School Lunches Depend on Faux-Junk Food

Students at Piedmont Elementary eat lunch at school Tuesday, May 1, 2007, in Charleston, W.Va. Many school administrators are sneaking nutrition into school lunches, in an effort to combat the nation's growing childhood obesity problem. Administrators are cutting fat and calories by supplementing hamburgers with soy and subbing applesauce for shortening in cake. (AP Photo/Jeff Gentner) (Jeff Gentner - AP)

New York University Professor of Nutrition and Food Studies Marion Nestle said the idea that children won't eat healthy foods is wrong.

"When you go into the schools that take responsibility, you see kids eating adult food and they're liking it," Nestle said.

A Penn State study released Tuesday found that preschoolers who ate pasta sauce blended with broccoli and cauliflower ate 17 percent fewer calories per meal and didn't complain about any difference in taste.

"I'd rather see parents blending veggies and sneaking them into dishes where they can, rather than going the fake food route," researcher Dr. Barbara Rolls said.

Ann Cooper, director of nutrition services at Berkeley Unified School District in California, said she is appalled that a meal of chicken nuggets, tater tots, chocolate milk and fruit cocktail with high fructose corn syrup meets the nutritional requirements under the national school lunch program.

"We don't need to put tricks into food, it's just another processing mechanism and that is not enough," Cooper said.

At Piedmont Elementary School in Charleston, a breakfast offering is "Pancake on a stick," a variation on corn dogs with sausage and pancake batter, to be dipped in syrup. For lunch, pepperoni and cheese-stuffed pizza breads. Bologna sandwiches for snacks.

"The kids won't eat brown beans, and they don't like kale," principal Stephen Knighton said. "But they do love their salad bar, and we try our very best to get some nutrition into these kids."

(This version CORRECTS that Cooper works at the Berkeley school district, instead of the county.)