Military leaders push for healthier food at school

It's a shame that the military has to push for better food and nutrition in school lunches. Chicken nuggets, donuts, and fruit jello are not a nutritious meal. At the school where my son attended middle school there was only a tiny portion of what was really needed to provide lunch for all the students who bought lunch. Many times the school would run out of food completely and the last students in line would get peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. IMO, $2.50 for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, some celery sticks, bag of milk, and a cookie in 1997 was a total rip-off.

My kids and I volunteer at a race track selling concessions.
Recruiters are always out there.
The kids that go to the recruiters booth are 20-50 lbs over weight.
Boot camp is 6 weeks. With this group of kids it will be 6 months.
We have become the frog in the pot.
Sad sad sad.

When I occasionally run into young men in town I'm always shocked by how overweight they are (for the most part). The ones who aren't out and out FAT usually have a paunch or just a load of extra babyfat hanging off them. These are teenage boys, typically.

I don't fully comprehend how these guys are less fit and trim than me when I'm pushing 40. When I was their age I was a beanpole and I couldn't stop eating. I ate everything I laid hands on. Heck, I STILL do.

The other thing I notice is in convenience stores, how many of these youngsters I see buying energy drinks, pills, etc. Energy comes from food! How can you be fat AND not have any energy?

It's all about advertising and nothing about education. We're living in a penalistic society today. Lets just create more government rules about what we can/cannot do rather than teach about nutrition, etc.

More rules - NO MORE SALT -OK what about the iodine put in salt to prevent goiters? This government is so short sighted. Yes, less salt is good, but sheesh - we already have labels - just teach people about personal responsibility & to read.

Oh, we can't do that - they can't take responsibility for themselves - We need to do this because we passed a horrendously expensive healthcare bill & are realizing that we need healthy people to pay for it....

Remember the old adage: Give a man a fish, you've fed him today - teach a man to fish and you've fed him for life".

Folks - if you don't understand that this is more social engineering, I really feel for you.

:grit: