Attack a Law - Limitation on using potatoes in school meals

The USDA's bill released in 2011 proposing that limiting the use of potatoes on schools' lunch line is hilariously controversial. The proposal urges that potato consumption among schoolchildren should be decrease to two servings a week in order to aid millions of kids across the nation to receive healthier meals. The original intention, nevertheless, is bona fide for its proactive significance in reducing obesity rate overall; however, this restriction potentially betrays its foremost original principal, to benefit schoolchildren's health condition in U.S..

According to the MyPlate nutrition guide published by the USDA in 2011, everyday food circle should include fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy. It seems to the USDA, botany-wise, potatoes are essentially beneficial vegetables which contain 45 percent of the daily value for vitamin C, 10 percent of the daily value for B6, not to mention that simply one medium potato (5.3 oz) has 620 mg more potassium than banana, spinach, or even broccoli. Low potassium is associated with a high risk of hypertension, digestive disorder and infertility. Generally, a 9-to-13-years-old should maintain a consistent and adequate intake for potassium 4,500 mg per day. Thus, when school meals subsidized by the federal government to reduce the servings amount for potatoes, mostly over 25% percent of potassium intake is subtracted.

Indeed, the deficient take-in part can be compensated by serving more beet greens and yams (these two vegetables contain 909 mg and 816 mg of Potassium each in every 100 g), or other high potassium fruits, e.g., avocados and guavas. Nonetheless, the reason why potatoes are irreplaceable is still impossible to ignore. On the basis of a research carried by UK scientists at the Institute for Food Research, an blood pressure-lowering compound called kukoamines is identified in potatoes; such health-promoting compound was only previously found in Lycium chinense, an almost untraceable exotic herbal. As for those obese kids suffering from high blood-pressure, a complication of obesity hard to control, potatoes baked or steamed without cheese or animal fat can effectively function as an expedient in everyday meals. Besides, a great amount of vitamin B6 abounding in potatoes principally plays a vital role in neurological activity. Vitamin B6 in potatoes is crucial for the creation of a certain kind of necessary neurotransmitter; also, B6 assists to initiate chemical reaction during formation of new cell frequently taking place in children's bodies.

Presumably, overall children's health is ironically not that important to the USDA, but even from economy stability perspective, the law mainly impacted the agriculture economy development in Maine, Colorado, and other potato-growing states in U.S.. The need of market is bruised by the federal government's action of illogically maligning on a innocent vegetable per se. The agent budget for cultivating potatoes is shortened, which can, eventually, deteriorate into severe economic disruption in local farm's operation. Hence, it is possible to conclude that the law carried by the USDA is irrational and ineffective.

What can contribute positively to overall health in school-age children is not to keep off a vegetable potentially of significant value, but to encourage school to serve foods low in calorie, or at least not to fry naturally low-in-calorie food product then add butter or cheddar on it, and to set up mandatory exercise divisional requirement in extra-curriculum in children's community.