No, Thanks! to Michelle Obama’s ‘Nutritious’ School Breakfasts
A colleague sent me the article “On What Planet is Michelle Obama Breakfast Considered Healthy?” [1] and, as a retired consulting natural nutritionist in physicians’ offices and private practice, I wanted to throw up! Here’s the photograph of the supposed breakfast served to a high schooler in Lubbock, Texas, as posted on a Facebook page:
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Nutritionally speaking, it looks like something you would pick up after taking your dog for a walk. Not only that, there is very little nutritional content, either in quantity or quality, for a high school kid to start his/her day. Now, I’d like to offer my analysis of the ‘breakfast’, so here goes:
- Not balanced!
- Too many starches, which will play havoc with blood sugar levels: corn tortilla*, 3 tater tots, which can be a mixture of many ingredients [potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, cottonseed*, soybean*, and/or canola*), salt, yellow corn flour*, onions, dextrose (sugar [2]), disodium dihydrogen pyrophosphate [3], natural flavoring*]. *probable GM ingredients
- Bacon bits ingredients, which basically are highly processed, chemicalized and probable GM starches that could impact a student’s ability negatively to concentrate; experience blood sugar metabolism problems—even exacerbate juvenile diabetes; plus hype up any ADD/ADHD tendencies; cause allergic reactions, indigestion or digestive/bowel distress.
- This ‘breakfast’ is nothing short of unmitigated junk food, in my professional opinion, which should not be served as a ‘nutritious’ meal—or even as a snack—under any circumstances to anyone, especially a growing child who needs all the viable nutrition he/she can eat during the course of a day.
- If corn (grain) and soy (legume) are being considered complementary proteins, they certainly aren’t ‘packaged’ and presented in either an appetizing or nutritious manner, i.e., highly processed and chemicalized.
- No: fruit—apple, applesauce, baby banana, or fruit cup, quality fiber, nuts or seeds.
- No: milk, yogurt, or milk (almond, etc.) or yogurt (soy, almond, etc.) substitutes [4].
- No whole grains such as those found in granola cereal or granola bars.
Here’s my idea of a nutritious breakfast for high school kids, which can be modified to include variety:
A. Serving of fresh fruit, fruit cup, or applesauce cup
B. Whole grain Granola bar
C. Protein offering of: Hard cooked egg, dairy or non-dairy yogurt cup
D. Side of raisins, sunflower seeds
E. Serving of milk or non-dairy milk substitute
Students should be encouraged to take raisins and sunflower seeds with them to eat as snacks later in the day. Additionally, the school food staff could make in-house, an inexpensive “Trail Mix” that could be added to the breakfast and luncheon menus.
It truly is a shame that the USA can’t provide nutrient-rich food for children in schools.
References:
[1] http://investmentwatchblog.com/on-what-planet-is-michelle-obama-breakfast-considered-healthy/
[2] https://google.com/article/274155-what-is-dextrose-in-food/
[3] http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/What-Disodium-Dihydrogen-Pyrophosphate-8186784
[4] http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2014/08/milk-substitutes-should-you-sip-or-skip/index.htm
Image Credit
Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.
Catherine’s latest book, published October 4, 2013, is Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Don’t Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com.
Her 2012 book A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.
Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008)
