Mmm. School lunches. Just thinking about then makes you a little
nostalgic, doesn't it? That particular smell found only in school
cafeterias (was it the tacos? the green beans? the tater
tots? what?); the scowling fat ladies in hairnets wielding large
spoons behind the counter; it all just brings you right back to the 3rd
grade. Yum. So when I read that a Pennsylvania school
district replaced its popular but high-fat ranch
dressing with a version chock-full of "Mystery Fat", I couldn't help but
remember the time when that kid, what was his name? Tim
something? When Tim hurled up his breakfast (Cheerios, judging by
the evidence there on the floor) right in the cafeteria line, setting
off a whole unfortunate chain reaction that set the entire janitorial
staff to scurrying for their mops and buckets and eventually took out
the entire 2nd grade plus half the third.
Yep,
Plum Borough (near Pittsburgh, an otherwise totally cool city) School
District took it upon itself 10 months ago to replace full-fat
mayonnaise and mayo-containing products such as the ranch dressing with
one containing a substance called Z Trim, "made from the hulls of corn, oats,
soy, rice and barley", now being manufactured and
marketed by a company called FiberGel Technologies. (Mmm, Z
Trim. FiberGel. Sound yummy, don't they?) The kicker? They did the swap without telling anyone. We
already know that Pennsylvania is concerned enough about fat and kids
to send notes home to the parents of fat kids, but doesn't this cross a
line? So what if its manufacturer says the Z Trim has no side
effects? If I were a parent to a kid in that district, I'd like
to know what my kid was being fed, thank you!
And, uh,
Plum Borough people? I hate to break this to you, but fat isn't
the
problem. Nope! While Plum Borough may think they are
successfully "fighting the obesity epidemic", I semi-respectfully
suggest they are simply fueling it. With low-fat versions of
typically high-fat foods, students may be lulled into thinking they can
eat anywhere the way they do in school. Not only that, but piling
" white globs of
ranch dressing" onto a salad isn't exactly a good idea, real fat or
mystery fat. What schools nationwide really need to do is to look
at the choices available in the schools and to also educate children
about smart eating. What about portion size? Types of foods
offered? And how about a little exercise now and then?
Using this "mystery fat" is just throwing more fat at the growing
problem of obesity, and won't do a thing to make it go away.
