Michelle Obama’s “Healthy Lunch” Rules Lead Students To Toss Salads

Nobody will deny that childhood obesity is a serious issue in the United States, but forcing kids to eat things they clearly don’t want to, isn’t the right way to go about trying to solve the problem. There’s also the amount of money being wasted to consider. With all of these fruits and vegetables ending up in the trashcan, research has shown that food waste has increased by 56 percent.

Though many students may be loading up fruits and vegetables on their lunch trays, a lot of those aren’t actually being eaten.

New federal guidelines that require healthier school lunches are in effect, but a lot of children are simply throwing out fruits and vegetables instead of eating them, according to a new study.

“We used rigorous, validated dietary assessment methods,” she told CBS News. “That’s what really bolsters our confidence in these findings. They may not be generalizable across the country. There might be different patterns depending on different sociodemographic characteristics, but for the schools we collected data on and in that time period using these methods, we’re confident in our findings.”

Researchers suggest that making fruits and vegetables more appealing to children may be a way to fix the issue. Strategies could include slicing them, offering them with dips, and incorporating them into other parts of the meal rather.

There’s also the question of whether or not making kids eat healthy at school will really have any effect on them if they don’t continue the habits at home. This is an issue that shouldn’t be forced by the federal government, but instead handled by the parents who allow these habits to affect their kids.

For more information go to: CBS

Photo: ScrapeTV