French Fries Are Vegetables?

Fans of the ABC television series Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution recently learned that French fries are vegetables according to the school nutrition guidelines. I'm sure my own face reflected the same expression as The Naked Chef's when Huntington School District nutrition officer Robin told him that "French fries are a vegetable". The "Vegetable Moment" scene is available on the ABC website here.

During Episode Three of "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution", Robin was carrying a very large notebook that I presumed to be filled with Federal guidelines. I was able to find a PDF-file of the "Menu Planner for Healthy School Meals" on the USDA website. This guide gives the nutritional requirements in order for schools to be reimbursed for the meals by the government. During the 2009-2010 school year, the reimbursement rates range from 25 cents to $2.85 per student lunch. These figures are based on a wide range of factors including the number of students who qualify for and participate in the Federal School Lunch Program, also known as free or reduced lunches.

Team Nutrition produced a great pamphlet for the school lunch program explaining how to incorporate more vegetables into the student's meals. In this publication, vegetables are broken down into various groups, including Dark Green, Orange, Dry Beans, Starchy (potatoes) and Other (includes iceberg lettuce). The Team Nutrition suggestion is to incorporate EACH of these groups of vegetables throughout the week. I've looked through some sample school menus online and found many of them to be very heavy on the Starchy vegetables. I included links to those school menus in the Resources area.

According to Robin, Jamie Oliver's vegetable filled stir-fry didn't have enough vegetables to meet the high-school standards set by the USDA so they added French fries to the lunch. Robin estimated the fruit serving to be one-half of a cup and that there were not three-fourths of a cup of vegetables in the stir-fry to make up the required one and one-quarter cups of fruits and vegetables. The fruits I saw looked to be at least three-fourths of a cup and the vegetables in the stir-fry would have easily been more than one-half a cup. I did find a discrepancy in the "Menu Planner" guidelines - it states that the daily minimum requirement is three-fourths of a cup on Page 39. Jamie's meal definitely met that requirement without the addition of the French Fries.

What I find most interesting about the "Menu Planner for Healthy School Meals" are the serving requirements for fruits and vegetables vs. the grains/breads category. It seems promising that each lunch must require two different servings of fruits and/or vegetables with a daily total being three-fourths of a cup for grades 4-12. However, lunches must include 10 servings of grains and/or breads per week. Each serving is one slice of bread or an equivalent serving of biscuits or rolls or one-half cup of cooked rice, pasta or cereal grains.

The American Diabetes Association includes starchy vegetables such as peas, corn and yes, potatoes, in the Grains and Starches portion of the Diabetes Food Pyramid. Servings in this category are recommended to be 6-11 per day and a serving consists of one-half cup of potatoes, one slice of bread or one-third cup of cooked rice. A comparison of the nutrition guidelines in the "Menu Planner" and the Diabetes Food Pyramid show the two to be in contrast.

One of the problems with childhood obesity is the higher possibility of our children developing diabetes. The CDC website reports that Type 2 Diabetes (formerly known as adult-onset diabetes) is becoming more common in our children and teens. A study indicates that one out of every three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes.

Even though my own children are grown and making their own food choices, I've long been bothered by the menus I read in my local newspapers. Should I turn my back on an obvious problem because it doesn't affect me directly? I have a niece and four nephews. I will have grandchildren someday.

How can I NOT join "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" and force our schools to stop killing our children.

Sources: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, Episode 103

American Diabetes Association ; Team Nutrition/USDA ; USDA Menu Planner ; CDC Healthy Youth