My four-year-old daughter Alana will be packing bread in her lunchbox tomorrow when she goes to preschool. No, we haven’t gone over to the dark side, and no, she didn’t ask for it. But she did bring home a note this afternoon that reads as follows:
Dear Parents:
Our STARS assessment is coming up. As you might recall, a Meals Guidelines paper was included in your packet of information at the beginning of this school year. Whether fairly or not, we are evaluated and rated on the lunches that you send in for your children.
Each child MUST have 3/4 cup of milk, whether they drink it or not.
Each child MUST have two servings of fruits or vegetables:
100% fruit juice counts as one serving
Fruit cup or applesauce counts as one serving
Raisins count as one IF they equal 1/2 cup
Carrots count
Celery counts
Potato chips don’t count (nor do other chips)
Salad with dressing works also – but remember the fork!
Each child MUST have one serving of grain or bread:
1/2 slice of bread
1/4 cup of dry cereal
1/4 cup of pasta, noodles or grain
Peanut butter crackers
Each child MUST have one serving of meat or meat alternative:
1 1/2 oz. of meat or poultry
1 1/2 oz. of cheese
3/4 egg or 3/8 cup of cooked dry beans or peas
3/4 oz. of nuts and/or seeds
6 oz. of yogurt
3 tablespoons of peanut butter or other nut or seed butter
For snack time, please pack components from two of the four categories.
Alana attends preschool at a Methodist church in downtown Franklin. It’s a private preschool, but evaluated by the state — which I’m guessing receives its marching orders from the federal government. Perhaps it’s part of the No Child Left Without Grain program, or the No Parent Trusted to Make Proper Dietary Decisions Act.
Either way, the evaluation process is simultaneously laughable and appalling. We’re actually going to have officials visiting the school to make sure every child is packing a government-approved lunch. Why? What is the rationale here? We’re not talking about a lunch prepared and served by the school; this is an evaluation of the lunches sent to school by parents. So apparently, the school is being judged on how well they’ve convined us to substitute the government’s dietary wisdom for our own.
That’s bad enough. But worse, I could ensure that my daughter passes inspection by spreading three tablespoons of peanut butter on a slice of white bread and adding a box of fruit juice and a half-cup of raisins. (Better not forget the milk, though.) Yup … I could make the state happy by giving Alana a lunch guaranteed to send her blood sugar on a roller-coaster ride.
Conversely, I could screw up the school’s rankings by packing a lunch I believe is good for her … say, some meat and cheese and nuts, but no bread or fruit juice – in other words, the kind of lunch she usually eats. I’m not comfortable having that kind of power. Skip the carbs entirely, and I may inadvertently shut down the whole school.
When I first read the guidelines — shortly after my wife finished shaking her head and handed them to me — I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if we sent Alana to school with a salad but no fork. I picture some state official realizing there’s no fork in the bag, then banging the heels of her boots together to spring a poison blade from one of the boot-tips and kicking a teacher while screaming, “Zere ees no fork vit dis salad! Zis child has no intention of eating her green leafy vegetables! You are attempting to circumvent zee guidelines!”
The groupings are simply laughable. How exactly did fruits and vegetables all get lumped together? Do the government nutrition nannys really believe celery and bananas provide anything close to the same nutrients and macronutrients? Celery is nearly all water and fiber. A medium banana, on the other hand, contains more than 100 calories, mostly from sugar.
Or let’s look at the “meat” group. Sliced turkey breast is nearly all protein. Cheese is mostly fat with some protein. Peas provide a little bit of protein but are mostly starch. The typical yogurt cups you’ll find in the grocery store are mostly sugar. Yet all them count as “meat” in the evaluation.
I’m tempted to send to her school with a couple of celery stalks, a quarter-cup of dried noodles, three-quarters of an egg and big thermos of chocolate milk, just to see what would happen. I’m even more tempted to write up a list of 95 reasons these nutrition guidelines are hogwash and nail the document to the church door.
But of course, the church is just doing what they’ve been ordered to do by the government nutrition nannys. So my wife will dutifully prepare Alana a lunchmeat sandwich and toss in the required fruits and vegetables, and the school will pass the all-important evaluation. And then Alana will go back to eating the kind of lunch she prefers, at least until the next evaluation day. I suspect the other parents will be doing the same.
Your tax dollars at work. Ain’t it a beautiful sight to see?
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That’s an interesting (but infuriating) story, Tom… reminds me of my situation whereby I have to answer questions completely wrongly to get through the assessments on my nutrition and heart disease courses..
I know if I tell the truth I’ll be failed!!
Sad but true. People have sent me quotes from the textbooks.
I’m all for the going Martin Luther on the church of accepted advice for eating well. I laughed pretty hard at visualising the fork scene too.
Overall though, this article put me in a bad mood (must be all that butter and lack of sugar).
Now there’s a street term I could get behind … “Hey, don’t make me go all Martin Luther on your @##!!”
Oh jeez… This big brother stuff is getting ugly!
This protocol might be ok or slightly better than most kids touting lunches full of Lunchables, Hi-C/Caprisun, Fruit Snacks and a Twix, but forcing it on everyone?
Pack her two lunches and give her instructions to toss the soybean infested fructose sack promptly into the garbage like a dead rotting rat after inspection.
That’s exactly what’s wrong with it; they’re assuming the state has a right and duty to dictate dietary choices. They don’t, even if their advice is correct … which it clearly isn’t.
I can’t even believe this is real, and it’s incredibly sad that my first thought when I read this: “Each child MUST have one serving of meat or meat alternative” was, “At least they didn’t ban that evil artery clogging meat and cheese.”
I believe that probably starts when they reach 2nd grade or so.
The open definition of the “meat” category is witness to the politically correct thinking of the last decades – it’s OK raise your kids as vegetarians and skip the meat (replace it with beans or sugar-loaded yoghurt) but it’s not OK to skip the grains. It’s all about politics and beliefs and much less about science.
You’ve got that right. You MUST include grain? Sounds like the grain lobby wrote that one.
As soon as I get my chin off the floor I will be able to comment. Unbelieveable!
“Cheese is mostly fat with some protein.”
Not the skim milk cheese sticks the govt wants you to eat. And don’t dare send raw milk cheese to the school. They would have to decontaminate the whole site at tremendous expense to the taxpayers.
Yikes, that’s true! We buy raw-milk cheese.
To use Dr. Eades’ favorite phrase: “Jesus wept.”
I can understand the lack of rebellion over the huge issues that are likely to get people shot, but where the heck is the outrage and refusal to obey ridiculous petty dictates like this?
It’s all about keeping the state certification.
I think I’d pack her usual and add a nutritional analysis (micronutrient content) of what she has compared with a nutritional analysis of the average government approved lunch and a signed statement that you have a religious objection to providing your child with an inadequate meal to satisfy government guidelines designed solely to promote the agriculture industry.
I’m pretty sure their heads would explode if they had to read an analysis.
This makes me so flaming mad! I understand their rational for this “evaluation”. I’ve seen some pretty poor lunch choices in elementary school.
At least you get to send your daughters with lunch. My children do not have choice and must eat the prepared school lunches every day. It’s so ridiculous! My 11 yr old son, who eats like a man, gets 1 meatball the size of a golfball when they have meatball stew. But he gets a whole plate full of white rice. The protein is never enough. When he had football practice afterschool, he would be FAMISHED when he got home. I’ve never seen such hunger except when I was nursing LOL.
This is only the beginning. When the healthcare bill is finalized, we’ll be told what we can and cannot eat. I’ll sure miss whole cream and red meat.
He literally can’t bring a lunch? Wow.
That’s terrible. I’m sure the requirement written up by somebody in government looks very heart-warming. Probably something along the lines of ensuring a healthy mind and body to enable our children to thrive in school. And who would want to be against that?
Of course. They always give these power-grabs lovely names … usually “reform” is in there somewhere.
I had the commie voice going through my head too, comrade. Hey, whatever the government has to do keep the economy going – what would we do with all that bread and stuff?
I’ve been a little lax on commenting but I’ve been reading. Congrats on the results from the 6-week cure.
Thanks.
I’m even more tempted to write up a list of 95 reasons these nutrition guidelines are hogwash and nail the document to the church door.
Do It!
And in the meantime, there are low-carb substitutes that the school will never figure out aren’t really “bread”, Lisa at the 24/7 Low Carb Diner had several good alternatives.
I dunno … the state may have special bread-sniffing dogs to detect the fake grains.
Tom,
On, man. CARBS! Why not just make the kids carry a half pound of granulated sugar in a zip-lock bag along with a piece of meat? Take this as a warning of what’s in store for us when Health Care passes!
Thanks so much for your recommendation of Whole Foods the other day. I’ve found another great resource for connecting with local free-farmers in the USA: http://www.eatwild.com
Just passing it forward.
Paul
Good resource; thanks for the link. I just checked the directory, and yes, the farm where we bought our meat is listed.
Resist.
Resistance is futile.
Wow. I’m so glad the government is so worried about what we parents are feeding our kids. Maybe they will help us decide how to dress them next, because I’m just not sure I’m capable of that. I’m sure I’ve been failing miserably in the last 13 years that I’ve been a parent. Just what would we do without their help and guidance? It gives me such a warm feeling to know they are involved… wait – maybe that warm feeling is from all the government cow patties we keep wading through…
No, it’s global warming caused by cows who make the patties …
My advice would be to claim you’re a vegetarian and go for the whole “meat is murder” angle. You know, picket in front of the school, throw blood on the principal, have your wife run nude through your daughter’s classroom to help gain awareness. Then after you get the exception, feed your kids whatever you like. Another idea would be to go the religious route. Tell them your kids are strict kosher. They’re so strict, they can’t have carbs and meat at the same time. I know it ridiculous, but who’s going to argue? Most Jews I know don’t know all the laws.
But remember one thing: do NOT try to use your brain and reason with them. They’re impervious to truth.
My wife’s half-Jewish so I suppose we could try the religious angle; but then we’d have to explain why our daughter is in a Methodist preschool.
Tom, check your calendar wherever you are, this has to be an April fools’ joke.
Are you permitted to send more than the requisite servings? 1.5 oz of meat is, I think, about one slice of deli ham. Wouldn’t want your daughter to get fat or ruin the environment with a couple more slices of meat, or god forbid an entire chicken thigh. You know it doesn’t say anything about how much fat you can send, which is crazy. You could put a stick of butter in there and it would be fine.
I looked. It’s still November.
Send her in with a copy of your DVD.
That would be fun. I wonder if she’d be accused of smuggling propaganda?
Yvonne Sanders-Butler’s kids are doing just fine on mostly bread, fruit, and vegetables.
http://www.healthykidssmartkids.com/
I like Dr. Ron Rosedale’s answer when someone asked him about different diets. He said if you mention pretty much any diet besides the SAD diet we eat now and ask if it’s better, the answer is probably yes. But is it optimal? That’s a different question.
One day I was actually thankful for my child’s food allergies. He goes to a PPCD class(preschool special ed class throught the public school system). I send breakfast and lunch for him to eat at school. One day, for breakfast, there was his preschool class eating glazed donuts served to them by the school cafeteria. Stuff like this shows up regularly on the school menu, along with lots of other white flour products. If I have to show a reason why he can’t eat from the state approved school lunch, shouldn’t the state be explaining this to us as well?
Exactly. With celiac and lactose intolerance, they have no business requiring everything on the list.
On the brighter side, at least potato chips aren’t considered a vegetable. But most of it just makes my head want to explode! What about kids who are lactose intolerant? Why 3/4 of an egg? Peanut butter crackers? And how much sugar is in a half cup of raisins? What about whole fresh fruits getting a nod? Milk and yogurt? Measuring out 3/4 oz. of nuts? On and on and on…
Really, though, it’s a politically correct (i.e., vegetarian) four food groups that I remember from grade school. (A half slice of Ezekiel bread (sprouted grain) is a pretty good choice for the grain category. Alana could always feed it to the birds or share it with other wildlife at recess.)
She’ll probably just eat the sandwich. She doesn’t beg for bread, but she’ll eat it. We just don’t usually serve the stuff.
What if your kid has lactose intolerance? Or Celiac disease? Or any other kind of allergy to food, I’m relieved this was a private religious school. If it was a public school I would be down there fighting mad!
Well, they’re doing this to satisfy the state. I believe there’s a bit of a wink and a nod going on between the school and the parents.
http://wondermark.com/567/
Nice cartoon; captures the governmet mentality perfectly.
I commend you for having a level head. The fight is not with the school and certainly not your daughter. To put both of them through some act of defiance would be embarrassing to both of them.
Exactly. Better just to laugh at the nonsense.
On a sort of related note: I went to a small Catholic school growing up. They mixed their government peanut butter with (government?) butter when they served PB&J sandwiches at lunch, and wow, was that good. (The government peanut butter was so thick it was virtually unspreadable, so that’s how they improved the texture.)
I can’t imagine any government nutrition expert approving such a combination now. Thank goodness I can eat as much butter as I want now.
I used to do the same thing; I’d even warm the butter first so it would thin the peanut butter.
My wife works for a public school district in food service. We have a standing agreement to never discuss nutrition or gov’t regulations because it upsets me so much that I nearly have a heart attack. This is the kind of crap that is all too prevalent in our nation’s school systems today.
That being said I have a couple of comments. Can you just pack the same lunch every day, that she won’t eat, but will satisfy the gov’t requirements? Do they care if the food is spoiled, or the milk expired, as long as they are ‘carrying it to school’?
Secondly, here in the state of ILLinois, I think taking a fork to school may be considered to be ‘packing a weapon’. That could subject the student to a range of sanctions from full body-cavity searches up to death by firing squad. i’m only kidding about the penalties, most times its ‘just’ a mandatory expulsion hat affets the kid’s grades, but I’ve heard various school districts that DO consider any kind of silverware (including spoons) to be weapons!
to paraphrase a well known public do-gooder – This country needs an enema!
I hadn’t thought about the possiblity of four-year-olds weilding forks as weapons. Best keep quiet about this one.
I would pack my childs lunch with the kind of low carb food she wants and if tey say anything just threaten a lawsuit on religious grounds. Freedom is being eroded every day. Until we stand up and say hell no, this will continue until we are forced to be vegans. Thats when I slaughter a 2000 pound bull on the front lawn of the White House and start cooking….
Now’s that’s a barbeque I’d like to attend.
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20091117/US.MED.Mummies.Heart.Disease/
Hi Tom,
I have been reading your blogs-and have been trying to control carbs in our family diet-making good meal and snack choices. Anyway, I just saw this article and didn’t know where to post it. See link above. This mummy would sure be interested in your take on this!
I notice they had to go and blame the heart disease on meat. Sheesh. The Egyptians were major grain-eaters.
Hey, that’s appalling.
You could soak the grain or sprout the bread to be really bad-ass.
I’m thinking we’ll just toss some macaroni in the bag.
If you don’t want to ruin the school’s certification, but still want to raise awareness with the staff, you could keep your child home the day of the inspection, and send a note with her explaining why, when she returns the following day.
We prefer to laugh it off. The women who run the school at the church are very nice and very good with the kids. I don’t expect them to fight the state. Alana’s teacher already knows what our dietary preferences are. She even asked if it’s okay for Alana to have a cookie if other kids bring them for special occasions. We said yes, it’s okay. If she wants it, she can have it. But she’s pretty good about limiting herself.
I’m just glad that I pack my son’s lunch every day. I’ve walked through the school cafeteria and seen what passes for breakfast… hmm, let’s see, some low fat cereal, skim milk, bananas and orange slices. Would you like some sugar with your sugar?
The school is also very proud of their low fat pizza for lunch. *eye roll*
Also, my husband and I were finally able to watch Fat Head. I really enjoyed it and it explained a lot more than I thought it would, in very simple terms.
Plus, your shooing locations were familiar. We live in Burbank.
We pack both girls’ lunches for the same reason. Ahh, Burbank. Nice town. It was the state we decided to leave.
Better send 1/2 cup of cocoa krispies. I hear that stuff is PACKED with immunity. It probably even goes in the fruit/veggies category…
That’s right … double duty.
And these are the same people who want to take over health care? Jeez, what could possibly go wrong.
You’re reading my mind. Wait until they “harmonize” treatments.
I am astonish and appalled. This is a great reason to home school your kids.. to save their health and well being from being destroyed by the USDA.
They eat well most of the time, fortunately. (Heck, even I cheat once in a while.)
Frankly, I’d tell them: I decide what my child eats. If you don’t like it, I’ll keep my child home on your evaluation days, but I will not feed them poisons like grains. That’s not negotiable.
“Well, they’re doing this to satisfy the state. I believe there’s a bit of a wink and a nod going on between the school and the parents.”
ARGH. I live in the same state as you. Thank goodness my babies are 21 and 17. Tom I do admire you for how you are raising your children with less sugar and carbage. I wish I would have known what I know now when my kids were young.
I’m glad I’m raising them now and not 20 years ago. I wouldn’t have known better.
Another good reason to not take anything from the government. They start making you follow their rules so you can get their money.
True enough.
Not just “their money”. You actually just get part of your own money back in this way. The method is so simple it’s laughably evil: take from everyone, then buy just enough consent back using part of the loot.
And there’s no net winners outside of government, either, because prices adjust back and spread the misery more or less evenly. It’s like perverted lottery where everyone is guaranteed to either win up to half their antes, or nothing at all.
True … but of course, they consider it ALL to be “their money.”
Big brother is just getting bigger. I’ve heard of this kind of stuff happening in the UK and now, sadly, it’s creeping into the USA. It’s especially bad to see this happen at a private school, but it’s the state, not the school, that’s the problem.
How we eat is none of the government’s %^%#@( business. The government should get out of the nutrition business and many other things — we’d all be better off.
Placating the state for one day is a good way to handle it. At least it won’t happen every day and she can go back to eating the way she usually does.
Yes, it’s a matter of picking the battleground. The guidelines are nonsense, but I’m not going to put Alana in the middle of a fight when we can just ignore the guidelines every other day of the year. Now, if they ordered all the kids to get an H1N1 vaccine, then I’d fight ‘em.
That makes my blood boil just reading it. I’m not sure I would be able to muster the self-restraint necessary to violate my passionate values in order to ensure government funding.
After recently watching your well-documented, well-presented documentary, it only further solidified my existing beliefs about nutrition and health. It even caused my husband to make some drastic changes to his diet overnight (even though I’ve been eating low carb for years and trying to convince him of the dangers of refined sugars and processed starches — it took your movie to FINALLY convince him).
I feel compelled to spread your message and educate the American public–actually, the world. We have been lied to for so long that it’s going to be challenging to undo the damage that’s already been done. But, it must be done if we are to turn around this nation’s health.
Thank you for all you have done and continued to do.
Glad your husband saw the light.
Actually, with the addition of a milk box (she usually drinks water), my daughter’s lunch would pass their scrutiny — she took half a cup of broccoli, a similar amount of sliced strawberries, 2oz of cubed ham, a 1oz piece of cheddar, and 8 crackers. The crackers were NutThins, so they’re actually made of almond flour and not a grain product, but I bet they’d sail under the radar just fine. My son’s, on the other hand — he only had a full cup of broccoli and 6 oz of roast beef, so he’s missing a lot of “essential” “food” groups. I’m sure it’s just coincidence, or one of those “paradoxes” we keep hearing about, that he eats like this and manages to do better in school than he used to on whole-wheat bread and fat-free fillings.
Haven’t heard of NutThins. Are those available at grocery stores?
Rosedale, however, is one of the greatest low-carb buffoons. He actually believes it’s healthy to have a low metabolism, and cites that his diet lowers the metabolism very effectively.
Too bad lowering the metabolism raises blood sugars and fosters low-grade infections – the two greatest causes of inflammation and therefore degenerative disease. You think Rosedale would have noted, considering his laserlike focus on glycation, that the story of blood glucose is far more complex than “don’t eat carbs.” You won’t find a single low-carb dieter with A1C tests as low as the Kitavans, who eat potatoes like candy.
I’m not a Kitavan. Maybe they can live on potatoes, but I can’t. I’m also not Asian. Maybe they can live on rice, but I can’t. I did, in fact, used to live on potatoes, rice and pasta, and I was fat, arthritic, and showing signs of pre-diabetes. None of that was due to sugar, because I knew sugar was bad and didn’t consume it — none. No soda, no cupcakes, no donuts, nothing. It also wasn’t due to alcohol, because most of the weight gain and other issues cropped up during a stretch of three years in which I didn’t drink at all.
My metabolism certainly hasn’t slowed since I cut the carbs, and when I’ve checked my blood sugar on occasion, it’s pretty much always in the 80-90 range, so this diet clearly isn’t raising it.
So given my personal experiences, you’ll understand if I’m not swayed by what happens to ethnic populations eating their traditional diet halfway around the world. Their experiences don’t match mine, and don’t apply to me.
By the same token, I don’t believe everyone could live on whale blubber and seal meat, like the Inuits. Some people say they feel awful on all-meat diets, and I believe them. The trick is to experiment and find the diet that fits with your DNA. Potatoes and rice don’t fit with mine.
Good rant Tom. (the answer to Matt). There’s also a point that’s important and that is part of the “french paradox”. In France (and other latin countries) we have 1 component of nutrition that is sorely lacking in the US (and other protestant countries like England, Holland, northern Germany etc.) and it’s the notion of pleasure. Every meal is a feast (or so it should be), you should look at the statistics of the percentage of budget that is dedicated to food in France, compared to others. I grew up on the border of France and Germany in a blue collar environment: the Germans (even workers) drove Mercedes and BMW but ate margarine, the French drove Citroën 2CV, Renault 4 and 5 but ate beef steaks (the famous bifteck, frites, salades) every day: not the same priorities, I tell you.
Sorry, if my post appears a bit unfocused (I just feasted on a good Choucroute garnie with a fine alsacian Riesling) and wanted to thank you again for your fantastic movie. It’s really a pity that only few people here understand English well enough to appreciate your work).
That’s something Dr. Kendrick pointed out: the French relax during their meals and enjoy the food.
Fat Head was recently aired on French TV, in French, from what I’m told. Any word from your part of the world?
Fat Head was recently aired on French TV, in French, from what I’m told. Any word from your part of the world?
Oh on what channel? I missed it totally and haven’t heard of it. This said, I’m not that ‘au fait’ on what goes on on TV as I watch only very little.
I’ll try to find out. I’ve received a couple of YouTube and Facebook messages already from people who watched it in France. I knew our distributor sold some TV rights there, but I thought it wasn’t airing until December. A guy doing the subtitles for the songs requested copies of the lyrics awhile back, and also told me it was being dubbed, with a French actor doing my part. I’d love to hear that. I might finally sound sexy.
So given my personal experiences, you’ll understand if I’m not swayed by what happens to ethnic populations eating their traditional diet halfway around the world. Their experiences don’t match mine, and don’t apply to me.
By the same token, I don’t believe everyone could live on whale blubber and seal meat, like the Inuits. Some people say they feel awful on all-meat diets, and I believe them. The trick is to experiment and find the diet that fits with your DNA. Potatoes and rice don’t fit with mine.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m living with a friend, a 95-year-old gentleman, who lives for chocolate (and does live on jelly beans when the Easter season rolls around). He eats oats and bread and rice with abandon. Yes, he does get in his protein and vegetables, but his diet has a lot of carbs. His blood sugar and blood pressure are fine. He is still socially and mentally active and my grandchildren claim he has a computer chip of the entire Encylopedia Brittanica and Oxford Dictionary in his brain. If I ate what he does, I’d be diabetic and weigh 500 lbs. And I wonder if ethnic populations eating their native diets have simply not yet destroyed their metabolisms by consuming HFCS and trans fat.
Individual differences have a lot to do with it. In Gardner’s study, he found that insulin-resistant people did much better on the Atkins diet than on the Ornish diet, both for weight loss and health markers. The Ornish diet is lots of rice and vegetables with no sugar, so we can’t blame sugar or processed carbs for the difference. I’m sure there were also people in that study who did very well on the Ornish diet, but when I tried it (Pritikin diet, same thing) I felt awful.
But of course, I’ll take rice and potatoes before corn syrup and trans fats any old day. I suspect plenty of people would do just fine with a higher-carb diet if they got rid of the true junk, like HCFS, frankenstein fats and sugar.
Wow! I am blown away – next thing you know they’ll be following her home to make sure you’re feeding her “properly” for dinner as well. Simply Outrageous!!!
Don’t give them any ideas.
Haven’t heard of NutThins. Are those available at grocery stores?
Yes, they are; they’re made by Blue Diamond, and you may have to poke around to see where a particular store has them — one of the ones I shop regularly keeps them with other crackers, and the other keeps them in the same section with organic foods and gluten free stuff. I first heard about them from Dr. Mike Eades’ blog, so my impression is that their distribution is pretty wide.
I actually misspoke regarding their grain-free nature: they contain rice, which is of course a grain. But they don’t contain wheat or gluten, and I find rice less problematic. They’re a good thing to slot into that “I want something that crunches” or “I need something to spread this semi-soft cheese on” culinary role.
Sheesh, what, are they going to come into the corporate world next, mandate what adults eat for lunch?
I have to wonder what would happen if you were to give your daughter her normal lunch- would the school actually get in trouble?
We didn’t want to put the school in a bind. They’re good folks.
Mandating what adults eat for lunch in a corporate environment? Naw, they’d never try it. That would be like telling private companies how much they can pay their CEOs … hey, wait …
I agree with the previous commenter re: health care. That’s the first thing I thought of when I read your post. If the health care “reform” bill passes there is no limit to what the government can force us to do in the name of controlling health care costs. The centerpiece of the House bill is that everyone is forced to buy insurance merely because they live in America. Never before has anyone been forced to buy any product or service as a condition to breathe in this country. (Of course mandatory insurance is necessary for the insurance companies to go along with the other mandate–no more underwriting based on pre existing conditions. Gotta get all the young healthy people in to subsidize atllthe older sicker people.) I’m amazed that the whole country is not outraged by this.
The mandate should of course be unconstitutional. Unfortunately, a Supreme Court friendly to FDR’s power-grabs during the New Deal made a rather creative stretch: the Constitution allows congress to regulate interstate commerce, so the Court ruled that a farmer who dared to grow more wheat for himself than the New Deal programs allowed and WASN’T involved in interstate commerce could nonethless be regulated because — here’s the really creative part — by NOT participating in interstate commerce, he was affecting interstate commerce. (Wickard v. Filburn)
I’ve already seen a leftist law professor cite this case as justification for the mandate … by not buying insurance, you’re affecting the insurance market, so congress can order you to buy insurance. Of course by that logic, they can also order you to buy a car, a big-screen TV, and a subscription to The New York Times. If Thomas Jefferson were alive, he’d be shooting at someone right now.