Wow, intense school lunch debate! We didn't have school lunch for three of my four years of high school because the food workers were on strike. We all brought lunch or subsisted on pizza that someone inevitably was selling outside the caf (because nothing legally could be sold or served inside it while they were striking). In the many public schools I attended and taught at, boy was the food bad. One of the best parts of shifting from public to private school teaching was getting some real lunch options. I hate that public school lunches tend to be regulated to the point of inedibility.

2% milk is an option, and frankly I don't see any reason elementary kids need to be drinking skim; IMO skim milk is one of those "fat is bad booga booga" things.

Thanks for this. I'm 100% certain that childhood obesity is not due to 2% milk.

My mom would never let us drink anything but skim once we were older than 2, but it wasn't because of obesity, it was because of milk fat causing heart disease. We also didn't have butter, and only very rarely had egg yolks. (Of course, they now say that the margarine that we were allowed is just as bad as butter, but back then, margarine was the recommendation.)

Sorry, Hil, I didn't know that was why.

I've heard lots of people insist in skim in various settings, usually of what Flea says: "fat is bad booga booga."

I can just barely make myself drink whole milk on the rare occasions I eat a dessert that's not fresh fruit or yogurt. I'd much rather drink calcium-fortified orange juice (or water, for that matter) than skim milk.

Heh. A commercial just came on TV informing us that a glass of 2% milk has more saturated fat than a small order of fries.

The thing with requiring milk for school lunches is also a problem because so many black and Hispanic people, who are a pretty big portion of the kids getting free or reduced-price lunch, are lactose intolerant.

We drank skim with the option to add cream because Mother had seen enough studies indicating that homogenized milk was bad. Now we go through a gallon of creamline milk a week for the three of us.

The thing with requiring milk for school lunches is also a problem because so many black and Hispanic people, who are a pretty big portion of the kids getting free or reduced-price lunch, are lactose intolerant.

Say what?

I mean, I don't know about black, but in my experience, I've never met a Hispanic, at least, not a Cuban, who was lactose intolerant. Not that they don't exist, but it's not anything that was common in my neck of the woods. It wasn't until I was exposed to more Americans of European background that I even realized things such as lactose intolerance and wheat gluten sensitivities even existed.

Didn't they recently realize that, for losing weight and other reasons, 1% or 2% is actually better (i.e., some fat) is actually a better choice?

The only place I have skim is in a latte, otherwise, I prefer 1% or 2%. I rarely drink milk, but between my cup of morning coffee and cereal, I go through a decent amount.

The Jamie Oliver thing was just sad, between the content of the lunches, the no forks or knives, and the inability to identify a potato or tomato. But what really scared me was that woman's freezer full of processed food.

I've never been able to drink milk, and it was a Thing when I was in elementary school. There was some weirdness where we paid for milk separately from the lunch - like a dime each meal - and even though I didn't drink the milk I had to pay the dime. I don't remember if the reason for that ever made sense.