Potato school lunches

When scientific facts don't fare well with politics you can smell both demand and concession in the mix. Every time. The potato in school lunches issue reveals how demands from food service providers and agriculture companies coax out concessions from the powerful, the political arm, the senators, the ones they fund at re-election time. It reveals how money speaks. As the nineteenth century writer and social reformer Frederick Douglass once wrote, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

When money speaks, our children are often the ones who are dis-empowered. They have no life experience. They stand without much life experience to recognize the dangers in eating Twinkies, chocolate bars and drinking sugar water like Pepsi and Coke. In particular, they can't understand the danger in the frequent consumption of easily digested carbohydrates in foods like the potato.

The danger in the frequent consumption of a potato lies in the fact that this brings on a sudden spike in blood glucose levels and insulin levels followed by a sudden fall. This event is cleverly coined the glucose-insulin roller coaster by the head of the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Walker Willett. Dr. Willett eloquently illustrated this event in the 2005 edition of his best selling book Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. As Dr. Willett explained, "There is a sudden spike in the blood levels of glucose and insulin followed by a sudden fall. This blood sugar roller coaster--- and the insulin one that shadows it-- triggers the early return of hunger pangs." The pancreas goes into full swing and secretes insulin to transport that sugar into all cells of the body and into storage units such as the liver for later use. The pancreas works hard. It is an entire organ that is devoted to the delivery of digestive juices flowing into ducts and insulin into the bloodstream. "When a child eats a white potato," one doctor writes, "it's like there is a glucose-insulin flash flood in the blood stream." The pancreas is the organ of choice to take care of the glucose. It releases insulin which then transports molecules of sugar into every cell in every system in the body and then some. Over time, the kneejerk reaction to the roller coaster is just as dangerous as raising the nose of an airplane during a stall. The sudden fall in the levels of glucose and insulin cause your brain to call out for more food. You are hungry again! And the race toward diabetes and high blood pressure begins. To use Angelica Huston's description of a pendulum swing, "you're kind of recovering half the time from the other half of the time." The blood glucose-insulin roller coaster causes diseases like diabetes and heart disease and these diseases cause death. The USDA took this event into consideration and recommended potatoes be served in school lunches no more than once a week.

In November of 2011, Senators Collins of Maine and Udall of Colorado, both large potato states, blocked this USDA recommendation by using the flexibility argument; they argued that food service personnel and school districts should have the flexibility to decide how often potatoes, the cheapest vegetable in the country, are served to school children. In essence, the senators threw out the baby with the bath water. The flexibility issue pertaining to the children who eat potato dishes frequently was never addressed. No one asked What happens when a child eats a potato dish frequently and then is caught in the blood sugar-insulin roller coaster? How flexible is the child's response? Roller coasters don't allow the participants to be flexible. You just hang on and wait till it's over!

These senators had the flexibility to seek consultations from their respective medical schools and practicing pediatricians to find out what scientists know today about the body's response to the frequent eating of foods that are rich in easily digested carbohydrates, like the potato. What happens when one eats a white potato frequently? was the one forgotten question. It seems the senators made no attempt to consult with anyone except ConAgra companies of the world and the Food Service companies that service school districts in their states. These anemic consultations yielded no scientific knowledge about the blood sugar-insulin roller coaster observed when we eat a potato. If they used their flexibility and had spoken with nutritionists and medical schools, then the baby would still be in the bath water. Senator Collins could have contacted Harvard School of Public Health which is in her own backyard and Senator Udall could have talked to Dr. Steven Daniels MD, Chief of Pediatrics at the Colorado School of Medicine in Denver which is in his own backyard as well to find out the dangers of eating easily digested carbohydrates. It's ironic that on the same day, November 14, 2011, that congress blocked the new USDA nutrition standards for school lunches Dr. Steven Daniels recommended that all children starting at 9 years of age should have their cholesterol levels checked. This is a first in pediatric medicine! How big a red flag do we need?

If you call Senator Collins of Maine and Senator Udall of Colorado and ask them for a list of their donors what do you think you will find? We guarantee you will see agriculture companies and food service companies on those lists. The stains from these companies will be there in clear view demanding that Senator Collins and Senator Udall see to it that the white potato in school lunches does not leave the lunchroom! But if you look carefully between the names on the list you will see what the list really says, "It's about money, people. It's not about our children's health." It's almost like Twinkies wrote the script!

Senator Collins addresses the Rotary Club of Bangor on

January 3, 2012

Senator Collins still refuses to acknowledge the science. She says: "Another satisfying accomplishment was stopping an ill-conceived government regulation so that we could still serve good, nutritious, and affordable Maine potatoes in our school cafeterias." Our take: Ill conceived? We think you must speak to Dr. Willett directly when making this charge. And by the way, Senator Collins, when coming to a conclusion about a scientific study that was made by people who were qualified with real degrees, in this case degrees in nutrition, medicine and health, we have only one question for you: Where did you get your degree in nutritional science?

"Early in 2011, the potato came under attack from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through a proposed rule to limit servings of a category of vegetables that includes white potatoes, green peas, lima beans, and corn, to a total of one cup per week in the National School Lunch Program. The rule also would have banned these vegetables from the School Breakfast Program."

"This would have meant that if a school served baked potatoes on Monday, it could not serve corn or potatoes in any form for the rest of the week. I’m not making this up. This was Washington overreach at its worst." Our take: Dr. Willett responded to your remarks by describing your behavior as amazingly short-sighted. The overreach is on your part, not the scientific findings, Senator Collins. The body doesn't produce spikes in blood glucose levels followed by spikes in insulin levels when you eat slowly digested carbohydrates that are found in whole-grain carbs and protein. These spikes appear when one eats easily digested carbs, like those found in the potato. Over time, the frequent consumption of easily digested carbs helps bring on disease. We ask that you read page 103 of Dr. Willett's book Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. The easily digested carbohydrate graph shows clearly the spike in blood glucose and insulin levels followed by a sudden fall. No one is attacking the potato, Senator Collins. Instead, Dr. Willett was only reporting what he found. He made a scientific observation and concluded it is not a healthy food to eat frequently. That's all.

We are saying the earth goes around the sun and you are insisting the sun goes around the earth. Go after the data, Senator Collins. Find out for yourself. It is never too late to find out the facts.

"A school lunch director in York County told me that her schools serve a baked potato bar with healthy low-fat toppings like salsa, vegetarian chili, and broccoli with low-fat cheese. She pointed out that if she had this baked potato bar on Monday, she could not serve fish chowder on Friday because it contained potatoes. A truly absurd result." Our take: What is absurd is that you listened to a individual who is not required to understand nutrition to cash her paycheck. All that is required of her is to go by the present rules. Again, we ask that you read Dr. Willett's book Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy- then apologize to your constituents. You're human. You make mistakes. We all do. But, as a symbol of leadership, we ask that you, a senator, lead your constituents by admitting your ignorance of the nutritional data at the time you decided to support the frequent serving of potatoes in school lunches in the state of Maine, We urge Senator Udall to do the same.

"And an expensive result as well: the USDA’s own estimate was that this rule could have cost as much as $6.8 billion over five years. The lion’s share of these costs would have fallen on states, local school systems, and families."

"Worst of all, the proposed rule would have limited a good source of several “nutrients of concern” the USDA had cited as significantly lacking in the American diet, such as potassium and dietary fiber. For example, potatoes have more potassium than bananas. Potatoes are cholesterol-free, low in fat and sodium, high in fiber and vitamins, and can be served in countless healthy ways." Our take: There are many other foods that give just as much potassium and fiber to a child as a baked potato. The nutrient profiles of many foods are just as nutritious as a potato. The argument you are using can't fly, Senator Collins. Thousands of physicians, nutritionists, wellness practitioners, nurses know the nutrition profile of many, many foods. Potatoes don't have a unique nutrition profile making it mandatory that they be consumed frequently or infrequently. Nature provides her nutrients ---- vitamins, fibre, minerals, carbs, protein, sugars and fat in many foods.

"This kind of regulatory overreach just didn't’t make sense. So, along with Democratic Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, I offered a successful amendment to the USDA funding bill to stop this arbitrary limitation, while requiring that school meals be consistent with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans." Our take:The decision to take the potato out of the category of vegetable and put it in the "USE SPARINGLY" category of food was not arbitrary on Dr. Willett's part. Arbitrary decisions are not allowed in high quality science. Dr. Willett made that decision only after analyzing the data from thousands of individuals in many different nutritional studies. When considering the phrase "regulatory overreach" one must ask if this phrase can be applied to your reaction to the USDA's recommendation about the frequent serving of of potatoes in our children's school lunches. To quote Frederick Douglass, "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." We can build strong children with intelligent school lunch menus that are based on real nutritional data. Your decision to allow the frequent serving of potatoes in school lunches to children will create astronomical costs because you and Udall will be having to repair broken men over the coming decades. As Dr. Willett's writes, "the cost will be many hundreds of billions of dollars." Hear me loud and clear, Senator. Start writing that apology letter to your constituents.

"I still wonder why, with all the challenges facing American agriculture, the U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to pick on the potato." Our take: When the USDA decided to recommend that the potato be consumed no more than once a week in school lunches they weren't "picking "on the potato. This recommendation was made by the USDA only after a great deal of hunting, sifting through nutrition data and talking with experts in the field of nutrition. One of the best public health schools in the nation, the Harvard School of Public Health, was a huge resource for the USDA. The awareness of the glucose-insulin roller coaster has been around since 2001. Many studies are built from it and the current picture still holds that the potato is a food that should be used sparingly. To paraphrase Isaac Asimov, "Your ignorance is not just as good as our knowledge."

Dr. Willett's reply to Congress's lack of vision

"Unfortunately, Congress embedded their changes to the school lunch plan in a broad spending bill that President Obama could not veto. This is a short term victory for potato growers and narrow parts of the food industry, but the losers are our children who will pay in shortened lives and suffering. In the debate about foods in schools, Senator Collins from potato-growing Maine argued that our country could not afford the cost of approximately one billion dollars a year to feed children healthy vegetables instead high-starch foods. This is amazingly short-sighted, because the costs of the obesity epidemic already raging in our children's generation will be many hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming decades. In reality, we can't afford a society burdened with disability at what should be productive ages and ever escalating medical costs."

Dr. Walter Willett responds

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