The Trump administration is rolling back school-lunch guidelines enacted by the Obama administration, allowing more processed foods, salt and sugar.
Starting in July, cafeterias will be allowed to serve 1% chocolate and flavored milks, instead of just skim varieties. They are no longer required to make lunches “whole grain rich,” and can serve less nutritious and less filling refined grains instead. The limit on sodium in lunches has also been increased by 300 milligrams.
More than half of today’s schoolchildren are on track to be obese by age 35, Harvard researchers found.
Because of that, former First Lady Michelle Obama spearheaded the effort to make school lunches healthier. At first, kids balked at unfamiliar whole grains and skim milk. But by 2013, studies showed that students were eating more fiber and less artery-clogging saturated fat. And a study the next year showed they were eating 15 percent more fruits and vegetables.
This week, a group called the School Nutrition Association praised Trump’s relaxation of those nutritional requirements. But as the Los Angeles Times points out, the School Nutrition Association isn’t a consortium of concerned parents and nutritionists — it’s a lobbying group that represents some of the country’s biggest purveyors of junk food and processed goods, including Domino’s Pizza, PepsiCo, Kellogg’s and Kraft Heinz Co.
“School nutrition professionals have made tremendous progress in improving student diets, but the pace and degree of menu changes under updated nutrition standards were more than some students would accept,” said Gay Anderson, president of the School Nutrition Association, in a statement. She thanked Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue “for finding solutions to address the concerns of schools and students. This rule will entice more students to eat healthy school meals.”
Perdue said the Agriculture Department “is committed to serving meals to kids that are both nutritious and satisfying. These common-sense flexibilities provide excellent customer service to our local school nutrition professionals while giving children the world-class food service they deserve,” he said.
Margo Wootan, vice president of nutrition for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told the LA Times that food manufacturers are just out to make more money by selling high-calorie, high-sodium foods to schools. “It’s cheaper and easier to sell processed foods,” she said. “This action by the Trump administration is a deregulatory agenda being applied on behalf of businesses to something that didn’t need to be fixed.”
American children consume about 3,300 milligrams of sodium daily, far above the recommended 2,300 mg, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Excess sodium can cause high blood pressure and heart disease. Roughly one-third of U.S. kids are currently overweight or obese.
