Milling & Baking News - June 29, 2010 - 16

Nutrition and Health 

Group emphasizes potential role
of whole grains in school meals
MINNEAPOLIS - School meals,
a principal vehicle for addressing
childhood obesity, highlighted a
meeting earlier this month co-sponsored by the Grains for Health Foundation, the Food Industry Center,
and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at
the University of Minnesota.
The goal of the conference, titled
"The Future of Grains in Schools:
Tipping the Scales Toward a Healthier Food Supply," was to pass
along new ideas to improve school

Keynote speaker Virginia Stallings,
M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, said the obesity epidemic is our "wake-up call." She
said, "Sixty per cent of the children in
this country participate in school meal
programs. We need to encourage fruits,
vegetables, and whole grains."
Dr. Stallings also is the former
chairperson of the Institute of Medicine, which oversaw the writing of
the report, "School Meals: Building
Blocks for Healthy Children."
Len Marquart, nutrition professor

'School lunch is the perfect opportunity for kids to
get fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods. The
United States has the most advanced food industry
in the world. We can defeat childhood obesity, but
we must work together.'
- Len Marquart, nutrition professor at the University of
Minnesota and head of the Grains for Health Foundation.

lunch programs that serve about 31
million children daily, and to establish a multi-sector interdisciplinary
task force to plan and develop a model for delivering healthier grain foods
through U.S. school food service.
The conference included representatives of the food industry, government,
farming, and science communities.
"The stakes are high," said William Dietz, M.D., director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, and
a keynote speaker at the conference.
"More and more children are confronting the negative health effects
of poor diets, and it's time for meaningful change."
Among the changes discussed at
the meeting that may be adopted in
schools nationwide:
* Encouraging more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains
* Banning soda and snacks
* Removing a la carte items from
cafeteria menus
* Extending lunch periods that
have become too hurried
* Prohibiting off-campus lunchtime
* Returning to more "scratch
kitchens" housed within schools
* Creating national standards for
all states to adhere to uniformly
* Increasing the number of highfiber food options.
16 / June 29, 2010 Milling & Baking News

at the University of Minnesota and
head of the Grains for Health Foundation, said change may be coming.
"School lunch is the perfect opportunity for kids to get fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods," he
said. "The United States has the
most advanced food industry in
the world. We can defeat childhood
obesity, but we must work together.
"There's certainly a mandate to
increase the amount of whole grains
in school lunches, but the key will
be making the changes successful
with kids. We know where government and industry have tried and
failed, and we know where they've
succeeded. We need bigger wins for
our children, and that's what we
discussed during the conference."
According to the Grains for
Health Foundation, much of the
focus on grain foods is due to their
potential to impact the entire school
lunch menu. In addition, grains are
a food staple and widely consumed.
"Whole grains are not a silver
bullet, but they can come close," Dr.
Marquart said. "They can be very
beneficial. It's possible to reduce
calories while boosting nutrition
with whole grains, especially when
paired with fruits and vegetables."
The versatility of whole grains
was one of the strategies examined
at the conference. Observers noted

that whole grains may be added to
many different foods across all eating occasions to enhance nutrition.
"What's great is that we can use
whole grain as a vehicle where fruits
and vegetables can hitch a ride and
create a food that better appeals to
children," Dr. Marquart said.
One of the biggest school food
service success stories to date has
been pizza, where researchers have
been able to successfully convert
pizza crusts made with refined
white flour into crusts made with
whole grains.
"There are many examples of the
food industry making good-faith attempts to provide healthier choices,
but the healthier options were rejected by consumers," Dr. Marquart
said. "With kids especially, if you
convert something like pizza crusts
overnight, then they won't eat it. It
won't work. Pasta is another example. We have to consider the process
for converting to healthier foods.
It's got to be incremental to allow
for the palate to adapt; otherwise,
kids will reject what's on the plate."
Dr. Marquart said ultimate success will not come without the help
of the food industry, which must adjust to a changing environment.
"We're not going to make any
progress without the food industry,"
he said. "They agree something must
be done about obesity, and they've
helped this country in the past."
Whole grains, Dr. Marquart added, hold a lot of promise, and research has shown a strong association with whole grain consumption
and lower body mass index while
several published, peer-reviewed
studies indicate a higher rate of
whole grain consumption may prevent weight gain.
Whole grain and high fiber foods
also may help reduce overall calories
consumed by producing a feeling
of satiety. Additional benefits from
whole grains include a reduced risk
for heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and metabolic syndrome.
Other notable speakers included
Julie Paradis of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, and Kristy Obbink,
R.D., director of nutrition services
for the Portland, Ore., school district. A leader in providing school
meals that meet U.S. Dietary Guidelines, that school district has established such innovative programs
as "Local Lunches," which linked
school gardens and local farmers
with the cafeteria. MBN
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Milling & Baking News - June 29, 2010

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