Eat Less!

1. Eat Less! Fat, Sugar, Salt and Sodium in School Meals

2. Lesson Objectives: • Identify common sugars and alternate names that are used for sugar on food labels. • Choose and prepare foods with less fat, sugar, and salt in Child Nutrition Programs. • Identify ways to decrease fat in Child Nutrition Programs.

3. Nutrition Guide for Child Nutrition Programs • Offer a variety of foods • Serve meals that help maintain healthy body weight • Offer meals low in fat, saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol • Serve plenty of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and low-fat/fat-free milk • Offer and serve sugar, salt and sodium in moderation

4. School Foodservice Goal • Provide children with school meals that promote their health, meet nutrient needs, meet nutrition goals, and assist in preventing chronic disease.

5. School Lunch: Comparing Yesterday and Today • Use handout to compare school lunch from yesterday with today

6. Types of Fats • Saturated fat • Trans fat • Cholesterol • Polyunsaturated • Monounsaturated • Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids

7. Making School Meals Healthier • Menu Planning • Food Purchasing • Recipe Modification • Food Preparation

8. Menu Planning Goals • Average of 30% or less of calories from fat • Average of 10% saturated fat of calories from fat • 20-24 grams of fat/lunch per day for K-3 • 24-30 grams of fat/lunch per day for 4-12 • School lunch entrée 12-15 grams of fat • Caloric goals for school lunch • 634 or above calories for K-3 • 785 or above calories for 4-12

9. Food Purchasing to Lower Fat • Communicate with vendors • Ask for product nutrient analysis and food label • Rewrite bid specifications

10. Recipe Modification • Eliminate • Reduce • Substitute • Change one ingredient at a time

11. Food Preparation • Use and follow USDA recipes • Use cooking methods to reduce fat (bake, boil, broil) • Use standard serving utensils • Use correct portion sizes

12. Pop – America’s Drink

13. Sugars in Moderation • Links to restlessness and behavior problems? • Tooth decay • Excess calories? • Link with caffeine

14. Finding Sugar in Food • Table sugar-sucrose • High fructose corn syrup • Corn sweetener • Glucose (dextrose) • Fructose (fruit sugar) • Maltose • Lactose (milk sugar) • Honey and syrups • Raw sugar and molasses • Brown sugar

15. Link to Foodservice • Ideas to reduce sugar in school meals • Offer low-sugar cereals at breakfast • Purchase fruit in light syrup, juice or water pack • Offer vanilla wafers, ginger snaps or graham crackers as cookie choices • Mix sugared and low sugar cereals • Offer fruit for dessert

16. Salt and Sodium • Salt – NaCl • Processed foods • Added salt in cooking • Link to high blood pressure • ND School Lunch Guidelines • 1200-2000 milligrams/lunch

17. Link to Foodservice • Remove salt shakers from cafeteria • Limit use of salty meats • Use fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned • Limit soy sauce & BBQ sauce • Serve school-made soup instead of canned

18. Eliminate: • Salt in recipes • High salt seasonings • Salt added to water when cooking pasta, potatoes, or vegetables

19. Substitute • Herbs, spices, garlic or onion powder for salt, onion salt and garlic salt • Sodium free or reduced sodium versions of seasonings, soups, etc.

20. Preparation Practices • Don’t add baking soda to vegetables • Use taste testing panels to test herbs and spices added to foods • Make cakes, pancakes and desserts from scratch rather than using prepared mixes