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All praise to the lunch ladies

bittersoutherner.com

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Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#81

Post by scrps »

somerandomqaguy wrote: post #54
Spivak wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean this is the nanny state at its best. Getting in the way of progress because you refuse to meet people, in this case kids, where they actually are. The challenge should be minimizing the amount of waste—cook literally anything where the kids will clean their plates then try to nudge toward healthier options while keeping your waste % low. Let them take any subset of the lunch as they please, prune dishes kids e…

Not exactly easy. The US military (hell just about every army on the planet) spends a lot of money and effort into developing field rations that are palatable enough for infantry sections on the move to eat in it's entirety. I can't imagine developing it for far more numerous school children is going to be any easier.

faint sound of fading laughter from a US SSBN

If you want a successful lunch program (and rations if you have a to-go bag) look no further than the US Navy's sub program.

Given the environment and danger (and having a bunch of humans in close proximity, deep under the ocean, with nowhere to go, hangry, is not going to inspire unit cohesion) they get really, really good food. Which is probably not a bad thing to give people tooling around with enough firepower to take out a few dozen cities.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#82

Post by sevg »

poink wrote: post #80
speed_spread wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it conditions your expectations of tasting salt everywhere, which is what industrial food provides. Good food should taste great even if it's low on salt.

It feels like you’re using “industrial food” as a pejorative, but the best chefs in the world also do not skimp on salt

> the best chefs in the world also do not skimp on salt

Chefs use lots of salt to optimize for taste rather than health. (And restaurants don’t have to declare how much salt was in your meal.)

That’s why it’s a bad idea to eat out and/or get take-away every day. Your salt intake would be extremely high.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#83

Post by suchoudh »

Almost all schools in Indore, MadhyaPradesh, India have breakfast and lunch provided by school.

The food is really well cooked and nutritious. Most other cities in India the bf and tiffin needs to be given by parents which makes mornings very busy.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#84

Post by userbinator »

sevg wrote: post #82
poink wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like you’re using “industrial food” as a pejorative, but the best chefs in the world also do not skimp on salt

> the best chefs in the world also do not skimp on salt Chefs use lots of salt to optimize for taste rather than health. (And restaurants don’t have to declare how much salt was in your meal.) That’s why it’s a bad idea to eat out and/or get take-away every day. Your salt intake would be extremely high.

Look at the graph of life expectancy vs. average sodium intake by country, and you may be surprised.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#85

Post by sevg »

userbinator wrote: post #84
sevg wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the best chefs in the world also do not skimp on salt Chefs use lots of salt to optimize for taste rather than health. (And restaurants don’t have to declare how much salt was in your meal.) That’s why it’s a bad idea to eat out and/or get take-away every day. Your salt intake would be extremely high.

Look at the graph of life expectancy vs. average sodium intake by country, and you may be surprised.

Read this and you may be surprised: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_cau...

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#87

Post by poink »

sevg wrote: post #82
poink wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like you’re using “industrial food” as a pejorative, but the best chefs in the world also do not skimp on salt

> the best chefs in the world also do not skimp on salt Chefs use lots of salt to optimize for taste rather than health. (And restaurants don’t have to declare how much salt was in your meal.) That’s why it’s a bad idea to eat out and/or get take-away every day. Your salt intake would be extremely high.

Are we pretending that optimizing for taste is a bad thing?

It’s obviously bad to eat super salty “ultraprocessed” food all the time, but it’s not like the salt is the primary problem

To take OP’s example, I’d much rather kids eat generously salted broccoli that is “optimized for taste” rather than unsalted mac & cheese, regardless of whether they just throw it away (which I probably would, too)

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#88

Post by sevg »

poink wrote: post #87
sevg wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the best chefs in the world also do not skimp on salt Chefs use lots of salt to optimize for taste rather than health. (And restaurants don’t have to declare how much salt was in your meal.) That’s why it’s a bad idea to eat out and/or get take-away every day. Your salt intake would be extremely high.

Are we pretending that optimizing for taste is a bad thing? It’s obviously bad to eat super salty “ultraprocessed” food all the time, but it’s not like the salt is the primary problem To take OP’s example, I’d much rather kids eat generously salted broccoli that is “optimized for taste” rather than unsalted mac & cheese, regardless of whether they just throw it away (which I probably would, too)

> It feels like you’re using “industrial food” as a pejorative, but the best chefs in the world also do not skimp on salt

Your first comment that kicked off this sub-thread missed the context. We’re talking about school food kids eat every day, not occasional restaurant meals. So the appeal to authority of “best chefs in the world” doesn’t make sense here.

My point wasn’t that taste is bad, it’s that when you optimize solely for taste like restaurants do (using high salt, high fat etc without disclosure), you can create health problems when consumed daily.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#89

Post by jandrewrogers »

speed_spread wrote: post #79
Auracle wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never understand why Michelle Obama’s plan included low salt. It’s not like kids have major hypertensive issues.

Because it conditions your expectations of tasting salt everywhere, which is what industrial food provides. Good food should taste great even if it's low on salt.

An enormous amount of traditional food from around the world has a lot of salt in it. Salt is not a modern invention.

For example, humans have been eating olives for tens of thousands of years. Olives contain and require prodigious amounts of salt to taste good, usually in the form of seawater.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#90

Post by almosthere »

speed_spread wrote: post #79
Auracle wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never understand why Michelle Obama’s plan included low salt. It’s not like kids have major hypertensive issues.

Because it conditions your expectations of tasting salt everywhere, which is what industrial food provides. Good food should taste great even if it's low on salt.

What most people don't get is that if you're salting food during the cooking phase it requires a crap ton.

If you just sprinkle it on after it's cooked, it's so much spicier and takes so much less. Cake and eat it.

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