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CNN Saturday Morning News

Can Students Get Healthy Meals at School?

Aired August 10, 2002 - 07:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Eating at school doesn't have to be as bad an experience as it was for me. You can eat healthful meals at school and you can actually get to eat your food. CNN's Kat Carney is here to show us how.
KAT CARNEY, CNN HEALTH CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. That's right, you can eat healthfully, but the thing that you really have to remember when you're thinking about back to school nutrition is it starts with breakfast.

COOPER: Now, is breakfast really the most important -- I mean, everyone always says that.

CARNEY: It really is. Mom said it, Mom was right. And, the ADA says that kids who eat breakfast do better on tests, they can concentrate better, so you definitely want to send you kids out with a little bit of something in their belly. It doesn't have to be complicated. Bagel and juice, toast and yogurt, just definitely don't send them to school with an empty stomach.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Because time management is usually the problem in the morning -- everyone's trying to get out of the house at once and so that's why kids, you know, kids grab something sweet like a Danish or a Pop Tart or something like that.

CARNEY: Start planning ahead. If you get it ready ahead of time, you're good to go.

COOPER: What about school menus, I mean, can a parent rely on the school to provide a healthful meal?

CARNEY: Well, the thing to do is call your kids school, find out if they participate in the National School Lunch Program. If the school does, you can count on the fact that the school -- that the meals are nutritionally balanced, they are lower in fat, but if you still want to have a little bit more control, you can always pack a lunch. And, again, it's about planning ahead of time, you don't want to take a lot of time to do it, and I've brought the things here that...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Now, wait, this is painfully healthy. This is...

(CROSSTALK) CARNEY: Well, some of it's healthy and you know, it's about mixing and matching. You don't have to eat healthy five days a week, you know, you can splurge a little bit. But you talked about time management, and a lot of companies have created a lot of meals and these are these pre-fab meals. And what you want to do when you're planning for your child's lunches you want to read the label, you want to know to what' sin the food.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, because pre-fab also means a lot of preservatives, right?

CARNEY: A lot of preservatives...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Also a lot of fat.

CARNEY: A lot of fat, and it depends -- I mean, you just have to read the label. Your child's lunch should provide a third of their calories so A, you need to know what your child's caloric needs are but then read the label. This one, the total fat is 45 percent of their fat for the day. That's a little high; so maybe Friday's you want to give them a fun meal.

COOPER: And the serving size is a form to check out on that, isn't it?

CARNEY: Serving size is very important. If you're putting beverages in your child's lunch. Look at this: a lot of parents might put a bottle of juice, thinking this is one serving. But if you turn around and you look at the label, it's actually two servings.

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy.

CARNEY: This is one serving.

COOPER: OK.

CARNEY: And if that doesn't quench their thirst, throw in a bottle of water. Then you've got...

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Kids need to drink their water.

COOPER: And then in terms of healthy snacking, I see you have some carrots and apples.

CARNEY: Carrots, apples, again, time management. I don't even like apples -- I buy them...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: This is great; I've never seen this before.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, I hadn't seen that. CARNEY: You can snack on them while you're sitting at your desk.

COOPER: I remember very well.

CARNEY: This is carrots, here. And, you know, children look at what their parents eat so if you're snacking on carrots -- on -- you know, potato chips and you're sending them in with carrots going hey, they're crunchy -- they're both the same -- that's just not going to fly. So, you know, you want to be eating some healthy snacks, too.

WHITFIELD: And it's important, too, because so many school programs are eliminating Phys Ed, or after school sports, so it is important to pay more attention to the kind of fat because we used to burn off all those calories. Do you remember all those, you know, Phys Ed classes you had? But, it's not happening.

CARNEY: Now, we're very, very, very sedentary, we're sitting at desks, and I'm going to come back to the snacks.

WHITFIELD: But what about you?

COOPER: I'm eating a lot of cheese. What's this?

CARNEY: High in calcium. It's a good snack, kids tend to like it, it's fun to eat, they can kind of peel it off, and again, you don't necessarily need to put in a high-fat snack, you can put in something like string cheese, raisins, you can put in an extra juice for a little bit later on. Another popular snack is applesauce. And, again, read the labels. You might pick up one, it's sweetened. You want to look for the unsweetened applesauce.

WHITFIELD: And sanitation, I like this. These -- look -- these little wipes.

CARNEY: So cute. Experts recommend if you send your kids to wash their hands, but if there's no time to wash your hands, definitely want to send them with a little hand wipes and look, I've opened these. I'm going to give you Ballistic Berry.

COOPER: Oh, good, I could use that.

CARNEY: I'm going to give you -- oh, you're going to get Ballistic Berry, too.

WHITFIELD: OK, OK.

CARNEY: Make sure you read the back. Make sure they are...

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Kids are going to want to eat them; smells good.

CARNEY: Don't they smell good?

WHITFIELD: Yeah.

COOPER: They do, they smell good.

CARNEY: And wipe down your computer when you get back to the desk.

WHITFIELD: Oh, yeah, I knew that.

COOPER: Kat Carney, thanks a lot for joining us.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot.

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