"I get plenty, I want to go to sleep as soon as I'm done eating"

Carbs.

Yepperama.

My mothers view of school lunches was junk food. I want y'all to know my mom was an excellent cook (her skill has since escaped her not sure why....but that's another story).

So that's always been my view too and I loved them. I would greedily eat them the rare times I was permitted. However other kids would greedily eat my lunch--which was always much much better than any dinner they received at home.

Because Americans don't know how to cook. Why would a school be responsible for a healthy meal anymore than a fast food restaurant?

I don't understand why a teenage boy would even be expected to eat a school lunch. Someone explain this to me? Or picky eaters?

(My aunt, who was an even greater cook than my mom would make real honest to goodness paella for my lunch on the weekends)

How it works in France:

http://karenlebillon.com/french-school-lunch-menus/

More - video of the five-course meal for 3-year-olds at a public school in Paris:

http://www.wimp.com/schoollunches/

Menu with English translation on right (scroll down) here:

http://cromwell-intl.com/travel/france/school-lunch-menus/

But American kids wouldn't eat that stuff. You can trust and believe they would throw half that stuff away.

Part of the reason they serve such bad lunches is because that is what people eat.

I don't believe for a minute that the average person in Paris has a better diet than the average person in the United States. If they did, their lives would be much more attractive than they always turn out to be.

The Average Person In Paris You Aspire To Be, Amy, may eat very well indeed... But considering the onslaught of Middle Eastern idiots over there....

No.

Besides, do you remember what Lustig said about Michelle? I don't doubt for a minute that her concern was sincere, and if you're going to discount anyone who doesn't have a science degree, there's no reason to listen to you either, Amy.

She was overwhelm by the politics of Big Ag... I don't think it was a heartbreak for her in particular, but I bet she wishes she'd gone with literacy, like Dubya's Mom did... Something politically untouchable.

There is a huge difference between encouraging something and mandating it.

The Obama's as good democrats have always been about applying force to make sure you do what they think is good for you.

Honestly I don't see why we expect the schools to serve lunch. They are in the teaching business, not that they are too successful there. Why not simplify by subcontracting the food service out?

The reason the food is so bad is the students don't have an alternative (it's a monopoly) and to reduce costs they hire anybody off the street to cook. It doesn't matter if they can actually cook or not. So then they buy microwaveable junk that is easy to prepare. Subcontracting to an actual catering group would probably reduce costs and increase quality.

I don't believe for a minute that the average person in Paris has a better diet than the average person in the United States.

Crid, as usual, you don't believe this simply because you don't believe this, not because you've actually observed how Parisians eat or have taken one look at the menus.

Kids in France are expected to eat what's served at the table and are served what the parents are eating. As I wrote in I See Rude People, they have a choice: No, not macaroni and cheese -- "eat or starve."

Lowfat or fat-free crap is starting to show up there, and there is packaged junk food, but French people do something important: For the most part, they don't eschew fat. This means they are satiated after meals in a way we are not.

Michelle started with support for the families of soldiers and personally rejected it because she wanted to do something g more "fun".

School lunches are horrible. Pack a damn lunch, it takes less than 5 minutes! Why is it the government's job to feed the kids nutritious & tasty food instead of you? Personally, the worse the lunches are the better -- if they were all junk food than the kids would eat that instead of the packed lunch. It doesn't all have to be pintarest worthy artfully arranged bento boxes filled with organic homemade paella (no offence Ppen!), and I'm not against putting a couple of cookies in too, or the occasional chocolate milk!

School lunches are like airplane meals. Instead of serving you a sandwich or something simple, filling, and semi-nutritious, they try serve you a gourmet meal and fail miserably.

==============================

I've never understood why school boards insist on handling the food preparation and distribution themselves. Why don't they contract out - like companies with company cafeterias do?

Or have several companies come in and create a food court? Having the places on campus that students escape off campus to eat might keep them on campus.

People should be feeding their own kids. Arguing about what schools feed kids is missing the point.

> not because you've actually observed
> how Parisians eat or have taken one
> look at the menus.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaamy.... This is the schoolgirl fantasy of Paris sophistication wrought to a pathetic new extreme...

You have be there, don't you understand? You have to be wearing a backless '74 Halston with some strappy shoes while sitting at the cafe as the springtime sun sets over the Seine, holding the cigarette backwards between your index finger and thumb, complaining that the text has no meaning. Only THEN can you truly understand the magnificence by which Paris feeds ALL her children such a delicately-balanced MENU(!) of dignified nutrients... You have to take in the culture, the elegance of the museums, the grace of the older women... You have to BE there!

I spent a week in Paris in June and I can't say I noticed significant differences in their food selections versus ours (although you can get a Heineken with a McDonald's value meal according to the menus outside). The breakfast served daily where we stayed was fruit, eggs, cereals, oatmeal, breads and pastries, juices, and sausage links. That's pretty much a normal breakfast assortment for here as well. Other options on restaurant menus for lunches and dinners included a meat, a starchy something like potatoes, rice, or pasta, and veggies. Dessert options as well as appetizers included a fruit and cheese platter and things like that. The only real difference I noticed was nothing was advertised as low fat, vegan, or gluten free. Whether this is a typical daily diet for French people I can't say as we only ate in restaurants and B&B type settings. We did go into a grocery store while there and saw the standard assortments of an American grocery including potato chips and soda, although in smaller packages. What I did notice is how much more expensive food was everywhere, 2-3x more, and that portion sizes were much smaller. The "cheap" food was bread so a cheap option was going into a bakery for lunch and getting a sandwich. As a whole, their eating options were very similar to American style eating from what I observed. Maybe this is a change in revent years? I don't know. I've only been there once.

Several of my closest friends are French. A couple of them currently have jobs here in NYC, and I frequently stay with friends in Paris and the Loire Valley. So I've had some fair opportunities to watch French people eat, at home as well as restaurants. And they all seem to eat bread with every meal. Not even whole grain, for the most part. And the ones I know, at least, eat a sweet of some kind just about every day, which is probably why there are so many splendid pastry shops in France. None of my friends are fat. I'm guessing it's because they don't eat ginormous portions. But it's certainly not because they eat a low carb diet.

Actually, their breakfasts at home generally seem to consist entirely of carbs and coffee.

From my observation, the French do not seem to be a nation of low-carbers. They're a nation that likes butter and lovely cheese with their excellent bread. (And I'm with them all the way.)

The Chinese eat rice. Europeans eat wheat. And Americans (both north and south) eat corn and wheat. We don't really eat these because they are healthy. We eat them because they are cheap. Talk to any serious nutritionist and they will admit eliminating most of these from your diet would probably be healthier. But for the vast majority of people it is unaffordable. Just like the people who want to eliminate modern agriculture or oil production, eliminating carbohydrates would probably involve reducing the population of the planet by 1/3.

"From my observation, the French do not seem to be a nation of low-carbers"

That's what I've been saying all along. Thanks Gail. Asians also don't low carb and are even thinner than the French.

I'm tired of the "you're gonna get fat" line from low carbers.

Personally I think the effects of carbs are negligible for most people. Yes I have read the low carb studies but there are other equally good low calorie studies.

If we are gonna talk about how ancient man used to live and base our diet on that well ancient man used to starve here and there as well.

People are like cars. I can only put high quality fuel in a BMW but if I do that to a Prius it will fuck the car up.

Rice, bread etc. are filler food, your reaction varies.

Something that I've not seen mentioned here....

The metal detectors that are so common at schools now.

Can't take a lunchbox in. Knife, even plastic? Right out. Forks are iffy.

Where do you keep your lunch? No place to store it. So you have to have something cold to keep it cold - and maybe there's some place to heat it up. (more likely not.)

So, sandwiches. Chips. Carbs, even if you're bringing in outside food.

And that's presuming the school lets the kids bring 'em in. My old Battlestar Galactica lunchbox surely wouldn't pass muster these days.

I feel for the school lunch system in this, I really do. I know too many people in it who are getting crunched between impossible demands and low funding.

"People who haven't seen me for a number of years have been commenting on my skin." You do have very nice skin. But I have to note -- I'm your age, and so do I. Make-up artists, photographers, and dermatologists have complimented me on it. And I eat carbs. As an athletic type, I eat lots of 'em (though very little sugar or processed stuff). I eat fat, too -- I won't eat low-fat anything -- but I definitely don't stint on the carbs. The French diet, c'est moi.

I've used sunscreen every day since I was 20, and I generally wear a hat, too. I credit that, genetics, and my excellent health for my great skin. (Which, yes, I'm vain about.)

I'm with PPen that different diets may well suit different people. I have a friend who seems to do very nicely on a low-carb diet. I have another who's been a vegetarian for the last fifteen years. They both seem to be healthy, so though I don't intend to follow either of their diets, I say power to them.

Sunscreen.

It was for Gail (sniff)

That's really cool, Crid! Especially the part where the sunscreen shows up black in the light.

I'm sending that link immediately to a friend of mine who still tans (she even goes to tanning booths in the winter -- ack!).

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/09/15/lack-of-sunshine-causes-600-000-cancers-a-year.aspx#!

I haven't gone all in on the sunblock craze. Pretty fair skinned myself. I am a light brunette with a red headed mother who inherited her skin tone.

I usually wear a hat and a long sleeved shirt if I am going to be in the sun for a few hours, but don't bother for short exposures because I fear skin cancer a lot less than those deadly internal cancers.

If it is simply too not for long sleeves, I will put sunblock on my neck and arms after about an hour of exposure.

I don't take such great pride in my skin (or anything else about my looks) that I am willing to die for it.