangerously, 100% whole wheat graham crackers sweetened only with honey). Some preschools have gone from requiring snack-parents provide only 100% fruit juice to allowing only bottled water, because most fruit juices are liquid sugar. The daily cookie and occasional baked treat isn't the villain--it's the candy and soda machines, or the candy, fast food and snack cakes the kids buy on the way home (or their parents buy for them and give them free access). Time to put the onus back where it belongs......if parents don't bring the stuff into the house or don't teach moderation in consuming it (or so emphasize its "treat" value that it becomes insanely tempting), the kids aren't going to want it, much less eat undue amounts of it. And most powerfully of all, if the parents themselves eschew (rather than chew) the stuff their kids will emulate them.