FOOD CORRECTNESS GETS AN ELECTRONIC BOOST

Or how to ensure that kids pig out on everything fattening once they escape parental control

A student slides a tray toward the cafeteria cash register with a healthy selection: a pint of milk, green beans, whipped sweet potatoes and chicken nuggets - baked, not fried. But then he adds a fudge brownie. When he punches in his code for the prepaid account his parents set up, a warning sounds: "This student has a food restriction." Back goes the brownie as the cashier reminds him that his parents have declared all desserts off-limits.

This could be a common occurrence at Houston schools when the district becomes one of the largest in the nation with a cafeteria automation system that lets parents dictate -and track - what their kids get. Primero Food Service Solutions, developed by Houston-based Cybersoft Technologies, allows parents to set up prepaid lunch accounts so children don't have to carry money, said Ray Barger, Cybersoft's director of sales and marketing. It also shows the cashier any food allergies or parent-set diet restrictions for his or her account, and the student is not allowed to buy an offending item.

Parents also can go online to track their child's eating habits and make changes. "If parents want Johnny to eat chips one day a week, they can go in and make changes to allow them to buy a bag of chips on, say, Fridays," said Terry Abbott, spokesman for Houston Independent School District, the nation's seventh-largest with more than 250,000 students.

Robin Green, whose 14-year-old son, Jerry, is in seventh grade in the Houston district, said she would probably sign up for the new voluntary monitoring system once it's implemented within the next year. Green was concerned that parents from low-income families without access to computers would not be able to participate, but Abbott said parents can go to their school and work with cafeteria representatives.

Barger said his company's system already is being used in schools in Arizona, Oklahoma, Michigan and Tennessee, as well as other Texas cities. Several other companies have similar cafeteria monitoring programs at other schools.

Prepaid cafeteria accounts have been around for five to 10 years, but programs that allow parents to say what their kids can or can't eat are a more recent development, said Erik Peterson, spokesman for the Washington-based School Nutrition Association. His organization did not have exact figures on how many school districts use such programs.....

Karen Cullen, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Children's Nutrition Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, cautioned that the system is good only if it sparks communication between parents and their children on healthy food choices. "Kids need to be able to make healthy choices," Cullen said. "Parents can't be in charge. Children need some freedom."

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Unsafe safety experts: "Twenty-one people were rescued after becoming trapped when they fell nine feet as a floor collapsed during a health and safety meeting at a firm. A Greater Manchester Fire Service spokesman said a mezzanine floor collapsed at Findel Education in Hyde Buildings, Ashton Road, Hyde. ... The meeting began at about 1000 GMT on Tuesday with the 21 safety officers sitting around a large wooden conference table. Staff in the ground floor office underneath noticed the ceiling moving and ran out of the room seconds before it collapsed. More health and safety officers arrived later from Tameside Borough Council to investigate the cause of the incident."


Cocaine is good for you: "Coca leaf has more nutritional value than milk and should replace it in school lunches, Bolivia's new Foreign Minister has suggested. "Our children need calcium, and the coca leaf has more calcium than milk," David Choquehuanca said. In past interviews, Mr Choquehuanca said he stopped reading books when he discovered his Aymara heritage, and claimed to get his knowledge from reading the wrinkles of his ancestors. "Our children need phosphorous, and the coca leaf has more phosphorous than fish," he said. "Perhaps instead of milk in school lunches, we should be giving coca leaf to our children." Mr Choquehuanca said his information on the nutritional value of the coca leaf came from studies by the Bolivian Health Ministry and Harvard University."

Spoonful of sugar may keep cancer away: "Sugar cane might soon do more than sweeten your tea - researchers insist it might stop you getting cancer. The millions of cane stalks sprouting from Queensland paddocks could provide health-enhancing products such as nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals, according to scientists. The Co-operative Research Centre for Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology is delving into the chemical and biological makeup of sugar cane to try to uncover value adding opportunities. The project, led by Associate Professor David Leach from Southern Cross University and Dr Michael O'Shea from sugar industry research group BSES, is already showing results. Both scientists are convinced the humble cane plant is a potential gold mine that could be exploited for value-added products. They have discovered high levels of active compounds with potential use for manufacture of valuable products such as antioxidants and other supplements for the prevention or management of disease. "We have recently identified cancer inhibiting extracts with positive activity against human prostate and breast cancer cell lines," Dr O'Shea said."


Fatties are happy: "Scientists in Bristol in south-west England have discovered that fat people are more cheerful than their thin peers... Nor is this a reworking of the slightly less ancient study that found that people with notable self-control, people who weren't "appetitive", were more likely to be depressed. The usefulness of this survey was opaque. It appeared to demonstrate that hedonists were happier than puritans. Nobody needs a scientist to tell them that. They just need to study the works of Chaucer. Or Dickens. Or most TV soaps. The people enjoying themselves are the fat, jolly ones. The people who worry about how they look, and what people think of them, and what God might think, and whether drinking too much mead will turn out to be a signal that they are bound for hell - those people don't enjoy themselves so much. In fact, the new research is quite new. It merely asked whether fat people kill themselves. Are they prone to depression or anxiety? The answers were all no. Not only are you less depressed when overweight, it works in proportion. The fatter you get, the less likely you are to commit suicide".

A good sex life begins at 50: "It used to be that reaching his half-century made a man feel old - not any more. Today's 50-something has a twinkle in his eye and a more enjoyable sex life than a 40-year-old. In fact, he even rates himself with the young generation, claiming satisfaction almost equal to a 20-year-old. Researchers who questioned more than 1000 men found, while sex drive reduced with age, the 50-pluses enjoy themselves more than men in their 40s and a lot more than the least satisfied group, men in their 30s. The research suggested 50-somethings may be more comfortable with their sex lives because they no longer have to worry about the pressures of building a career or looking after young children and can concentrate on having fun."


Another fear for food faddists: Sprouts can be dangerous too "Small children are among more than 100 West Australians who have fallen ill with salmonella poisoning after eating sprouts sold in supermarkets. Contaminated alfalfa sprouts, mung beans, bean shoots and other sprout products have been sold in Action, Coles and Woolworths supermarkets since November, resulting in 110 reported cases of food poisoning. A Health Department investigation led to the sprout products being pulled from supermarket shelves on Friday. The department believes animal waste is a likely reason for salmonella in the sprouts, which were germinated in South Australia. South Australia was the source of a deadly listeria outbreak last year after hospital patients ate contaminated packaged meats. West Australian Health Department communicable disease control director Paul Van Buynder urged people to discard any Parilla Fresh sprouts products. He said it was rare for the particular strain of salmonella to result in death and said no one had been admitted to hospital after eating the sprouts".

Swedish Hells Angels feeling 'depressed': "The Stockholm chapter of the biker gang Hell's Angels is being investigated for fraud after police found 70 per cent of members were certified as depressed by the same doctor and were getting state sickness benefits. "It seems to be depressing being a member of this club," Christer Nilsson, deputy head of Stockholm police's criminal investigation department, told newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Biker gangs like the Hell's Angels and their deadly rivals the Bandidos have a history of violent crime in Scandinavia including shootouts and bomb attacks, but have also branched out into benefit and tax frauds in recent years, police say. Sweden has estimated that as much as a fifth of the workforce is on long-term sick leave or early retirement due to sickness, often put down to "burn-out""


The druggies will love this! "The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that the US Government cannot stop a small religious sect using hallucinogenic tea from Brazil that devotees says brings them closer to God. The court decided that US freedom of religion legislation trumped US government claims that hoasca was a dangerous, mind altering substance, which could be diverted to recreational users. The Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, decided the Government failed to show a compelling interest in barring the "sacramental use of hoasca" by the church, O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal (UDV). The ruling was delivered by an 8-0 ruling.... UDV rituals involve sipping hoasca tea, made from the roots of two indigenous Amazonian plants, in communion. The case arose in 1999 when US customs officers intercepted a shipment of brewed hoasca liquid from Brazil. Hoasca contains dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, which is a banned substance in the US."

Madsen Pirie says that British food has improved way out of sight in recent years and he attributes it to McDonalds! How incorrect can you get?

Alzheimer's "faster in educated" "Alzheimer's disease progresses more rapidly in highly educated people, research suggests. It is thought high levels of education may ward off Alzheimer's by helping the brain better tolerate damaging changes. But the latest study, involving 312 Alzheimer's patients, suggests once accumulated damage reaches a critical level, decline is relatively swift. The study, by New York's Columbia University, features in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The researchers monitored 312 people aged 65 and older who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's for five years. Each patient underwent a battery of tests to assess their neurological function. Overall mental agility declined every year among all the patients. But each additional year of education equated to an additional 0.3% deterioration per year."

The Latest French Grovel

Now we have discriminatory soup:

"French authorities have begun closing down soup kitchens run by anti-immigrant groups that serve pork because the practice is offensive to Muslims, who cannot eat pork. In Strasbourg and Nice, food handouts have been banned because they could lead to "public disorder." "Schemes with racial subtexts must be denounced," Mayor Fabienne Keller said.... The scene has been repeated all over France in recent weeks after complaints that right-wing groups have been serving "racist" food. The groups giving out the soup say it is nothing more than traditional French cuisine. They say that hundreds of homeless people will go hungry".

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Why French people cannot give away what they want to whomever they want seems incomprehensible to me but I am not a babyish Muslim who is perpetually offended.

GRASSROOTS REBELLION AGAINST FOODS FASCISTS

What's good and bad for you is all a matter of opinion -- the science is all up in the air -- but you would never know it from listening to the ostensible "do-gooders". And some of the things that they allow -- such as milk -- are high in calories anyway!

The 12- and 13-year-olds dug candies out of their pockets and backpacks, devouring them as appetizers, desserts, or substitutes for lunch in the Boston middle school cafeteria. One girl squeezed Xtra Sour Goo Candy from a pink tube and licked the drops of strawberry-flavored sugar from her palm. She sprayed another sour candy from a pump into her mouth, while a classmate sucked a giant diamond-shaped candy in a plastic ring on her hand.

The children attend Mildred Avenue Middle School, which has banned soda and junk food from its one vending machine and instead stocks it with low-fat yogurt, cheddar cheese cubes, and calcium-infused orange juice. With its candy-chomping pupils and its healthy vending machine, the Mattapan school models the problem as well as a possible solution for improving children's nutrition, an issue the state Senate is to tackle today. The Senate plans to debate whether to limit the sale of high-calorie snacks and sugar-laden soft drinks in school vending machines.

The bill, which comes amid similar efforts by school systems across the nation, is likely to pass the Senate, but it would need approval from the House and Governor Mitt Romney. Its prospects are unclear in the House, where a more stringent bill has been under consideration. A spokesman for Romney was noncommittal yesterday on the measure.

Like Mildred Avenue in Dorchester, dozens of schools across the Bay State -- including some in Natick, Framingham, Billerica, and Marlborough -- offer vending machines stocked exclusively with healthy choices. But a lunchtime visit to Mildred Avenue yesterday showed that school officials and lawmakers cannot control what students eat by changing what is sold in vending machines. Children bring candy and other snacks from home or buy them on their way to school. And they don't think the proposed law would change their eating habits. ''Sometimes, we have headaches and we need sugar in our heads," said Yarmisha Cofield, a Mildred Avenue seventh-grader who ate the $1.29 tube of sour candy and only picked at her school lunch of fried chicken. Her friend Europe Thomas, 12, had spent $2 on a bag of chocolates at a convenience store and ate them before lunch. An unfinished tray of chicken, peaches, and chocolate milk sat before her. ''I'm not in the mood for it," Thomas said.

Senate leaders say their bill is designed more to educate pupils from a young age about healthy eating habits than to outlaw junk food. ''We think we need to move in a phased approach and not come down with a hammer right away," said Senator Richard T. Moore, chairman of the Joint Health Care Financing Committee and an Uxbridge Democrat.

Child obesity can lead to diabetes, asthma, and heart disease and affect students' capacity to learn, Senate President Robert E. Travaglini said yesterday during a meeting with reporters to unveil the proposal. The bill, following guidelines recommended by the American Beverage Association, which represents Coca-Cola and Pepsi, would ban soft drinks from vending machines in elementary schools. The machines would be allowed to sell only water, 100 percent fruit juices, and low-fat or nonfat milk during the school day. Middle schools would be allowed to sell sports drinks, low-calorie juice drinks, and zero-calorie sodas. High schools could stock their vending machines with soda as long as healthy alternatives are available in at least equal quantity. Schools would also have to limit the calories in vending machine snacks. The House bill goes further by banning all soda and sports drinks during school hours at all three school levels and by regulating the fats, sugars, and carbohydrates -- in addition to calories -- of snacks sold in school vending machines.

Senate leaders cast their bill as a compromise, saying they wanted to balance the need to improve childhood nutrition with concerns from school systems and the food and beverage industry about losing revenue from vending machines. Representative Peter Koutoujian, a Waltham Democrat who sponsored the House measure, said he is disappointed that his bill is being overshadowed by the Senate compromise. Sue Burchill, the nurse at Mildred Avenue School, said the Senate bill does not go far enough and a comprehensive vending machine junk food and soda ban is necessary precisely because students sneak in candy and chips from home. ''They are not capable of making good choices at this age, so you have to do it for them," she said.

Sixth-grader Oscar Villanova, 12, bought orange juice and cheddar cheese sticks from the school vending machine to supplement his lunch of chicken, apple, and milk. He said he would have preferred chips.

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