<p>Recess has been done away with in favor of yet more cramming for high-stakes testing. At least so I have read. </p>
<p>There is no reason to serve dessert at lunchtime in a school, unless it is fruit. With all of this nostalgia, let us not forget that the typical dessert in our schools back in the day was probably jello with fake whipped topping. No nutritional value whatever.</p>
<p>I order dessert when I go out to lunch, sometimes, if I’m out on a bike ride. But I don’t see the need for dessert at school lunch.</p>
<p>Apparently, 40% of schools have cut recess.
<a href=“http://www.parenthood.com/article/the_demise_of_recess.html#.VBefFNm9LCQ”>http://www.parenthood.com/article/the_demise_of_recess.html#.VBefFNm9LCQ</a></p>
<p>Our local elementary school has twenty minutes of recess each day. Unfortunately, the Physical Education classes only meet two times each week… S’s second grade teacher allowed only fruits and vegetables for snack time. She said if they are hungry they will eat an apple or some carrots. She was right, of course, but a few parents complained. She stuck to it. There were 27 kids enjoying healthier snacks, including mine!<br>
I haven’t had dessert in a looooong time. And the only time we order it in a restaurant is when we are celebrating a very special occasion.<br>
I am hungry for brownies!</p>
<p>Our school cooks made a mean cherry cobbler and other desserts All lunched made inhouse too. Most of the cooks were there for decades. We did have an apple machine instead of candy and milk machine instead of soda though.</p>
<p>We had Tastykakes -sold from a cart - as dessert for lunch! </p>
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Recess has been done away with in favor of yet more cramming for high-stakes testing. </p>
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<p>Great… 
So, that makes for more hyper kids who then can’t do well on testing…so then they have to be tested for ADHD, XYZ, and so forth. </p>
<p>Seriously, when I was in grade school, we still had annual testing (Iowa Tests) and that seemed to serve that need. My kids never had more than one standardized test each year. If other schools are giving multiple tests each year, then that is nuts.</p>
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Haha, that quote from that woman was ridiculous. I think there are a lot of Little Debbie brownies in the home-packed lunches, and there is probably a brisk trade or resale market of junk food going on amidst the kids. LOL</p>
<p>“I want to encourage kids to healthier eating and more exercise too. But this? And in a state where maple syrup is a staple. (Not being from Vermont, I’d never seen maple syrup baked beans for breakfast, maple syrup dipping sauce for a sandwich at lunch and maple syrup salad dressing or maple syrup marinade for meat for dinner, until I visited that state. )”</p>
<p>I live in NH on the VT border and have never seen any of this except for the marinade. Interesting. </p>
<p>And kale? I just can’t bring myself to like it. I agree with CTTC that kids likely are smuggling stuff in.</p>
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<p>Ditto. We always had dessert with our school lunches. But we had lots of recess/PE. An overweight kid was very rare back then in spite of the school lunch desserts.</p>
<p>I think, based on some health threads I have seen, my perspective on healthy eating differs from quite a few people on this forum, but I’ll offer my view point.</p>
<p>Let me start off by saying that I don’t really believe in cutting things out (unless, obviously, you have a medical condition that doesn’t allow you to eat it). I eat butter. I eat cheese. I eat bread. I eat all of those daily. I don’t believe in going carb-free or fat-free or even sugar-free. However, the quality of the products, in my opinion, are very important. When I say bread, I mean, fresh, no preservative, preferably entirely, or at least partially, whole wheat. Same with cheese - not cheese product or cheese from a can. I also think eating healthy is not about calorie-counting. Don’t get me wrong, eating sensible portions is important (clearing a plate is the worst idea ever, in my opinion), but my personal focus is on eating non-processed, good foods - I would (and do) have a 250 calorie avocado or a banana or even some chees over some 100-calorie, proceessed snack pack any day.</p>
<p>Anyways, even though I try to stay away from processed foods, I do love dessert (again, I do try to buy stuff with good, simple ingredients). I have dessert every night (and I am not talking fruits - I already eat those separately). I used to have it a lot more than that, until I realized just how much sugar I was eating. Again, this is not even about calories or cutting anything out. It’a about balance. And the reality is, most people eat WAY too mcuh sugar. It’s in everything. The recommended amount for a woman is 25 grams a day of added sugar. The old recommendation was 50 grams, which is what I go by for myself for the time being, although that’s the less healthy amount. For kids, it’s less, although I don’t know what it is. And remember, bread, yogurt (most brands have way too much), juice, etc., etc. already have sugar. If you actually look at a brownie, I guarantee you it will have over 30 grams of sugar (a lot will have 40 or more). So, for a kid, that’s way, WAY too much to have on a daily basis, even if they don’t have anything else at home. Maybe they won’t get overweight if they run around, but being overweight is not the only issue. Yes, it’s important for health reasons, but getting poor nutrition and just burning it off won’t get you far. You can probably stay skinny eating Ramen in moderation. But the debate and discussion can’t all center just on healthy weight - it’s a very one-sided obsession. You can’t just keep talking about weight like it’s the be-all, end-all. You can be within range and have poor, horrible nutrition which WILL cause health problems. I would not have been called overweight back when I had horrible eating habits - that doesn’t magically make it OK.</p>
<p>So, I think what the school is doing is sensible. Dessert is fine, in my opinion, but I think it’s much better for a young child to get that at home, where they can learn healthy habits, not in school. Dessert with every meal will get you to way too much sugar in a day. Believe me, I know.</p>
<p>None of my kids has ever, ever, ever had recess, and gym has always been only a couple of times a week. I think this is much more of a problem. Of course, many schools in NYC are vertical, rather than horizontal, so the kids may get a lot of exercise rushing from class to class from middle school on.</p>
<p>I don’t support the ban on brownies. I think a portion controlled treat is a perfectly fine thing. in fact, I think it’s absolutely great and should be supported. Life and childhood are too short for their not to be treats, even once a day. the average sized brownie is about 150-175 calories. Assuming the average kid needs around 2000 calories, then a small treat is nothing to be concerned about. Kids who are really and truly poor don’t get things like brownies or freshly baked cookies (which were always available in my kids’ schools at one per person) at home too often. </p>
<p>I work in an office of professionals. Once a week the company provides a (gasp!) lunchtime snack that is very special and much appreciated. Now, of course, no one NEEDS a lunchtime snack but it is something special to look forward to every week and a social thing. Like I said, life is too darn short.</p>
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Is bringing your own lunch “smuggling?” because I always have packed a treat for my kids when packing lunch. Heck, my D1 is a teacher and I often pack her lunch and she looks for her treat even now. But I would blow a gasket if anyone tried to tell me what to have packed in my kids’ lunch beyond anything dangerous (like a bottle or can) or an allergen. On my kids’ birthdays even through high school, I would pack a personal Tupperware with something lavish for a treat and no one ever said a word about it. Thankfully, my son is now in a school that has amazing prepared lunches so my lunch packin’ days are over!!! On HIS birthday, his treat of choice is a brownie sundae, so I always have one waiting for him when he gets off the school bus and it’s the size of a frisbee.</p>
<p>Having been really poor and sending a couple of kids to NYC public schools with extremely poor populations, I find the original article slightly obnoxious. I guess that school’s demographic is such that purchasing cards and bulbs and stuff is possible across the board and doesn’t exclude a substantial chunk of people. Most everyone can be included in spending 50 cents or a dollar on a cookie, but not on purchasing those other things, particularly when a check is required.</p>
<p>If I ate a brownie everyday at lunch (I’m sure they wouldn’t serve a brownie EVERYDAY (would they??!)) by about 2pm my head would be napping on my desk - another reason not to load up on sugar in a school situation - recess or no recess!!! </p>
<p>My parents had very little money when they first came to the U.S., and we definitely didn’t get baked goods every day (which was a good thing - I definitely ate pretty healthy growing up). However, that doesn’t change the fact that, in my opinion, the last thing that a truly poor kid needs is a baked good. If you look at the diets of the truly poor population, a huge problem with it is the extreme amounts of sugar (among others problems, of course). It’s not about the calories in a brownie. If it was the only dessert that kid had that day, no problem. But that kid is likely to also have a pop tart and/or sugary cereal for breakfast, a Snickers bar on the way home, probably soda at home as well, and if the family lived in a neighborhood with no good grocery store options, a frozen meal, which will also have added sugar. This ‘treat’ is not doing that kid any favors. A dessert is fine (I eat them myself), but these kids are overloaded with sugar. It’s too much! And getting rid of the habit of having a dessert or something sugary with EVERY meal is really hard. It WILL make their life harder in the long run.</p>
<p>abasket, my cafeteria did serve brownies and/or cookies every day.</p>
<p>You’re an adult, not a kid abasket! They probably require more calories. I wouldn’t love kids having a brownie every day, but if it’s a single, reasonable-sized snack item, then I think banning it is worse than having it.</p>
<p>Our middle school kids have PE every day. They also have some outside time after they eat. However there is no way I would spend the $2.50 per day plus the $.60 cents for the milk because none of my kids has ever liked the food. They would rather take the same peanut butter sandwich,trail mix and an apple to school every day than eat the “healthy” hot lunch… I’m not kidding we make the same sack lunches everyday year after year. Although they do buy the milk until high school then they start taking water.</p>
<p>BTW I’ve volunteered in the lunch rooms before. A lot of the “healthy” stuff ends up in the trash…</p>
<p>Age: 9-13 years old</p>
<p>Gender: Female</p>
<p>Activity Level: Moderately Active</p>
<p>Estimated Calorie Requirements: 1,600-2,000 kilocalories per day</p>
<p>Age: 51+ years old</p>
<p>Gender: Female</p>
<p>Activity Level: Moderately Active</p>
<p>Estimated Calorie Requirements: 1,800 kilocalories per day</p>
<p>Actually, calorie requirements, not that much different. </p>
<p>Here’s what I say. Walk into a couple of classrooms - especially grades 4 on up. Look at the children and their weight levels. Then decide if you think a daily lunchtime brownie is a good idea. In cities where kids do not spend much time playing outside, walking to school/stores/etc on a daily basis, being overweight at a young age is quite common - especially in inner city schools. If the kids look healthy, relatively lean, have good energy, etc.maybe the brownie situation is not so important. </p>
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Very valid and reasonable.</p>
<p>I’d still go for allowing a snack to be purchased, though. However, I wouldn’t have supersized things, but that’s just me.</p>
<p>I too was worried that this thread was about the demise of Girl Scouts! </p>
<p>I have no problem with schools banning high sugar snacks. As abasket mentioned in her post, just because they can’t have the bad stuff during the school day doesn’t mean that it’s banned for life. Our society has somehow made processed food acceptable and the norm. Why not make whole grains and food that tastes good and is good for you the norm? </p>
<p>I remember manning a snack bar at some school performance a few years ago when a child and a grandmother came up to the stand and the child chose a bottle of water. The grandmother was surprised and suggested she choose a soda instead. The child told her she preferred the water. Those choices are what we WANT our kids to make when they are older and the way to do that is to normalize healthy food. I don’t deny our family baked goods, but when we have them, they are a special treat and I’ve made them myself.</p>
<p>BTW, all of the elementary schools in our school district still have recess k-6th grade and gym K-12. </p>