Where's the beef??

I’m sitting in the registered dietitian’s office at the college where my daughter is about to start her freshman year. We’re here to talk about her allergies and how the cafeteria can make sure she has something to eat. The dietitian, let’s call her Sally, asks my daughter what she typically eats. My daughter lists off a number of things – fruit smoothies, salads, vegetables, potatoes. I know what the next question before she even asks-- where do you get your protein? I bring up the protein you can find in nuts, in seeds, even in spinach while Sally frantically searches to find some meat on the daily menu that will give my daughter what “she needs.” I don’t dare tell her I am vegan. I list the items we avoid at home: gluten, dairy, canola, soy, corn, eggs. "Is she allergic to all of these things?" she asks me. Well, gluten and dairy, yes, the others are sensitivities. "What happens when she eats an item she has a sensitivity to?" I list the myriad of symptoms that one has when sensitive to any of these things from stomach aches, headaches, rashes to post nasal drip.

I must say this school is way ahead of most. They have a website that publishes the daily menu and a link to each food item that lists the ingredients and allergens, which is not only amazing but so helpful. They encourage students to walk back in the kitchen and speak to the staff about what they like to eat. 

I am hopeful when I see soup and Sally mentions they make homemade soup a few times per week. She clicks on the ingredients to show me and every soup has a base that includes soybean oil. I can tell she thinks I am crazy when I tell her soybean oil isn’t good for anyone, which by the way, is an ingredient in just about every fricking thing on their menu. She wonders out loud if just a little bit of soy would really hurt. I wonder if she is really listening to me. 

When I click on “hamburger patty” the ingredients are: beef, salt, dextrose, natural flavors, spices, and soy lecithin. What?? Why would you need added ingredients in a beef patty? My mind wanders to the 1984 Wendy’s tv commercial “Where’s the beef?” I wonder if Sally knows natural flavors are MSG? I wonder if she wonders why the ingredients for a hamburger patty aren’t just beef? 

A quote by Ann Wigmore keeps running through my head: “The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.” 

The majority of soy grown in the US is genetically engineered – made to survive being doused in Roundup herbicide. This means that soybean oil is loaded with glyphosate, the main ingredient of Roundup. And just this month a $289 million-dollar jury verdict held Monsanto responsible for a California man’s cancer. The jury agreed that his cancer was likely caused by Monsanto’s product Roundup. It’s the first of thousands of similar lawsuits the company faces. 

For someone who eats the typical Standard American Diet this school cafeteria works hard to meet the needs of the students and is far ahead of most college cafeterias, which isn’t saying much. Can’t we do better for kids on college campuses? I’m just looking for some real food without the added junk. Chronic illness is rising and we seem to be getting sicker at a younger age. Consuming food filled with chemicals, preservatives and soybean oil for 4 or more years doesn’t help.

In 1997 Natural Ovens funded this awesome program to bring healthy food to an alternative high school in Appleton, WI. The goal was to show that fresh, nutritious food can make a real difference in student behavior, learning and health. And wow, it did! You can read about it here.

If you think you are safe because you don’t have allergies, ask the former school groundskeeper who won the Monsanto law suit. He has terminal cancer from the glyphosate-based weed killer he used as a part of his job. He was told they were safe. He sued to warn others about the dangers of chemicals knowing it was too late for him.

Don’t tell me it costs too much to offer nutritious meals. If you want to provide a positive learning environment it’s a necessity and an investment we can’t afford to ignore.

My daughter will be fine. She knows what’s garbage and what isn’t. She will make the best of what’s offered. And maybe, someday, she will teach the Sally’s of the world a thing or two about real food.