New York school drops Michelle Obama lunch standards: Kids too hungry

By Marion Algier  -  Cross-posted at AskMarion

WashingtonTimes:  New York's Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district has become the latest casualty in first lady Michelle Obama’s preferred lunch plan, dropping the menu after too many students complained of hunger.

“[Food service manager Nicky] Boehm and her staff worked hard to implement the new regulations, but there were just too many problems and too many foods that students did not like and would not purchase,” said Assistant Superintendent Chris Abdoo about the National School Lunch Program in a statement reported by EAGNews.org. “Students complained of being hungry with these lunches and the district lost money.”

More Fruit, Fewer Fries: Michelle Obama Might Have Taken the ‘Happy’ Out of McDonald’s Happy Meals

Side Note:  Obama Says Broccoli Is His Favorite Food… Launching Broccoli-Gate

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama likes burgers, hot dogs and such, but when it came time to answer a kid journalist's question about his favorite food, broccoli was the first word that sprang from his lips.

This revelation came on Tuesday at a White House event that recognized children who won a healthy recipe contest, as part of first lady Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign.

Having fun with the children, Obama agreed to take two questions from the journalists among them. The first asked what was Obama's favorite food. Broccoli was the presidential reply, according to a White House aide.

This from a politician who has literally eaten his way across the country: Burgers in a Washington suburb with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev; ribs in Asheville, North Carolina; hot dogs at a basketball game in Dayton, Ohio; and a tasty pastry called a kringle in Wisconsin.

Obama's disclosure puts him starkly at odds with the culinary tastes of George H.W. Bush, who as president famously declared his dislike for broccoli.

"And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!" Bush said in 1990.

Steamed broccoli growers shipped thousands of pounds of broccoli to the White House in protest, and the vegetable was farmed out to homeless shelters.

Obama was clearly enjoying the spirit of the anti-obesity event, called the "Kids' State Dinner," which recognized winning recipes like "picky eater pita pizza pockets" and "sweet potato turkey sliders."

"Food can be fun. It can be healthy," Obama said. "You are setting up habits that are going to be great your entire life."

He joked that he's not much of a cook. "(In) my family, when they cooked vegetables, they were all boiled." Since then, he said, he has learned that healthy food can also taste good.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

Related: 

A Photographic History of President Obama Eating Junk Food During Photo Ops  

Video:  Stop Junk Food Marketing to Kids

Technorati Tags: Food,food choices,school lunches,Big Brother,New York,National School Lunch Program,Michelle Obama,Obamaland,food police,double standard,junk food,broccoli,Fast-Food,healthy choices,parental rights,example-leadership,Broccoli-Gate,intrgrity

Chocolate May Boost Brain Power and Fight Fatigue

The next time your energy slumps, but you need to be sharp, a cup of hot chocolate might be just the boost you need.

That’s because flavanols, which are chemicals plentiful in dark chocolate, fight fatigue and hone mental sharpness, according to scientists at the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Center at Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK.

Researchers gave 30 people a series of math tests before and after having either a flavanol-loaded chocolate drink or a placebo beverage. On a test that required repeatedly subtracting numbers, volunteers who got the flavanol-rich drink performed better than those drinking the dummy drink. In addition, the flavanols seemed to offset the fatigue from the intense mental concentration.

“We asked them about their mental fatigue, and that increased, but the cocoa offset that increase,” said researcher Crystal Haskell.

The brain-boosting effect is tied to flavanols’ ability to dilate blood vessels, allowing more blood to reach important areas of the brain.

The study also found that a 500 mg dose of flavanols worked best. That’s the equivalent of five bars of chocolate, so researchers are trying to discover whether lower levels work as well.

“The amounts we were giving them were more than you would get from eating small amounts in diet,” said co-researcher David Kennedy, “But there is quite a bit of evidence showing that general consumption over time is protective against neurodegenerative disease and decline in cognitive function.”

Flavanols are also found in red wine, olive oil, broccoli, blueberries, tea, and onions. They’ve been linked to lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and brain function.

Editor's Note:

Help stop brain shrinkage by exercising your brain; stretch your brain with new challenges, word and number games & puzzles, and by using your memory store: like writing a book, organizing old photos with information or lecturing and teaching about history and past events within your lifetime stored in your memory bank.