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Sunday, October 23, 2011

Save the lowly potato!



Senate Saves the Potato on School Lunch Menus” trumpets the headline in the October 18, 2011 edition of the New York Times. Senators from the potato-growing states affirmed that decreasing the number of servings of starchy vegetables has no basis in nutritional science. Voices from non potato growing states were conspicuously absent, Apparently the concept of “low glycemic” has not yet hit our congressional representatives.

How can we promote diet and exercise to reduce the incidence of diabetes in our school children, and then shoot down a regulation aimed at reducing the incidence of diabetes in our school children. How can we let our desire to be re-elected triumph over our desire to provide healthy nutrition for our children. What is wrong with this picture?

I love potatoes as well as the next guy. But I am also well aware that when I eat a potato, my body’s requirement for insulin skyrockets – almost as much as if I eat a piece of cake. I don’t eat cake every day. Why would I allow my children to eat potatoes every day? I guess our senators forgot to consider that piece of the picture.

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