Implementing the 2005 Dietary Guidelines & MyPyramid in Your School

1. Implementing the 2005 Dietary Guidelines & MyPyramid in Your School

2. Objectives for This Session • Discuss ways to incorporate the Dietary Guidelines, MyPyramid, and MyPyramid for Kids into your School. • Discuss why school lunch is the perfect learning laboratory for healthy eating habits. • Set 3 goals to implement the recommendations into your school.

3. What Do We Know? • Change is coming…? • Wellness Policies • Meal Pattern Changes in the National School Lunch Pattern • Updated USDA Recipes • HealthierUS School Challenge • Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools • All are sending a consistent nutrition message • Aimed at changing the school environment to improve the health of children

4. What Else Do We Know? • By law, schools are required to meet minimum nutrient standards that: • Are consistent with the most recent recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines (2005) • Provide a percentage of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for specific nutrients

5. What Will the Future Hold for School Meals • No new standards…yet. • What would you predict?

6. Perhaps… • More whole grains • At least ½ of servings • Emphasis on first ingredient of the food label being a whole grain • Variety

7. More Fruits • Focus on fresh • Less juice • Focus on variety • Another good way to increase fiber

8. More Vegetables • More fresh vegetables • More dark green leafy and orange • Less starchy vegetables • More legumes • More variety

9. Milk • Low fat and fat free

10. Fat • Continue focus on total fat and saturated fat • More focus on what TYPES of fats are being served

11. Sugar • Less foods with added sugar

12. Sodium • Decreasing the sodium in the school meal pattern • Based on the Dietary Guidelines schools may need to offer: • <575 mg for breakfast • <770 mg for lunch • Can we meet this? • North Dakota SMI for the ’06-07 school year revealed that the average school lunch has 1726 mg of sodium!

13. How do you start implementing changes in your school lunch program? Here are some ideas…

14. Whole Grains • Experiment with different whole grain breads, rolls, buns, pasta, and rice - try a new one once a month • If you are baking your own, use whole wheat flour (1/3 or ½) as a substitute for white flour

15. More Fruits • Use fresh as much as possible • Add more variety • Try one new fruit option each month • Offer one high vitamin C food each day • Use fruits packed in light syrup, juice or water • Add dried, canned, frozen or fresh fruit to bread/cake/muffin recipes.

16. More Vegetables • More fresh vegetables and more variety • More dark green leafy and orange vegetables and less starchy vegetables • Try one bean/pea option - aim for one serving a week • Try low fat or fat free dips with veggies • Choose fresh most often • Consider salad entrees and salad bars • Add corn to cornbread/muffin recipes • Offer salsa instead of Ranch dressing for dips. • Use Mexicali Ranch dressing (mix blended salsa half & half with Ranch) instead of Ranch dressing

17. Milk and Dairy • Low-fat and fat-free milk or flavored milk • Choose low fat cheese and yogurt • Read labels and choose products that have 1% or skim milk as the first ingredient • Top fruited gelatin with nonfat yogurt • Consider serving low-fat frozen yogurt, ice milk, sherbet and nonfat milk puddings • Mix mozzarella and cheddar cheeses • All commodity cheese is reduced fat • Offer string cheese or a 4 oz yogurt as a second entrée choice everyday • Try fruit/yogurt/granola parfaits

18. Fat • Read labels and watch for hydrogenated vegetable oil that may contain trans fat • Avoid saturated fats like butter, palm and coconut oils • Choose unsaturated fats/oils more often (corn, canola, sunflower, etc) • Look for liquid oil as the first ingredient on the label • Offer tub margarine • Trim visible fat from meats and drain fat • Bake, broil, grill and steam more often • Use leaner meats and preparations

19. Sugar • Less foods with added sugar • Look for light products (light syrup, unsweetened, artificial sweeteners, etc) • Mix low sugar cereal with some with sugared cereal

20. Sodium • Try more home cooked recipes • Avoid/decrease processed foods • Add more seasonings besides salt (garlic, onion, celery powders for example) • Avoid adding salt, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauces • Don’t add salt to cook pasta or rice • Don’t add salt to foods, let kids add salt if they need to

21. Read Labels • Look for • Trans fat, total fat and saturated fat • Cholesterol • Sugars • Sodium content • Fat free and low fat

22. Changes in Commodity Foods • Trans Fat • Sugars • Whole Grains

23. What to Do? • Planning some next steps…

24. Ideas • Brainstorming Session

25. What Ideas Did You Come Up With? • Group sharing

26. Food for Thought… • Start • Taste testing foods • Involving students in food selection • Involving PTA/PTO in food selection • Getting involved with your local wellness group

27. Food for Thought… • Start • Paying attention to the ingredients on food labels • Whole grains • Watch sodium in foods • Adding more variety to your menu

28. Another GREAT Resource • Use Fruits and Vegetables Galore! • Get the free resource at: • http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/Resources/fv_galore.html • Has great ideas for schools to increase fruits and vegetables

29. More Ideas • Have students take a “field trip” to your kitchen and talk about school breakfast and lunch • Start color coding your foods (with stickers) to help kids recognize what food groups they are eating from • Work with teachers and have kids plan menus

30. Next Step… • Plan 1-3 goals for your school to work on this year based on the information you learned today. • Write them down and post them in your kitchen…plan on how you are going to accomplish these goals

31. Goals for My School • Goal One: • Goal Two: • Goal Three:

32. Make It a HOME RUN! • Be an advocate for child nutrition • Be a role model • Become an advocate for good nutrition in your school…our kids are worth it!