HEALTH

The nutritional value of your school lunches has been a hot topic lately. In efforts to decrease childhood obesity, the U.S. Agricultural Department proposed to lower the amount of sodium and potatoes and increase the whole grains in school lunches. Schools are supposed to follow certain guidelines now, but many still serve pizza and fries daily. The proposal wanted to cut this down to two times a week.

The proposal wasn’t approved because Congress thought the regulations were too strict, and that foods like tomato paste and starchy vegetables (including potatoes, corn and green beans) have some nutritional value that can’t be ignored. The amount of tomato paste on pizza, for example, has almost six times the amount of potassium and four times the amount of calcium in a half-cup of apples.

by Rachel Nugent | 2/1/2016