Healthy Kids Act and Asparagus

I decided to find out what happened with the House bill that I reported about (on May 27). This bill would allow schools to opt out of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 if they showed continued loss in school lunch sales.

In a meeting at the white house this past Wednesday, Michelle Obama told reporters, “Of course it’s hard” to wean students off pizza, French fries and other high-fat, high-sodium foods that had been staples of school lunches. She added. “We expected those challenges, particularly among our oldest kids, who’ve grown up eating junk food.”  That’s what I said – is she reading my blog? 🙂

The Agriculture Department contends that even though kids are throwing away some of the healthier foods from their school lunch, they are starting to eat more fruits and vegetables.^[1] They may not be eating any fruits or vegetables at home (yet) so at least it’s a start. Obama also said that the administration is looking for ways to reinstitute cooking classes in school because children now eat out so often that they grow up not knowing how to cook.

We can also reinstitute cooking classes at home, right? Here’s my son making one of his favorites — asparagus, and doing his Emeril imitation (except he isn’t old enough to remember watching Emeril and I don’t watch TV enough to know any of the current chefs). These were very thick asparagus and he wanted to cook them for 15 minutes.