Fight Childhood Obesity – Get Rid of the "Extras"

In response to We All Scream for Fennel!:

The successful chefs were the ones who seem to already know what the kids in this article were saying — we “miss the French fries, pizza, burgers and cheesesteaks.” They did healthier versions of these foods. As I recall, the winner did zucchini “fries” with dipping sauces because kids love dipping things.

True-dat. Kids will eat just about any vegetable you serve them as long as there’s some ranch to dip it in. 

I love that I now have this format to broadcast my pet peeves to the world, because right now I’m about to launch:

If the schools were serious about ending childhood obesity, there would be only one action necessary to help reach that goal. Remove the a la carte menus currently available to children in elementary schools all across the nation. These extras include chips, cookies, cheese sticks, crackers,  yogurt, pudding and ice-cream on top of their regular school lunch. Schools allow the kids to buy as many extras as they wish unless their parents stipulate otherwise. Those would be the awful, mean parents like me.

When my kids were in elementary school, they constantly whined that all their friends got money for extras every day. I only allowed my kids to have one extra on Fridays.

Many schools now have that same limitation for the dessert extras, (only allowed one day a week) but why do they have to have so many extra choices for lunch, anyway?

When I was at school, we got a tray of food – say – meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, brown betty, and milk, or you brought your lunch. Period. And if you cleaned your plate, you were sometimes allowed to have some buttered bread from the bread cart.

And you know what? There were fewer fat children when I was a kid.

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