My daughter has eaten hot lunch for the past three years of school and after watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution a few times I began to question if my daughter was eating too many calories at school for lunch. Another bad habit my daughter started getting into one year was eating breakfast at school after I fed her breakfast. Ki would ride the bus to school & then join her friends for breakfast. I was not impressed! Hopefully this year that won’t happen.
After seeing just how many calories are in chocolate milk and some school lunches across the nation on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution I made a decision to start doing cold lunch this year. This decision was discussed with my daughter and we both agreed she could choose hot lunch maybe once a week but the remainder of the time she would have cold lunch. I am hoping by me knowing what she is eating for lunch I will better be able to get a hold on her weight gain.
When Ki is home with me I am very anal about her food intake. Bad metabolism runs in the family and apparently she was not so blessed with bad metabolism as well. Being active and watching our food intake is something we do as a family, not just singling out Miss Ki.
Ki goes to her Dad’s two nights a week overnight & apparently he wishes her to have hot lunch on the school days he brings her, which is fine, that is his choice on his days. I have no say in that fact. Now Miss Ki is upset because I had told her she could choose hot lunch maybe once a week but I told her that since she is eating twice a week when she is with her Dad overnight that she can’t choose hot lunch on my days unless for some reason it’s an extra special occasion at school for lunch or I ran out of food for lunches.
Miss Ki is upset with me, but in all honestly I want to fully test out if school lunches are not good for her in the way that it allows for higher calorie intake than her body can handle. I simply have that right as a parent to make a decision to feed my child the lunch I feel she needs for energy and healthy eating.
What do you think about school lunches? Have you seen Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution? Let me hear your thoughts.
I thought the lunches were crap while I was a student, though more from a taste standpoint than nutrition back then. Nowadays I see how much junk they feed kids, and it’s just sickening. How can you expect a child to learn effectively if their bodies and brains are running on trash? Too many calories, insulin surges, and a distinct lack of vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients creates a poor environment for information retention. It just seems counterproductive.
We homeschool, so there isn’t the problem of school lunches for us. Family members “treating” the girls to sweets and junk five or six times a day when they visit is another matter. They just can’t seem to notice or understand the effect that kind of food can have on a child, even slim ones with their father’s hummingbird like metabolism. They might not gain Weight, but it certainly affects their behavior, mood, and if continued for a couple of days, increases their allergy issues. Not to mention how it makes them just want more and more junk.
I was happy that my daughter, who is now almost 9, actually had no clue about sweets until she was maybe 4 years old. I was able to keep that away from her. My second child, a boy who is now 5, loves veggies & fruits, and even though he knows what sweets are he actually prefers those over anything else. What I do is I don’t buy foods that I don’t want them to have. I may not be a big veggie and fruit eater, but I am trying so that I can show by example to my children 🙂 My five year old has amazing metabolism. My youngest is a boy, age 3, and he is a mix, picks and chooses. I am thankful that the three year old drinks Ovaltine for chocolate milk on occasion as a treat, as that is better for him than the sugary chocolate syrup type chocolate milk. They can have sweets and junk on occasion but it’s rare since it’s not something I would normally purchase for the household.
I haven’t seen the show, but I found cold lunches to be less expensive so I went that route. However, I also allowed them to have hot lunches when they were going to serve something special, like Thanksgiving meal, or something that they particularly liked.
First I love Jamie snd the food revolution. This is my oldests first year in full day school (first grade) and I send a cold lunch everyday. School lunches are all highly processed junk and I won’t let my kids eat it.
I am sorry your daughter is mad at you. But you agreed to once a week and now she is getting it twice what you agreed upon so she should be happy. But it is hard for kids to understand that we do things like this for their own good.
Thanks for your comment and input! Loved reading what you had to say 🙂