Tienchin Ho

Fresno's Farm Fresh Food

Have you been thinking about how you can get more fresh fruits and vegetables into your meals?

We live in the breadbasket of the world yet many of us don't know where to go to get farm fresh foods.

The Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) and the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP) developed the Buy Fresh Buy Local San Joaquin Valley Eater’s Guide to make it easier for us. Give it a try!

Parents: Please Stop Giving Sugar to My Child

"Every time someone else feeds your child dessert when you're not there, they are making your job harder. And if you are one of the 30% of parents who have an overweight child, they are downright being disrespectful to you."

- Marlene Schwartz, Yale Rudd Center

 

When I picked up my daughter from school on Friday, she was enjoying a freezer pop that another generous mom had bought from the school ice cream window for her. My daughter knows not to take food from other people. Somehow school blurs those lines for her.

Here is an example of freezer pops:

Looks good right? Real fruit juice sounds healthy.

Here are the ingredients:

Yes, there is some apple juice in there. However, the first two ingredients are water and sugar.

Children between 4 and 8 years old in the US eat and drink seven times the recommended amount of added sugar every day.

Please join me in reducing the amount of sugar we give kids at school. One of your child's classmates may have diabetes or be struggling with obesity. Are we really so insensitive as to expect that child to decline the cupcake or a freezer pop from a friendly, smiling classroom mom? Let's make it easy for our kids to choose health.

Where would you start to reduce added sugars in Fresno Unified school meals?

Do you want the nutritional quality of FUSD school meals to improve? Reducing added sugars in the meals is one strategy.

Ways to do this include:
A: switch to artificial no-calorie sweeteners
B: serve sweetened milk on special days (for example, fridays)
C: parents choose whether their child's school lunch includes sweetened milk
D: flavored milk replaces dessert in school meals
E: school meals include plain milk and water (other beverages are provided by parents)

What do you think?

Fresno Unified School District Breakfast Burrito

Can't be bothered about what Fresno Unified School District is feeding students?

Your tax dollars are used to buy partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, modified food starch, and disodium inosate and guanylate. 

Think it doesn't really affect you? Think again.

 

Los Cabos Breakfast Burrito

Egg, Cheese, Potato & Cooked Sausage Crumbles (Made with Turkey)

Tortilla Colored With Annatto and Turmeric

Ingredients:  Filling: Precooked scrambled eggs (whole eggs, skim milk, soybean oil, modified food starch, salt, xanthan gum, liquid pepper extract, citric acid, artificial butter flavor [butter (cream, milk) partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, soybean oil, lipolyzed butter oil, flavors and artificial flavors]), reduced sodium, reduced fat pasteurized process american cheese: cultured pasteurized milk and skim milk, *whey protein concentrate, potassium citrate, contains less than 2% of salt, sodium citrate, lactic acid, sorbic acid (preservative), natural flavor, *xanthan gum, *locust bean gum, *guar gum, apo-carotenal and beta-carotene (color), *vitamin A palmitate, enzymes, soy lecithin and soybean oil blend. (*not found in regular pasteurized process american cheese), diced potato (potatos, sodium acid pyro-phosphate to maintain color), water, cooked sausage crumbles (made with turkey (ground turkey thigh meat, mechanically separated turkey, water, soy protein concentrate, salt, spices, dextrose, flavoring, sugar, disodium inosate and disodium guanylate), water, green chile puree (green chile peppers, water, citric acid), red sauce seasoning  (modified corn starch, paprika, spices, onion & garlic powder, tomato, dextrose, sugar, autolyzed yeast extract, caramel color, extractive of paprika, guar gum, citric acid, malic acid, xanthan gum, ascorbic acid, disodium inosinate & guanylate, less than 2% silicon dioxide to prevent caking, modified corn starch refined from corn, vinegar, salt and flavorings.

Free Workshop on Increasing Fruits and Vegetables in Schools

Kyal Hamilton and the farmers at Whole Farms are delivering fruit to Starr Elementary School!

They can deliver to your school too! Want to learn more about how to bring fresh fruit to your school?

 

The California Department of Food and Agriculture is sponsoring a free workshop on increasing fruits and vegetables in schools.

10 Steps to Setting Up a School Fruit and Vegetable Stand

Do you wish your school had a fresh fruit and vegetable stand? But where do you start?

Here is how one school did it in Pixley, California!

Fresno Flavored Milk Facts

 

Every year, Fresno surgeons perform 1000 weight-loss surgeries.

Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development

 

One third of Fresno’s children are at an unhealthy weight.

California Center for Public Health Advocacy

 

Every year, overweight individuals cost Fresno County $250 million due to health care and $180 million due to lost productivity.

California Center for Public Health Advocacy 

 

Eight out of ten third graders in Fresno have suffered from tooth decay.

Center for Oral Health

 

Every year in California, absences due to dental problems cost local school districts $28.8 million.

 Children Now

 

Sugar-sweetened drinks are associated with obesity in children.

Ludwig DS, et al. Harvard

 

Sugar and addictive substances such as nicotine have a similar effect on the brain.

Hoebel BG, et al. Princeton

 

Long-term use of artificial sweeteners may fuel - rather than fight - obesity.

Fowler SP, et al. The University of Texas Health Science Center

 

Milk consumption has been falling since 1945 despite flavoring and marketing.

USDA Economic Research Service

 

Countries with a low calcium intake have the lowest rates of hip fractures. The highest rates of fracture occur in populations with a high calcium intake.

Hegsted DM, et al. World Health Organization

 

Overweight Californians outnumber those with osteoporosis almost 5 to 1. 

California Osteoporosis Prevention and Education (COPE), Centers for Disease Control 

 

For every dollar that we lose in productivity due to osteoporosis, we lose $2000 due to being overweight.

California Osteoporosis Prevention and Education (COPE), California Center for Public Health Advocacy

Does Flavored Milk Improve Bone Health?

Calcium intake is a serious concern in the United States. We believe that if we drink enough milk each day, we will prevent hip fractures. But countries with a low calcium intake (400-500 mg per day) have the lowest rates of hip fractures. The highest rates of fracture occur in populations with a high calcium intake. The benefit of ever-increasing levels of calcium intake is not clear. 

70% of milk served in schools contain flavoring such as chocolate to convince children to drink milk. Despite this, milk consumption in the United States has been falling since 1975. Chocolate flavoring does not increase milk consumption. 

In California, you are five times more likely to be overweight than suffer from osteoporosis. We spend ten times as much on health care related to the treatment of overweight individuals as we do on osteoporosis-related and associated fractures. For every dollar that we lose in productivity due to osteoporosis, we lose $2000 due to being overweight.

We cannot afford to supply school children with chocolate flavoring that neither protects them from osteoporosis nor reduces their risk of obesity.

Last Wednesday, I spoke at the Fresno Unified School Board Meeting about removing chocolate milk from school menus.

I listend for the first hour as the Board discussed the 80 million dollars promised by Sacramento that might never reach Fresno. California tax revenues are already 539 million dollars below projections. Some trustees wanted to use the promised money to reinstate teachers. Others and Superintendent Hanson called for a reality check and fiscal responsibility.

Hearing all of this, I was sure that the Board and Superintendent would agree with our request to remove chocolate milk. After all, chocolate milk costs more than white milk. $1000 a day more. And is certainly doesn't help the obesity and tooth decay that Fresno kids struggle with. California schools lose 30 million dollars a day due to absences from dental problems. Fresno county spends a quarter of a billion dollars a year on health care related on being overweight. Knowing this, how can serving chocolate milk be fiscally responsible?

Superintendent Hanson told me that strawberry milk is his favorite. The school district has already removed strawberry flavored milk from the menu because it wasn't popular with the kids. He seems to have forgotten that he and the kids can have strawberry milk for lunch whenever they want. Superintendent Hanson can buy it for himself. Parents can pack it for their child. It is the parents' responsibility to cater to a picky eater's taste buds, not Fresno's taxpayers.

The school district is planning on surveying students and parents to see if they prefer chocolate milk or white milk. Another waste of taxpayer money. Kids vote every day when they choose chocolate milk at school. The survey has been done already. The survey they should be doing is of the taxpayers who subsidize the chocolate for the kids. I sure hope the district doesn't decide to survey parents and students on whether they prefer math or recess. We all know that answer too.

Flavored Milk in the Fresno Unified School District

 

 

Please join me at

the FUSD School Board meeting at 2309 Tulare St Fresno CA on

Wednesday August 10 at 5pm 

to support

 the elimination of chocolate milk from Fresno Unified School District

One serving of chocolate milk contains as much extra added sugar as a chocolate glazed donut. Sugar sweetened beverages are associated with diabetes in both adults and children which can lead to blindness, amputations, and kidney failure. The sugars in chocolate milk enter the bloodstream quickly. A child’s body responds quickly also, mobilizing insulin to handle that big sugar load. But the sugar is gone just as quickly, leaving the body scrambling to stop the insulin before the sugar in the bloodstream drops too much. This drop in blood sugar after the high leaves children grumpy and feeling poorly. Children who do not feel well, do not behave well and do not learn well.

Serving flavored milk conditions our children to expect sweets, which some researchers describe as an addiction. PET scans of the brain show that sugar acts in the same way as heroin or opium does on the brain. Replacing the added sugars with calorie-free artificial sweeteners does not make flavored milk equivalent to unflavored milk. In fact, there is concerning scientific data that artificial sweeteners may contribute to obesity. In addition, scientific studies suggest that milk may not be the optimal source of calcium for the prevention of fractures. 

Flavored milk also contributes to tooth decay. In the 2007-2008 school year, absences due to dental problems resulted in a loss of almost $30 million for California. Health care associated with overweight and obesity costs California $12.8 billion each year. We simply cannot afford to serve flavored milk.

To be honest, my kids rarely take a school lunch. As a parent, I choose healthy foods and beverages from home for them. I still care that more than 3 out of 4 Fresno children are receiving flavored milk every day because my kids go to school with them. Their behavior and health impacts my childrens’ education. When their classmates miss school, my kids must wait for the teacher to play catch up. When their classmates misbehave because their blood sugar just plummeted, my kids lose their teacher to disciplining.

By eliminating all flavored milk from school menus, we can change a student’s future for the better. Students’ nutrition will improve by reducing their added sugar intake. Schools will benefit because healthier children make better students. Fresno will benefit by having a healthier and better educated workforce.

If you would like to support eliminating flavored milk from the Fresno Unified School District, please come to the school board meeting or write your own letter of support to:

 

Superintendent Mike Hanson

Honorable Members of the Board of Trustees

Jose Alvarado, Food Services Director

Fresno Unified School District

2309 Tulare St 

Fresno, CA 93721