A wake-up call on eating and living green for kids and their parents

books:


	• Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children Ann Cooper, Lisa Holmes Collins, 2006 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A wake-up call on eating and living green for kids and their parents

Lunch Lessons is an in-depth expose of how our unhealthy American diet is literally killing us, particularly its impact on our kids who participate in the USDA school lunch program. Nearly 80% of American schools don't meet the USDA's nutritional requirements. This doesn't come as a surprise seeing as schools are expected to provide a full meal for $1.50 per child. Many schools have done away with kitchens entirely, and rely on reheating processed foods. Financially-strapped districts raise money for extracurricular activities by contracts with soft drink and fast food companies, fueling the current childhood obesity crisis.

Lunch Lessons looks at the impact of revolutionary school lunch programs that aim to reconnect students with their food by raising their own vegetables from seeds, performing investigations, and preparing the fruits of their labor. Other featured schools buy locally grown organic produce for slightly more than commercial brands, and prepare meals that are proportioned appropriately and contain whole grains, fruits and vegetables without additives, extra sugars, or fat. There are also suggestions on how to "green" your home by buying eco-friendly cleaners, composting and recycling, and green dining and shopping alternatives. The book is scattered with statistics on American obesity, diet-related disease, and sidebars, but the placement was disruptive to the text and I frequently lost my place as I skipped around reading the various doom-and-gloom factoids.

The rest of the book consists of recipes taken from the various schools and programs mentioned earlier in the book, and include selections for breakfast, snacks, and lunch. Full nutritional info is included, as well as a conversion guide to figure out the daily values for various ages (the standard nutritional info is based on a 2,000 calorie diet, which is about two times too high for very young children, and not enough for an active teen). Many of the recipes are vegetarian and are low-fat, and are simple enough that older children could prepare these on their own. Some of the more interesting choices included frittata with spinach, mushrooms, and cheese, peanut butter and jelly power muffins, fruit smoothie, orzo salad, pumpkin curry, carrot-ginger soup, and red lentil burgers, although many sounded adventurous for picky eaters.

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Good Ideas Are in this Book

This book has great ideas for lunch meals. We tend to get into a routine of turkey and yogurt for lunch, but this book breathes new ideas into a hum drum meal. I love that the nutritional contents are included. It gives great advice for portion control, too.

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Great Lunch Box Ideas

Great ideas for the picky eater and this helps add ideas to the mundane lunch box routine

A great start to better nutrition

I bought this to help my kids & I have more creative solutions for school lunches. We are VERY excited about trying several ideas & I loved the information rich intro. I don't have much of a battle getting my kids to take lunch from home but it helped for them to know that "Mom" wasn't making up the lack of nutrition stats that surround school lunch menus. I highly recommend this for any Mom that is making an effort to keep her kids healthy during all meals!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Is your child being fed well at school? 78 percent of school lunch programs in America do not meet USDA's nutritional guidelines. In fact, most school cafeterias still serve a veritable buffet of processed, fried, and sugary foods. So, where can concerned parents turn for help in providing healthful, delicious lunches?

Chef Ann Cooper has emerged as one of the nation's most influential and respected advocates for changing how our kids eat, working to turn school cafeterias into culinary classrooms. In Lunch Lessons, she and Lisa Holmes spell out how parents and school employees can help instill healthy habits in children, by providing a variety of invaluable information such as:

An explanation of the basics of good childhood nutrition

Dozens of tasty, home-tested recipes for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.

Tips for how to support businesses that provide local, organic food

Ways to spark widespread change throughout a community

With inspirational examples and valuable advice, Lunch Lessons is more than just a recipe book--it gives readers the tools to transform the way children everywhere interact with food.

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