As USDA undertakes its rulemaking for school meals with a focus on obesity reduction, it is important to note that added sugars consumption has actually declined by more than 30 percent since 2000 while child obesity is up by 45 percent.
The Sugar Association supports the alignment of school meals with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) to provide healthier nutrition for all of America’s children, and we are pleased to see that the USDA proposes applying the less than 10 percent of calories from added sugars target to the week’s menus as the DGAs are intended to serve as a guide for overall diet planning, not as an inflexible formula for specific menu items.
However, the proposed rule’s limit on sugar in individual, highly nutritious, foods, such as yogurt and cereal, conflicts with the DGAs intended application across an entire diet. These product limits not only ignore the many functional roles that sugar plays in food beyond sweetness but will also lead to reduced consumption of important nutrients. It also encourages the use of sugar substitutes, which are not addressed in USDA’s proposed rule, and their health effects on children are not adequately studied. *See American Academy of Pediatrics.
When it comes to healthier meals, it is imperative that school lunch regulations provide the flexibility schools and school meal professionals need to deliver nutritious and affordable meals that children will actually accept and consume each and every day, because healthy meals that go uneaten do not advance our food security and nutrition goals.
For more information, visit sugar.org.