Schools across the Washington area are stocking their cafeterias with nutritious foods such as whole wheat and hummus, trying to get students to choose healthy fare and avoid traditional favorites like pizza and french fries — and they’re even listing calories and fat content on menu boards.
But nutrition experts say the efforts may harm young children, and parents and high schoolers call the initiatives ineffective at best.
Fairfax County this year started an aggressive menu overhaul, scrapping chicken nuggets and corndogs, swapping hotdogs for turkey dogs, and expanding whole-wheat options to bagels and soft pretzels, as well as offering either yogurt or hummus “Biteable” meals every day.
Arlington County schools have introduced “Meatless Mondays.”
D.C. schools have cut trans fats and put caps on sodium and saturated fat in compliance with the D.C. Healthy Schools Act passed in May.
In Montgomery County, school officials for the first time are listing calorie information on the menu boards at all 200 schools. Fairfax County has listed calories and other nutritional information for 10 years.
That information has no place in elementary schools, said Dr. Tania Heller, director of the Washington Center for Eating Disorders & Adolescent Obesity. “It’s inappropriate to talk to young children about calories,” she said. “They might misinterpret it, and there is a small percentage of the population who will internalize dieting at a young age.”
Alexandria City Public Schools list calories only in high school cafeterias, and for good reason, said Becky Domokos-Bays, director of food and nutrition services. “If an elementary kid is active and eating a balanced meal, they’re going to be OK. I don’t want them freaked out about eating a slice of pizza, thinking, ‘I had 1,000 calories when I should have had 800.’ That’s not a healthy thought for a kid.”
Montgomery was pushed by a county law mandating establishments with 20 or more locations to list calories on their menus. The district neither sought an exemption nor plans to pursue one, said Susan McCarron, a food service supervisor.
Kelly Portillo’s children attend Twinbrook Elementary School, but she packs their own lunches because — calories posted or not — the food wasn’t to her standards.
“Just because something’s low in calories doesn’t mean it would be nutritional,” she said.
Katie Fox, a sophomore at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, prefers to head off campus to lunch at McDonald’s, Booeymonger or Starbucks.
Oakton High School students said they were skipping the healthier foods.
“I still see most people with fries and deep-fried stuff,” said junior Kian Ghaffari. He was on his way to Chipotle after school. “The healthier stuff affects people who want to eat healthy, but those people just brought lunch before anyway.”
Junior Cari Maharaj said she prefers “french fries and cookies,” adding that she rarely sees students eating Biteables.
McConnell said the cafeterias’ best sellers were pizza and spicy chicken sandwiches.
Fairfax County’s drastic menu alterations included one cut, also made in D.C. schools, that isn’t sitting well: chocolate milk.
The school’s dairy could not eliminate high fructose corn syrup, explained Penny McConnell, director of food and nutrition services. “I’ve gotten messages from the parents and some are mad,” McConnell said. “I think [cutting sugar] is very important.”
The American Council for Fitness & Nutrition’s leaders recently spoke out about the ban on flavored milk, which also swept New York City.
“Flavored milk is an effective way to get kids to consume their daily requirement of calcium plus an array of other important nutrients,” Susan Finn and Alison Kretser wrote on their Web site. “Don’t the nutritional benefits outweigh the slight increase in calories?”
Intern Anna Waugh contributed to this report.
