This week's healthy schools highlights

White House chef tests healthy school lunch

How about this for a healthy school lunch: a chef salad in a pocket alongside veggie dippers and fruit kebobs with honey yogurt dipping sauce. White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford shows CafeMom’s Amy Boshnack how to make this fun and affordable school lunch that follows MyPlate nutritional guidelines. Watch the video.

Lawmakers delay hearing on school trans fat ban

DENVER—The nation’s leanest state is taking its sweet time as it considers a proposal aimed at getting junk food out of schools.

A Colorado House committee was expected to discuss a bill that represents the nation’s toughest regulations meant to keep trans fat away from students, but lawmakers Thursday delayed the hearing without explanation. Read more in the Denver Post. 

Five school programs feeding America’s children

Beyond the traditional lessons on reading, writing, and math, schools across America are now teaching their students about another crucially important subject that will build the foundation for the rest of their lives: nutrition.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 17 percent of children in America are obese. These children face higher risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other diseases when they become adults. Read more in the Huffington Post. 

Some call healthy L.A. school lunches inedible

(CBS News)  New federal guidelines aimed at making school lunches more nutritious were announced this past week. It may seem like a welcome trend, but in the Los Angeles school district, many students are calling healthier inedible.

CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports that everything inside one L.A. school cafeteria may be nutritious, but few students have anything good to say about L.A.’s health lunch menus. Check out this CBS  News report. 

Are anti-obesity programs causing eating disorders?

Anti-obesity programs in public schools are usually controversial — for example, the issue whether to ban chocolate milk from public school cafeterias has been raging for months — and a new survey published today is sure to only add fuel to the fire. Read more at EveryDay Health. 

Colorado school tastes success with student breakfast program

Korbyn Maes, 8, picks up two bags filled with breakfast items at the cafeteria in Clayton Elementary School in Englewood on Tuesday. Korbyn carries the food to his third-grade classmates, who start each school day with breakfast. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

In the year since Englewood’s Clayton Elementary implemented an in-class breakfast program, the number of students who eat at school jumped so high that it earned a state award. But the real benefit, administrators say, is in the effect it has had in the classroom. Read more in the Denver Post. 

Eat healthy on a budget

My weight-loss clinic is filled with patients who want to “eat healthy,” but believe it’s just too expensive. Maybe you feel the same way.

With food prices rising, I want to convince you that it’s not so hard to eat healthy on the cheap. I took a trip to my local supermarket to give you some tips on how to eat well while minding your pocketbook. Read more at MSNBC.

Media exposure and kids

Common Sense Media visits with Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a dynamic pediatrician and researcher who is also the director at the Seattle Children’s Hospital Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development. His influential findings are helping identify optimal media exposure for children. Watch the video. 

About our First Person series:

First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others trying to improve public education. Read our submission guidelines here.