१ जून, २००९

"I asked for something to eat, I'm hungry as a hog, So I get brown rice, seaweed, and a dirty hot dog."

Brown rice, seaweed, but no dirty hot dog, in the Japanese school lunch:



Just one of many school lunches from around the world (including the U.S.).

Via Metafilter.

१८ टिप्पण्या:

Meade म्हणाले...

No wonder kids have become so obese: Portions too large, many of those lunches are nutrient deficient -- too much of nothing ("can turn a man into a liar.")

rhhardin म्हणाले...

It's not a proper traditional 50s USA lunch if the carton doesn't say ``homo milk'' on the top.

Jennifer म्हणाले...

Some of those lunches look delicious - particularly the Chinese and Korean ones.

It's not just that, Meade. It drives me insane but my kids' teachers tell them to "make a happy plate". Which means, apparently, to stuff every last thing on the plate in your belly. I keep having to tell the kids MOMMY DOESN'T CARE ABOUT HAPPY PLATES, Mommy cares about happy tummies - eat what you want and no more.

I pack my son's lunches but my daughter is at the mercy of her school. Thankfully they serve healthy alternatives - whole wheat pizza, black eyed peas instead of fries, etc...

TitusIsSoHappyToday म्हणाले...

Every time I go home to Wisconsin I visit my little niece who is 7 in school. We go to lunch and then play with them afterward. This is in Lodi, Wisconsin.

The food is so awful I can't even touch it. So sad. As you all know I am a very good eater.

Hoosier Daddy म्हणाले...

I remember back when I was a kid, they said if we stopped the hot lunch program all the childrens would starve. Now the crisis is the kids are all lardasses.

Meade म्हणाले...

Yeah... homo D. They put fluoride in our water and tried to turn us all into commies. That wasn't enough so then they turned us all homo D.

jayne_cobb म्हणाले...

In high school I used to just get a big cookie (roughly the size of a dinner plate) and a carton of chocolate milk to soak it with.

Thankfully I got out just as the "healthy choices" movement was gaining force.

Gretchen म्हणाले...

The meal from Sweden looks downright delicious! If only that was served here!

bearbee म्हणाले...

The Malwai menu looked good but needed some fresh greens and a piece of fresh fruit.

bearbee म्हणाले...

And BTW we should be encouraging eating of raw nuts, e.g., walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, as a regular part of our diet. Good source of protein, omega 3 fatty acid, fiber.

ricpic म्हणाले...

I second Gretchen. The Swedish lunch is the only one that actually looks appetizing.

Balfegor म्हणाले...

I second Gretchen. The Swedish lunch is the only one that actually looks appetizing.

Really? I thought it was one of the most disgusting looking -- those mystery vegetables, those two yellow . . . things. The Japanese one at the top looks good, though.

Kurt म्हणाले...

Another vote for the Swedish lunch here! :-)

I was appalled that the French lunches looked so bad.

अनामित म्हणाले...

Most of those meals may be lean on calories (and meat) but they are hardly healthy. Like most Asian dishes, they are probably loaded with salt, and since high blood pressure is a MAJOR killer of adults in the US, it's not a good idea to pump our kids full of salt while they are growing up. Plus, as others have already pointed out, they are short on fresh vegetables and nuts. I love Asian food of all varieties and have it 5 or 6 times a week, but I'd never recommend it as a regular menu item for children. Fortunately my blood pressure is quite low and salt is not a problem for me.

Jennifer म्हणाले...

Asian food loaded with salt!? Damn, granma taught me how to cook wrong.

I think people have a tendency to conflate the food they get in restaurants with the food people eat at home. All restaurants load up on salt and fats signficantly more than the home cooked versions of same.

I'm kind of giggling about the idea that someone would recommend wiping an entire continent's food off the board for kids. You can't possibly believe the entirety of Asia is regularly endangering their children - not to mention the rest of us who grew up with various typically Asian foods and continue to feed it to our own kids...

अनामित म्हणाले...

Jennifer, these are not home cooked meals. They are school lunches. What you were served at home or what YOU serve your kids at home might be healthy but the version of it that your kids would get served at school would probably not closely resemble what you consider home cooking (and what I cook at home, too). Do most public schools around the country have nutritionists and carefully trained cooks? Not in the town where I grew up. So, giggle away. And keep packing your son's lunch.

अनामित म्हणाले...

PS to Jennifer: I should have added this brief note to you. Do you serve shoyu/soy sauce with some of your meals or use it in cooking? What do you see when you look at the ingredients on a bottle of the stuff? For the brands of shoyu from Japan that I use, each tablespoon contains 1 gram of salt, which is 40% of the recommended adult daily limit! That's for just ONE tablespoon. So even if someone does not use shoyu in cooking, it is possible he'll get a lot of "hidden" salt on the side. Plus, that's for a 2000 calorie per day diet. Kids should each much less than that and their salt intake should be restricted correspondingly.

Kev म्हणाले...

It drives me insane but my kids' teachers tell them to "make a happy plate". Which means, apparently, to stuff every last thing on the plate in your belly. I keep having to tell the kids MOMMY DOESN'T CARE ABOUT HAPPY PLATES, Mommy cares about happy tummies - eat what you want and no more.

My elementary school was pretty much the same way, and a lot of parents didn't help things ("clean your plate--there are starving kids in Korea" etc.). The worst time for me was when I tried to hide the stuff I didn't want into my (Vitamin D homo) milk carton, and my fourth grade teacher caught me and made me eat it!