The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently issued a report that outlines proposed recommendations for improved standards for school-provided meals that offer nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. The nutritional standards of the National School Lunch Program have not been reviewed for possible update since the 1995 Dietary Guidelines for America standards were set. If adopted, the new guidelines would also apply to the National School Breakfast Program.

The IOM is known as one of the four National Academies that advise the U.S. federal government on science, engineering, and medicine, and their report comes on the heels of the expiration of the Child Nutrition Act (CNA) of 2004 that occurred on September 30th of this year. The legislation was adopted to govern how the National School Lunch Program operates in both public and nonprofit private schools, as well as in residential child care institutions. Congress is due to reauthorize the CNA this session.

Under the proposed guidelines, The IOM urges a gradual reduction in sodium over the next decade, as well as for more healthy, fresh foods to be made available to school children. In addition, the institute’s panel recommends that the junk food needs to be dropped. Whereas past school-provided nutrition standards focused only on meeting a minimum number of calories per meal, the newly proposed standards would include a calorie maximum. For children in Kindergarten, and those in grades 1-5, the maximum calories allowed would be 650 per lunch, while the calorie total increases to 700 for grades 6-8, and jumps to 850 calories for those in grades 9-12. As for sodium content, a maximum of 740 milligrams is recommended, whereas a typical high school lunch today contains about 1,600 milligrams.

The new standards would require that students be served fewer potatoes, more fruit (with only 50 percent of it served in juice form), as well as weekly recommended amounts of dark green and orange vegetables, grains, and meats, cheese and yogurt for each age group. Fruits and vegetables are not to be interchangeable. Only 2 ounces of meat would be included at lunch, while just 1 ounce would be served in a school-provided breakfast. Breakfast would include more whole grains, and 1 percent or skim milk instead of whole or 2 percent milk. The upper limit for total fat content would increase from 30 percent to 35 percent of calories. The recommendation is for zero trans fat content, and less than 10 percent of total calorie content in saturated fats.

The new recommendations for the programs must first be approved by the Department of Agriculture, which regulates school nutrition. Currently, The National School Lunch Program is available in 99 percent of public schools, and over 30 million children take part in it. Another 10 million children depend upon schools to provide them with their daily morning breakfast, and The National Breakfast program is available in about 85 percent of schools.

However, updating school nutrition standards certainly does not come without cost. Food costs could increase by as much as 9 percent for breakfasts, and as much as 25 percent for lunches. In addition to the increased cost of providing health foods will come the cost of training cafeteria staff to prepare them, and there will be the necessary expense of retooling of school kitchens. President Obama has earmarked $1 billion in the 2010 budget proposal to be used for child nutrition, which includes school meal programs. Where the money will come from remains to be determined.

Source: HealthNews