The core elements that make up a healthy dietary pattern include:
• Vegetables of all types—dark green, red, and orange; beans, peas, and lentils; starchy and other vegetables
• Fruits, especially whole fruit
• Grains, at least half of which are whole-grain
• Dairy, including fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese, and/or lactose-free versions and fortified soy beverages and yogurt as alternatives
• Protein foods, including lean meats, poultry, and eggs; seafood; beans, peas, and lentils; and nuts, seeds, and soy products
• Oils, including vegetable oils and oils in food, such as seafood and nuts.”
Except for the vegetable oils, (many of which are highly processed damaged oils), this is a good summary of a child’s nutritional needs and should be in the government’s approach to school-based nutrition.
Unfortunately, this not what our children are receiving in school lunches.
Moms Across America National School Lunch Testing Study
In Sept. 2022, the nonprofit organization Moms Across America (MAA) published its research on what is in school meals, disproportionately feeding underserved children. MAA tested forty-three school lunch samples from across the United States, and their findings are stunning:
• 95.3% of the school lunch items contained carcinogenic, endocrine disrupting, and liver disease-causing glyphosate and its toxic breakdown product, AMPA.
• 74% of lunch samples contained at least one of the 29 harmful pesticides identified.
• 4 Veterinary drugs and hormones were found in 9 school lunch samples up to 130.76 ng/g levels.
• 100% of the school lunch samples contained heavy metals at levels up to 6,293 X higher than the EPA’s maximum levels allowed in drinking water.
• The majority of the lunch samples were abysmally low in nutrients.
School lunches contain many genetically modified foods, such as corn, soybeans, canola and soybean oils, and sugar from sugar beets. GMO foods, designed to resist the spraying of pesticides (Roundup®-ready), are heavily doused with chemicals such as glyphosate-based herbicides. GMOs resist dying from the use of pesticides. Hence, the weeds die, but not the crops. Many crops, such as wheat, oats, and legumes, are sprayed with off-label herbicides before harvest to dry the crops (applied as a desiccant). Therefore, those foods that our school children commonly consume are even further laden with highly elevated levels of pesticides.
Additionally, what may not be recognized is that GMOs cause harm. The first study of the effects of GMOs in rats showed that GMOs (without concomitant pesticides) caused gastrointestinal disruptions, immune dysfunction, and reproductive harm in rats. There have not been any double blind, peer-reviewed studies regarding the harmful effects of GMOs on human health. Remember, GMOs are not alone but with their associated pesticides. Our children are guinea pigs in a science experiment.
The introduction of GMOs and their associated pesticides are the main drivers of the chronic poisoning of America’s children.
What harm do glyphosate-based herbicides (including the undeclared toxic “inert” ingredients in formulations), pesticides, heavy metals, and veterinary pharmaceuticals found in American school lunches do to our children?
• Half of the gut microbes are sensitive to glyphosate (a patented antibiotic), causing an imbalance in the microbiome with overgrowth of pathogens, leading to disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome and other gut inflammatory conditions.
• Maternal glyphosate exposure causes ASD in their offspring.
• Glyphosate is a metal chelator, binding the essential minerals needed for children’s optimal function.
• Glyphosate is linked to fatty liver disease (NAFLD), affecting 25% of the worldwide population, approximately 13% of children, and 17% of adolescents. This number rises significantly in children who are overweight. NAFLD is now the most common form of liver disease in children, which can silently lead to steatohepatitis and fibrosis. Extremely low doses of glyphosate have caused NAFLD.
• Pesticide formulations are contaminated with heavy metals, such as arsenic, chromium, cobalt, lead, and nickel. Heavy metals cause neurocognitive, respiratory, and cardiovascular disorders and cancer. The highest levels in school lunches were cadmium at up to 46.8 micrograms/kg and lead up to 94.4 micrograms/kg.
• The toxic effects of pesticides (glyphosate) on children’s health (i.e., ADHD) have been known and studied in the growing region of the Salinas Valley for 20 years.
• The “inert” formulations (i.e., POEA) increase the toxicity and are endocrine disruptors:
• 29 different pesticides were present in 74% of the school lunches. NO studies looking at the toxicity of combinations of pesticide formulations.
• Veterinary drugs and hormones (antifungals, anti-parasitics, and birth control hormones) can have innumerable health effects on children.