When a country runs their healthcare system like a business, why on earth would they want their citizens to be healthy?

As a kid in the US, my mother was very health conscious, so ever since middle school onwards she insisted I would only ever have a home packed lunch. For me this often meant a tossed salad with chicken and nuts, and a side of more fruits and vegetables. But this also meant I very quickly noticed the disparity between kids stuck with school lunches and my packed lunch. Some kids would stare at me wide eyed at all the produce I had on the table when walking by. I was able to ignore it over time by just focusing on my friends and paying the people walking by no mind. But one day as punishment the principal decided to shuffle around our seating places so that we couldn’t sit next to our friends-some weird failed attempt to fix bullying by blaming it on cliques. And I ended up sitting with kids who were dependent on free school lunch. Some just, stared at me, hungrily, whenever I started to eat, commenting on how good all my vegetables and salad looked. They didn’t even talk, just stared at me and my lunch like it was a mukbang KZfaq channel despite them having their own free lunch. It was pretty clear which one they preferred, and I felt bad thinking they probably rarely ever got to eat actual fruits and vegetables, but I mostly wanted the staring to stop. It was uncomfortable regardless and they did it in such a way that I thought they might try to swipe my lunch entirely. I managed to change seats around a couple times until I found a group that didn’t stare. I made a new friend, and since she was dependent on school lunch as well, I made a habit of sharing my berries and carrots with her. I also learned from her that since she was very poor, she never had produce at home because her mom bought the highest calorie foods she could find just to ensure they were getting enough calories. So yeah, candy for breakfast lunch and dinner, basically, but she was still very thin.

In 2006 when I graduated high school, I immediately dropped 40 pounds, and the only difference was that I was no longer eating school lunches. And I'm not a junk food addict either, but there had to be so much sugar, salt, carbs and fat piped into those meals that no amount of salads or home cooked, healthy meals at home could at the time combat them.

I grew up in Puerto Rico and aside from the occasional chef boyardee we got some great school lunches, beans and rice with some kind of protein being the most served during a week. I actually miss eating lunch at school, those lunch ladies really knew how to cook!

I agree that added sugar needs to be reduced. But as someone who is intolerant to artificial sweeteners I don't think it needs to be swapped out. I could also see them reducing fruit and veggies because of sugar. Sugar itself isn't a problem it's added sugar

hahaha im at 2:50 and that milk study is really relatable. i legit thought i didnt like plain milk for most of my life bc the plain milk at school always tasted like it was seconds away from being spoiled. then when i moved to the UK for uni i suddenly was like, "wait a second... plain milk can taste good?!?"

I knew that school food in US wasn't always the most nutritious, but these examples are just crazy to me! I grew up in Finland and all schools have a free lunch. It's just normal food, typically includes a salad, some bread, water or (normal) milk to drink. Why isn't the US, the richest country on earth, able to feed kids normal, basic food? Oh yeah, corporate profits

I went to school in the 60s. The cooks came in early in the morning to cook lunch from scratch. There was no breakfast option at that time. When my children went to school in the 80s, I was shocked. The schools had a choice of prepackaged processed microwave food, for the free lunches or lunch tickets; or fast food for paying

The actual menu from your school is insane. British school food wasn't great when I was in school, but it was nowhere near as unhealthy as that!

My US middle school had a salad bar back in the 1980’s. I, and my skinny-obsessed classmates were quite happy to load up on iceberg lettuce with cucumbers for lunch. We discovered that you could feel full while eating nearly zero calories. This is probably why the salad bar was removed as eating disorders among teen girls was a major concern in the 1980’s. Sorry about that.

The USDA menu is so carb heavy. I would like to see the menu to include more filling protein options. Also the breakfast options are so sugar heavy and then we wonder why there are so many behavior issues.🙄

As a kid, I loved milk, even plain milk, but at school I always went for the chocolate milk because at my school the milk always sat out for who knows how long and was always just slightly below room temperature, yuck! For me, even the chocolate milk was tough to choke down at that temperature. I do hope these new rules pass.

I remember in high school we were given the option of milks (came with the lunch price) or an 8 oz mini water that was $1 extra. So many students would shell out the dollar every single day for a water that would be gone in 2 sips while those who couldn’t afford it wouldn’t drink anything at all. Even as high schoolers in 2013 we thought it was ridiculous to have lunch with milk 🤢

I'm from a third world country, but I schooled for the most part in a school which was the most expensive in my city. Most people brought their own lunches their parents or house help cooked for them. Our canteen served lunches for 1 USD each it was different every day with proteins and vegetables and rice- pasta on fridays. During highschool it was students who would cook the lunches and decide the menu but it still followed that format of proteins, veg and carbs usually rice or as in tradition pasta on fridays sometimes desserts were served too. It was interesting to learn the food preferences of my peers. We also had to balance our classes with cooking when our groups were in charge. For highschool, you'd have to pay 5 USD for the the next week before friday ends as the kitchen crew would buy this in the market during saturday and our menu had to be budgeted for the amount of students and teachers there were and type of dishes being served.

Wait.... Are those small cartons containing 20g of added sugar?? 10%!!!!

I actually feel like a lot more kids would choose salad than most people think, i have a friend that is allergic to so many things that a large chunk of her diet is salads. Also, it'd be nice to have something other than the same like 8 things to eat. Almost everyday I get a spicy chicken sandwich (which they very recently changed to real chicken instead of a grey chicken patty) bc the other options are a soggy, reheated, single packaged burrito, or an uncrustable which is just more sugar, or very meh mushy pizza. Idk, I would appreciate fresh fruits and veggies at school over what we get currently. Only two good meals are the some-sort-of-asian sauce chicken and rice, and frito pie. Most of my friends debate even getting lunch at all every other day. Our breakfast options are usually reheated packages of mini pancakes or chocolate covered mini whole grain donuts and juice. One lunch lady has a stand that sells doritos and mini donuts and poptarts and stuff for like a dollar, dollar 50 each for some extra money. School lunch really needs better regulations and funding.

Hey Evan! As someone who is old enough to vote and an American this is the first I have heard about this. Thank you for using your platform for good!

I think you underestimate how willing kids are to eat salad. My primary school had a salad bar until I was in about P4 (8/9y/o) and most kids who got school dinners loved it. You could have as much salad as you want, 1 serving of protein (usually ham, chicken, tuna or boiled eggs), some cheese/coleslaw and a bit of bread. I think at some point they got a new head cook who decided she didn't want the salad bar and then it disappeared, which a lot of us were upset about.

By the way... At the end for the sponsor you talked about US news sites blocking EU viewers, you know why? Because otherwise they need to comply with EU/UK data protection regulations. (GDPR) "Should we disclose the data we're collecting? Nah, just block countries which require us to do that" Land of the free! Freedom to collect whatever data you like.

As a kid about to graduate highschool I have never, In my 11 years of being in school, gotten any meal from the school that wasn’t frozen and then microwaved or thawed, etc Like the idea that we get food that looks like what you’d get outside of school is just weird to me. Everything is like specially made to have less fat or less sugar, or be whole wheat, so a lot of it gets wasted because it’s hard to eat, unappetizing, and frankly boring. Instead of introducing us to healthy foods at a good quality, they just make “healthier” versions of junk food and call it a day. Which just makes us want the real thing outside of school because, let’s be honest, it tastes really bad at school. They also require us to take milk and a set amount of whatever they put out for us, so a lot (and I mean A LOT) of food gets wasted. At least at my school it’s free, so I can eat at least something.

School menus have certainly changed over the years. I still remember lunches that were served in high school - tasty meals such as fish patty with parsley potatoes and stewed tomatoes, salisbury steak with gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans, halupki (stuffed cabbage) with mashed potatoes, spaghetti with meatballs and a salad . What in the world happened in the last 50 years? By the way, we didn't have school lunches in elementary school because we all went home for lunch. Yeah, that was the dark ages. Even so, I taught in public school and the lunches were still better than what was shown here and that was a little over 10 years ago. American children have such poor eating habits, it's no wonder that there is an obesity problem.

As a teacher at a school that tries our best to provide better lunches and breakfasts than the usual fare, and has a healthy food policy thanks for shedding light on this! It is really wild when I think about the sorts of food I ate as a kid/teen.

During covid, my school system got rid of all our healthier food options (salad bar, soup + cold sandwiches) because they were unhygienic. So many kids in my class were disappointed. They also switched over to pre-packaged government meals, and stopped having kids who could afford to pay for their lunches pay. Meals just got worse and more unhealthy, and I don't think they're going to get back to where they were in the future.

It's actually shocking to me that PB&J is still being served in public schools. What with the increased incidence of allergies recently (though, even in my school days ~25 years ago, a LOT of people had food allergies), I was under the impression that most schools had basically banned nuts and nut products entirely from their premises.

And some schools ban homemade lunches forcing kids to eat the garbage the school sells which is ridiculous.

Thanks for the link. Son was in public school til halfway through 3rd grade, he had breakfast at home and still was ravenous for his packed lunch with sandwich, veg, fruit and yogurt with milk as he didn't want the "cardboard" food. When I brought him home to school was so happy no one made fun of what he ate daily. Think is hugely ignorant to think kids don't eat at home, no parent, no matter how poor doesn't feed their kid.

The sugar lobby lady does actually make a good point... You know they aren't going to do the reasonable thing and make the food less sweet. Instead they are going to add some more artificial sweeteners. :(

Are they going to sugarcoat the new guidelines to make it more palatable or is it to be taken with a pinch of salt?

I hope this passes before my toddler goes to school. If not i'll be packing a lot of lunches. My only hope is that they don't replace everything with sugar substitutes..... just let kids get used to less sweet foods dammit. I'm horribly sensitive to artificial sweeteners. Yogurt, fruits and breads, cereal and juice are the main sources of added sugar right now and those are all the things I have to read labels carefully at the grocery store because manufacturers will frequently toss some aspartame or Splenda in there so they can lower the calorie count. If I'm not careful when buying these things, I'll end up with a migraine or ibs flare-up.

My high school had salads as an option, and I would choose them about half the time because...I'm a picky eater. That's my only reason. If I didn't like what they had for lunch that day, I'd go with a salad (if I didn't feel like waiting for a pizza to be "cooked").

Thank you, Evan, for this information and for your positive impact on improving school nutrition. It is appalling to know that this is happening. As an RN at a large public health facility, I am disappointed at what is served at my job, but public schools are far worse in my opinion. I have submitted my comments on the matter by using your link.

I REALLY hope this law is passed so that kids can get healthier meals. America is one of the most over weight if not the most over weight country in the world. Things REALLY need to change ASAP.

I’m a real life person Evan and you are such hilarious man, you could easily be a stand up comedian and all the theatre halls would be filled and filled with laughter from your excellent humour, even though what your talking about is important you bring so much humour into it and that’s why I love watching your videos, your so funny and a real entertainer. Thanks for cheering me up. 👍👍✅

Back when I was in school if the school cafeteria was serving something we thought was gross, we would just sneak out to vending machines and get snacks / sodas. Not sure how many kids would be willing to do that type of thing, but if this law were passed that's probably what I would have done as a kid. Not that it's smart to do, obviously eating the healthier food would be better, but I've never seen somebody below 20 years old make healthy eating decisions on purpose.

It's not a completely invalid point to make that kids tend to prefer eating nothing over the "healthy" options. I was in high school during the early Obama years when there was a big initiative to push healthy eating in schools, and all I noticed was the food going from bad to unpalatable. Unseasoned green beans and carrots that were boiled for over an hour literally became a staple of every lunch, replacing the french fries that were seemingly also boiled and that I rarely ate anyways. What health conscious adult, let alone kid that eats fast food after school every day is going to want to eat that? School lunches definitely worsened my relationship with food, and initiatives that only addressed the nutrition without addressing the overall quality only made things worse. I was healthy and at a normal weight at the time, but only because I was young and active, and it wasn't until my mid 20s that poor eating habits caught up to me. Now obviously, the solution isn't to continue serving unhealthy food because kids won't eat healthy food. However, in my opinion, increasing the quality of the food served, as well as teaching kids more practical nutrition skills, such as how to cook for themselves, and WHY some foods are healthier than others, would be so, so much more effective than putting restrictions on sugar and salt. Unfortunately, I don't see these solutions as all that practical, given that it'd require even more of an already stressed educational budget.

If they actually cooked in US schools instead of defrosting prepackaged and opening cans and boxes then I would have jumped on the healthy options every time. School food, aside from stuffed crust pizza were pretty gross. Though I hope they keep peanut butter squares. Those were my childhood lol.

I commented on the USDA form! I also think that keeping healthier foods out of school lunches is another way of enforcing a class barrier. Rich parents have the time and money to pack school lunches, but those kids who need assistance shouldn’t have the same healthy options - rather just the cheapest sugary stuff they’re used to (right?) blugh Curious to hear about British school lunches!

Turkey & cheese sandwich they can reduce amount of salt & sugar in it just by changing the bread & not the filling

Not having food at home gets brought up a few times and I have no idea how big of a problem this is, but surely it's better to at least improve school lunches for everyone else instead of doing nothing at all

"Tasting History with Max Miller" covered School lunches this week! I'm not sure that going back to the depression-era recipe he made would be a success though. Personally I'm no fan of artificial sweeteners in everything, but just - have things a bit less sweet? Have chocolate milk but chocolate milk that isn't SO sugary. The trouble is sugar and salt DO have functions in food beyond flavour enhancement - they both work as preservatives, strongly sugary or salty foods last longer, therefore are cheaper. Reducing the levels of salt and sugar means either higher spoilage rates and therefore higher costs, or other preservatives being used which could well be even worse for health. Basically - it ain't cheap!

73% of adults in America are overweight? That's truly shocking. I knew it was high, but not THAT high! Wow!

All that food is much healthier than what kids actually get in school

I’m currently doing my internship in school foods. One of the reasons why school foods are cheap is because that’s what the budget allows for. In the county I’m at we sell the meals to make 1 dollar in profit. This used to buy the ingredients and pay the cafeteria workers.

I was lucky enough to usually get home-made lunch to bring in. Considering my health issues, I am very glad that I was able to get that. I basically get the flu ever time I have red 40.

Submitted a comment! Thanks for talking about this. As a mom of two toddlers who will be entering school in a few years I would love to see them having better options than the pizza, frozen chicken patties and pop tarts we had daily in the 90’s-2000s.

My school had a dessert line where they would make fresh funnel cake. And there were slushy machines as well as a cake wall. You werent allowed to buy any of it with free lunch. Never stopped anyone from using their 2 dallors to buy cake instead of lunch.

It would be about time that meals at school are healthier. As a mom of 2 boys that isn't able to pack lunches for them every day, it would make the battle to get them to eat more healthy at home much easier. It is hard when what they eat at school doesn't really match what they have at home, and it is tirering for the parents to constantly battle to try to get their kids to be healthier.

I've known not to touch anything dairy based as half the time it was spoiled, and we all knew the foods were utter shit. So after a few years I've moved to packed lunches and have only been getting school lunches (ie: the certain foods I know won't make me sick) when I was still hungry

considering the normal price for public school lunch being $2.25, it would be easier to just tie in those costs to normal taxes

Love watching this as I was watching another creator Tasting History with Max Miller who just did a video of the History of School Lunches from around the world. He also mentions how lobbyists influence what is on the menu in the US...

Since I was a kid I always thought that they should give us salt and pepper packets. I believe the primary reason kids are pushing so heavily into the unhealthy foods is because they taste awful, never seasoned with no option to do so, and many of the veggies were cooked like an hour ago so they already taste like bad veggies. I believe we should add salt and pepper packets, reduce the frequency of high sodium foods, and especially this one, incorporate vegetables into the main meals! Vegetables are always the side dish and never included in the main dishes. Even just mushrooms or bell peppers on pizza would be amazing, or have the option for nachos loaded with tomatos.

I grew up in New Zealand, and in my rural High School, we didn't have any meals provided. Either you brought your own, or you could purchase from the Canteen aka Tuck Shop, or order from the local Fish and Chip shop. So unhealthy foods were available, but they did apply limits on what was made available, and always provided much healthier foods too, including fruit, sandwiches, and juice. We did, however, have a pastry shop in our town, that made the best mutton pies ever made, so that was a grease-filled bonus.

I remember when I started going to the vocational school affiliated with my high school, the coolest thing was having a little salad bar available. I started bringing my own lunch at some point to help save money (my parents divorced when I was a teenager and I lived with my mom, who only barely made above the reduced lunch limit, and me making a sandwich or some rice with a bit of meat and cheese on the side cost significantly less per portion) but would still sometimes bring 75 cents with me so I could get a little fresh salad with my lunch (it only cost extra if you weren’t getting school lunch already, mind you). If it’s available, normalized and not treated as a novelty item (my main high school had “salads” but they were little cups of ice burg lettuce and tomato that cost an extra dollar) kids will want it, and kids will eat it. Frankly milk is probably a poor example in part because reduced fat/1% milk tastes like rubbish. I drank regular milk pretty regularly in school before they made only 1% available, and that’s around when chocolate milk (or better, the occasional carton of orange juice) became my drink of choice when I bought school lunch.

I can't believe that schools serve food like that there that's intense, I guess the driving factor in most places is that if people don't eat healthy it costs the government money because of ndis/medicare stuff so they are more motivated to "care"

Meanwhile in my old Elementary school the same April week of 2022 here in Sweden: Monday: chicken tikka with bulgur Tuesday : Spaghetti with vegetarian "bolognese" Wednesday: Basil an garlic gratinated fish and boiled potatoes Thursday: Asparagus soup with housemate bread and an assortment of bread toppings such as cheese, ham, etc. Friday they were out so no lunch, but the Friday before it was pasta sallad with chorizo or soup of the day to choose from. There is also always a sallad buffet to choose 8-10 veggies and sallads freely from including usually 2 pasta sallads, and hard bread and butter.

You’re changing the world!! I had no idea this comment section for the government even existed!! Thank you!!

It would be wise to revisit this video, because apparently their including lunchables in school meals at a FEDERAL LEVEL.

When the milk is low fat it is not tasty. Whole milk is needed.

Thank you for posting the link to the comment section on this proposed nutrition rule by the way...I immediately left my comment in favor of it😉.It doesn't go far enough in my honest opinion but it's STILL a big win for public health.

A big applause, Evan! It sounds like many American schools teach the kids to always choose the fast food. Wonder if the diabetic kids can get any low GI (glycemic index) food?

This is entirely anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt. But from personal experience discussing this with school lunch directors, there is also a lot of food waste because kids eat unhealthy at home and turn their nose up at school lunches for making small changes like using whole wheat bread instead of white bread. There's also the caveat that lunch programs are subsidized by the USDA, and school districts have to make sure they are in compliance with whatever the current guidelines are if they want to continue to receive funding. Most school districts are totally dependent on this federal funding in order to operate their lunchrooms. It doesn't change the fact that we need real change in our school lunch program. Just that it's going to be a challenge at all levels.

The PB&J one always annoyed the hell out of me because peanut allergies are the most common food allergy. There's more people allergic to peanuts than there are in about 10 different states.

Glad your video about this popped up! I left a comment on there. I wish US schools had amazing school meals like in Japanese & Korean schools who still have pretty strict nutrient guidelines so hope this passes since this seems like a step in the right direction to cut back on some sugar and sodium.

Thanks for giving us a way to help. I grew up in NY and was never allowed to get school lunch except occasionally for Friday rectangle pizza as a special treat.

I have 2 school age children in the Midwest region of the US. The whole country is a mess so why anyone is surprised at this? For our situation, we homeschool. I am currently doing my own research on food, chemicals, toxins, water, etc and making my own decisions. We don’t use artificial sweeteners. But I do limit sugar to within reason. My kids eat candy, cookies, etc. just not every meal and every day. Moderation is the key.

Evan thank you so much for making this video. This law is specifically for children who were in my position and will only benefit them. The only food available to me was school food. I got free lunch and breakfast and that's all I had for the rest of the day. And the sugary breakfast foods that were supposed to give me fuel physically made me sick. But do you know what happens when a child doesn't want to eat something but knows they'll starve if they don't? They eat it anyways. I forced myself to eat those sugary cereals because it was ALL I HAD. And I rejoiced on days where there were slightly healthier options. Children can make choices. They can make choices that will benefit them, but can only do so if that choice is available. As an adult I've finally had the chance to give myself the diet I needed then, and it's impacted my life tremendously.

I still remember my first year of elementary school every day we had cookies n cream milk as an option, saddest day every was the day I learned we weren’t getting them anymore.

Here in Hong Kong rules concerning provided school lunches have changed - Primary school students get a lunch which is supposed to be one half veggies, one quater a protein and one quater a starch - usually rice or pasta. Of course some of the kids want more meat/fish/tou fu, but I think most parents are happy with this programme.

I’m from the US and in my late 20’s. On the rare occasion I would get the school lunch I would ask for no vegetable but the lunch lady would tell me she was legally obligated to give it to me so I just ended up throwing it out. And I like vegetables! I ate tons of fruit and veggies at home. But the legally required school lunch vegetables was always canned boiled green beans with literally nothing else on it. No seasoning at all. They couldn’t be bothered to prepare a palatable vegetable. And when fruit was available it was always sad, mealy apples. I don’t think I ever saw a kid eat the vegetable. They were simply legally required to waste green beans.

Growing up in middle class Canada, we always brought our own school lunches. My Elementary and Junior High schools did not have lunchrooms. My High school and University had cafeterias and I occasionally bought my lunches there, but mostly continued to "brown bag" it.

I was an adult before I realized the acid reflux I suffered from as a child was caused, or at least aggravated, by sugary cereals at breakfast. Excess sugar has a lot of crappy side effects. But I still love it 😢

Something about American school lunches is for those of us who depend on these lunches sometimes the food it literally rotten and/or inedible. I’m not kidding when I say at my friends school there was mold in the food. At their current school there’s mold in the walls too and I don’t think anything is being done about it. And also sometimes ketchup is literally counted as a vegetable on the lunch menu to save money. Another thing is when we get fresh fruit it’s often very unripe. Every single time I get a pear it is rock hard and can barely be bitten in to. Also all around the food just tastes like shit. A lot of us just don’t eat lunch or we might eat one small thing out of that lunch. Which is even worse when you consider some of us skip breakfast because we don’t have time or don’t have food at home. I lost a lot of weight this way last year. I never have the time to eat breakfast and the school lunch was horrible so I barely at so I got one meal and a snack a day. I’m already pretty skinny barely 110 pound and about 5’ 7” at the time. After just 2-3 months of this my stomach was completely flat and I was extremely exhausted. The only reason I started eating lunch again was because I knew I would probably pass out at soccer practice if I didn’t start eating and my friends noticed and made me eat cause they knew how unhealthy that was. They had to give up parts of their lunches sometimes so that I could have enough to eat.

Also fun fact: By the energy requirements of the brain if it ran only on sugar you’d die of brain damage from not eating sugary foods every day. It actually uses a combination of sugars (created in the liver without eating any btw in a process called glycogenesis) and ketones, which last longer by several hours, and come from fat. For instance, while just sleeping the body in total uses mostly ketones as every other system is in near stasis. But somehow nobody seems to know about this energy the body needs that it gets from fat? I wonder why? *glares at sugar companies*

As someone who graduated high-school in 2011 I cannot stress enough how disgusting all cafeteria food is in the US as compared to what a student could potentially bring from home.

I like the thought of lower salt and sugar but I'm a little worried how it'll effect some food choices. Like do they just cut all the stuff making it so you never get something good, or give you less food to meet the limit. A.K.A I don't trust school cause who the hell thinks mozzarella stick is a meal? It needs to be more then just 'don't go over the limit'. Schools need certified dietary professionals.

I have just recently graduated from a US high school, and a very clear thing that these folks have done in an effort to try and do this is an affront to the art of cooking: reduce the budget for the food, send everyone the same crap from a storage facility, and basically execute a steam'n'serve policy on literally everything... a problem to be sure in the American south, and specifically Louisiana, home of the deep-fried... everything. and even deep-fried foods can be healthier when made right than when not, but the real problem is the quality. in my school, when there were meals that I didn't like because they tasted so bad I literally couldn't stomach them, I would eat any of the edible sides, take one bite of the crap food, and then not eat again until I got home four hours later, running on a calorie deficit the for the school day on an already high metabolism with a very active lifestyle. the American school lunch doesn't take into account the taste of food, the need for protein in active kids who need to build muscle and stamina, or the palate of people who already know how to cook proper food, and especially not taking into account the food culture of the surrounding area. WE NEED CHANGE we need better, more balanced, actually edible food that people WILL EAT, not just starve because they know how actual food tastes. We need better calories, not fewer calories. But that's just too difficult for these people to understand. JUSTICE FOR THE THIN

Children aren't as stupid as to starve themselves just because they're not used to less salty and sweetened food.

I'm the same age as Evan and my public school in California did have a salad bar. The funny thing is I don't think anyone actually ate the salad, but hoarding the croutons was super common. Whatever was in crouton seasoning was super addicting, so guys would regularly have napkins filled with croutons in their pockets

Who's adding SUGAR to yoghurt !? THAT was turkey in the sandwich !? Why is it the same colour as ham !? Turkey has white meat, like chicken ! Well it is if it comes from a real turkey !

Austrian here. At my kids' school the menu is always a soup of the day and a main dish with sides, and it's a normal nutritious meal that's similar to what I'd cook at home. They even serve spinach occasionally, knowing full well that not all children like it. So what do my kids do when spinach is on the menu? My older kid has actually started eating spinach (at least a little bit) and my younger kid eats the soup first, and then egg and potatoes (without the spinach), and also doesn't go hungry. If you present kids with foods they don't know or don't particularly enjoy, they still won't starve. They'll either try the food or only eat the parts of it that they like. And at my kids' school, they can always have fruit and a Butterbrot later (that's brown bread and butter, much less sugar than in American bread).

My schools always had a really nice hot breakfast. My mom fed us at home, but I was always low key jealous of the kids who got the school’s hot breakfast. They got things like eggs, pancakes, sausage, fruit cups. Most days I had cereal at home because that’s what we had time for with 4 kids trying to get to different schools by 7:30 AM.

I am confident that the US Army cooks could prepare more food better quality and faster than the school system. Having experienced both, I’d pick the army food every time.

Salt is vital for life yes. All the Sugar the body needs is made by the liver - we have no biological need to eat it at alll The US Food lobby wants "sweet" levels in food at levels far higher than the rest of the world! Therefore, adults want that sweet food. Sugar is cheap, and also makes you want more of it = Profit!!! 😞

Thank you Evan! This was terrific info!

So Evan kept his poptarts and sold them. And i broke into school storage room and handed out all the rulers and pens we had not been given yet. The school was deliberately holding them back so that parents would buy their kids those things, and they could push the inventory to the next calendar year. It had been a clear rift between students and teachers, cause we knew we were suppose to get them. Nothing came from it, no one tattled of who did it and teachers did not even talk about it. I also changed school rules about detention, out school was handing out 3 hour detention when 2 hours was the maximum. They started handing out 2+1 hours, so that it was spread over two days. But it was still better than sitting 3 hours without a break, which i had to do a LOT...

In 2007 my secondary school stopped selling normal coke or sugar puddings. I was livid 😡

Respect for making this video, Evan!

It's not even about just obesity. Food like that is nutrient poor: not only it can cause hyperactivity in children (and adults) but also lower attainment (IQ) in developing children. There were lots of reports showing that when children's meals were changed to healthy ones, their overall behaviour and concentration improved and they got up to 5 more points in exams - the biggest change was predictably among the poorest children who didn't receive healthy meals at home. A study among prison inmates produced comparable results: less violent outbreaks, better commucation & problem solving skills.

Run for office! You know lots about laws and government nuances. You are likable and arguably patriotic!

When I was in school, the mothers and grandmothers of the students cooked and served the school lunches and NO junk food was allowed and my sons school has the same food I had way back in the 1960’s to 1980.

NE Scotland here, My son's school has recently started a breakfast club, they are very restricted as to what they are allowed to serve by the council. Options are Weetabix, cornflakes (Kellogg's only as they need to have x amount of fibre that own brands don't offer) and brown toast. If they want to serve something remotely sweet, like pancakes, they have to make sure the pudding at lunchtime isn't too high in sugar. The woman who runs it says parents say their kids won't eat any of that but she's never had someone not eat. Choice is nice, why not have two or even 3 options that are near enough equal. Problem solved.

This is heart-breaking. But perhaps it will turn out well. Thank you for the video!

Thanks for sharing. I wouldn't have known about this so I'm glad I was able to go comment on it to try and fight the bots. I hope every viewer can jump in and help fight for our kids' health.

I don't know. Our school lunches weren't too bad once we got in 3rd/4th grade (for some reason, before that they were REALLY bad). There was kind of a mixture of healthy/unhealthy items. I looked forward to certain days of the week when they'd have my favorites. In high school we even had a salad bar, which I really liked. (It was fairly popular.) There was a really good documentary-style youtube video about a school in the US that switched to healthy school breakfasts and lunches (it should be noted, I don't believe it cost that much more at all). They showed that due to the change there were better grades and less disciplinary issues with the students. For the life of me, though, I've tried to find that video again, and haven't been able to locate it.

i just told my mom about this and she called it control and said if the government wanted to make kids healthier why don't they remove candy like skittles from stores

As someone who was schooled in South America and attended high school in the US, I would say the school lunches is not the problem. In my school (in colombia)our cafeteria food was bottled juice, sodas, pizza, fried food and snacks, but most kids went home to a home cooked meal. Makes me wonder what's the real issue. Also we didn't treat school lunches as a replacement for an actual meal. I do admit that the quality of food was different, even milk is different; US milk tastes like water.

When my daughter was about 14 she had an school exchange with a school in New York State. Had a lovely time etc. etc. except for the food. Everything frozen or prepackaged! On the last day was a goodbye dinner and all the German kids descended on the table with raw foods: celery, carrots, salads etc.

Can’t wait for part 2!

Good job covering this, Evan. I hope you get a lot of great comments and feedback.

Med student here with a husband who works in childhood nutrition with a charter elementary school group. I love that children are being pushed to become more healthier in their diet choices. It's sad when I have to have a conversation with a 10-year-old about how fried chicken is not a good choice for breakfast.