Let’s do breakfast 1st:  here’s the actual menu – parenthesis are my notes.  The school district claims that all items are listed on the menus and that all nutritional information is under their nutritional heading.  This is absolutely untrue.  It took me hours to look up the ACTUAL information – what parent has the time?

Breakfast:

• Breakfast Round (I had to look this up to determine through the ingredients it’s a pastry made with unbleached, not whole grain flour as the manufacturer’s information on the School District’s site implied.)
• Yogurt: (This is Trix – not listed on the menu, but I found out when I went to the district’s site and checked the nutritional values – They didn’t have ingredients, so I had to go to labelwatch.)
• Juice: (I found out under nutritional information this is Juicy Juice.)

Ultimate Breakfast Round

A parent would look at this menu and think it’s not that bad, fairly wholesome. We would have no clue what a Breakfast Round is.  Nutritional information for the breakfast, from the District website:  Calories 650, chol 20mg, sod 560mg, fiber 6g, prot 24g, carb 108g, tot fat 12g, sat fat 5.5g. 

• Consider the huge amount of carbohydrate, 108 grams for one meal.
  
• Sugar isn’t listed, but between the Breakfast round, the yogurt and the natural sugars in the juice and milk had to be pretty high. 
• Sodium adds up to 560 mg.  A child 4 – 8 should have 1,200mg of sodium a day, 9 – 18 should have 1,500mg.  Breakfast, alone, for an elementary age child is nearly half the recommended daily intake. 
• Calories per day recommended for an elementary age child is 1,200 to 2,000 depending on gender and activity level.  (The higher being a very active male.) Again, just the breakfast, alone, could be nearly half the recommended caloric intake for the day. This is pretty bad in itself, but lunch is often the FULL caloric intake. And we blame the parent for their kids being fat, when the kids have already consumed one and a half times the calories they should have before they even get home for snack and dinner!
  

Let’s look at the school district’s website for Nutritional Information, the District’s ingredient list and I’ll search the web and we’ll see what your child is getting for breakfast. They can choose three or four out of the four items:

BREAKFAST ROUND UBR from Buffalo, NY. Cal 270, chol 0, sod 240 mg, fib 6g, iron 2.70 mg, calc 40mg, prot 4mg carb 44mg, tot fat 8g, sat fat 3g.

• My note: No accounting for the other 5 grams of fat. No indication of incomplete data. Trans fat does say “0” which means it may have up to .49 in each serving.
• My note: This is exactly the kind of food I would never have in my home. When I looked up the nutritional value on the district’s website: The first ingredient is Enriched whole grain wheat flour, but when I check that ingredient, it is made up (and lists as it’s first ingredient enriched unbleached flour (this is not whole grain or whole wheat flour) but it does have some wheat germ put into the mix. This does not constitute a whole grain flour, and is very misleading.) Next on the list was sugar, then oats, water, cinnamon drops. The cinnamon drops are made of sugar, palm oil, cinnamon, nonfat dry milk, soy lecithin (an emulsifier) inulin soybean oil, molasses, palm oil, eggs and contains less than 2% of the following: leavening (baking soda), modified corn starch, cinnamon, salt, natural and artificial flavor and contains wheat ingredients. Here’s a youtube video of the UBR, where, again, the company is calling it 100 percent whole grain.
• My note: This is in the Bread category for Offer vs Serve

TRIX YOGURT Cal 120, chol 5mg, sod 55mg, calc 400, prot 4g, sugars 14g, carb 33g, tot fat 1.5g, sat fat 1g, trans fat: NA

• My note: “NA” denotes no data or inaccurate data under trans fat according to the District’s information. Sugars are not listed in the district’s nutritional information, so I looked it up at the yoplait/trix website and added it in bold.
• Ingredients (I just took one flavor, there are several to choose from, and went to www.labelwatch.com, because I couldn’t find the ingredients at the Trix/Yoplait site. Here they are: for Cotton Candy, Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Reduced Fat Milk, Sugar, Whey Protein Concentrate, Nonfat Milk, Kosher Gelatin, Natural Flavor, and High Fructose Corn Syrup, Potassium Sorbate, Added to Modified Cornstarch Maintain Freshness Red 40, Blue 1, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3. Strawberry Kiwi, Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Reduced Fat Milk, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Modified Cornstarch, Whey Protein Concentrate, Nonfat Milk, Kosher Gelatin, Natural Flavor, and Artificial Flavor, Potassium Sorbate, Added to Maintain Freshness Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Retinyl Acetate  (Vitamin A), Vitamin D3. Tattoo Sugar, Modified Cellulose, Water, Modified Cornstarch, Glycerin, Dextrose, Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids, Cornstarch, Natural Flavor, and Artificial Flavor, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, (Preservative) Sucralose, Blue 1, Yellow 5, Red 3.
• My note: Another item I never allowed in my home. I just checked our yogurt: 4.5g carb and 5g sugars. It has no added sugar like the Trix, it’s just the naturally occurring sugar in the milk. It contains yogurt, acidolphilus and bifudolphudis.
• My note: Offer vs Serve. Because Trix is not listed on the website’s ingredients PDF, I didn’t know what category it fits into for Offer vs. Serve. I went to their PDF and found it is a Meat.

JUICY JUICE : 4.23 ounces, Cal 60, sod 5, Calc 100., Carb 15

• My note: No information on what type of juice on the menu. I had to search for ingredients on the school district’s site. Another product I’d never allow in my house.
• My note: I had to look up ingredients on the District’s site and read a sideways PDF to find the ingredients, kudos for having them there. It contains 100% juice from concentrate, ascorbic acid, malic acid and is pasteurized. Serving size is over what most pediatrician’s groups, like the American Pediatric Association recommend.
• Note: This is listed as a fruit for Offer vs Serve. This is an issue because it contains none of the actual fiber of a fruit. Generally juice is considered to be 1/2 of a fruit because of this, but not for the schools.

MILK 1% CARTON 8 oz: (Skim milk is available, also, but so is chocolate milk, not listed on the actual memo given to the parents.) Cal 110, chol 10, sod 130, Calc 300, Prot 8, Carb 13, tot fat 2.5. sat fat 1.5, trans fat 0

• My note: Milk trans fat is up to .49 mg, and is naturally occurring.
• Note: Not on list of ingredients, but I believe this is Dairy for Offer vs. Serve.

Num, num, breakfast was so good, let’s do have lunch! I understand your child can choose four out of five ingredients.

To see a breakdown of the additives for this breakfast, check under “One Day’s Additives.”