New School Lunch Guidelines: Hold the Fries, Please

According to USDA Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, the school lunch program that serves more than 30 million children daily is likely to get healthier very soon.  The USDA is proposing significant changes to improve the nutritional quality of the school meals that are served to America’s youth. While American youngsters consume up to half of their daily calories at school, unfortunately, approximately 1/3 of American children are obese or at risk for becoming obese.

In today’s USDA news conference, the Agriculture Secretary stressed that the new school lunch program will increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat fluid milk in school meals. The implementation of these new guidelines would result in meals that contain less sodium and heart-unhealthy saturated fat, without exceeding the child’s daily calorie needs.   A diet high in sodium and/or saturated fat can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, which are leading causes of death among Americans.  The availability of starchy vegetables, such as French fries, in the school lunch will be reduced over the course of the week.

The good news is that there isn’t any need to wait for the new and improved school lunch program to be implemented to start packing the kiddies in your life a healthier backpack lunch.

Here are my top Backpack Lunches ideas that healthy and kid-approved.  These are easy to create and guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser!

“A recent study in the American Journal of Heath Promotion estimates that 1.5 million cases of high blood pressure could be eliminated and over $2 billion in health care costs could be save annually if Americans would reduce their daily intake by a mere 400 milligrams (mg) of sodium. Americans are consuming over 3,000 mg of sodium daily, way above the upper level recommended at 2,300 mg.  While sodium comes from the salt (sodium chloride) that you use to season your foods, the majority of the sodium in your diet is from processed foods.”

Use this chart to help you reduce your daily sodium consumption and your blood pressure.