4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2007
DIET
Healthy meals on the menu
Study finds nutritious school lunches preferred, affordable
BY STEVE KARNOWSKI
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS — Maybe getting schoolchildren to eat healthy foods isn't a hopeless struggle.
Bucking some common notions,
a University of Minnesota study has
found that school lunch sales don't
decline when healthier meals are
served, and that more nutritious
anches don't necessarily cost schools more to produce.
"The conventional wisdom that you can't serve healthier meals because kids won't eat them is false."
"I think people underestimate the willingness of kids to eat healthier foods."
MARGO WOOTAN Director of nutrition policy, Center for Sciencein the Public Interest
said Benjamin Senauer, one of three economists who wrote the study.
Previous studies have concluded that students prefer fatty foods and that healthier meals cost more to make, the authors noted.
When the researchers crunched all the numbers they found that schools serving the healthiest lunches did not see a falloff in demand.
While serving better meals does entail higher labor costs, the study found, that's offset by lower costs for more nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables compared with processed foods. However, many districts need to upgrade.
The study, which appears in the December issue of the Review of Agricultural Economics, analyzed five years of data for 330 Minnesota public school districts. It looked at compliance with federal standards for calories, nutrients and fats.
The study's conclusions rang true for Jean Ronnel, director of nutrition services for St. Paul Public Schools, which serves
more than 46,000 meals daily. The district was held up by the authors as a model for others.
Ronnei said the percentage of St. Paul kids eating school lunches had increased in recent years at the same time the district was offering more fruits and vegetables.
"That doesn't mean we don't have a hot dog on our menu. We do... In our case it's a turkey low-fat hot dog," she said.
Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, said she was pleased to see evidence that schools can offer nutritious meals kids will eat without higher costs.
"I think people underestimate the willingness of kids to eat healthier foods," she said.
The study also pointed out that school districts are allowed to charge their lunch programs for indirect costs such as electricity or janitorial services for their cafeterias. The authors said that can be abused by cash-strapped districts charging their lunch programs high overhead; they recommended tighter limits on those charges.
Dr. Sandra Hassink of Wilmington, Del., a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Obesity Task Force, said that was an important finding. She said money allocated for nutritional programs should be spent on nutrition.
Alice Jo Rainville, a professor of nutrition and dietetics at Eastern Michigan University, noted that school nutrition programs have improved because of federal policy changes enacted in 2004, the last year included in the study.
Rainville said results in other states might not match those in Minnesota, but Senauer said he believes the situation is similar across the country.
Alumni Panel
5:30 - 7 p.m.
Monday, November 26
Adams Alumni Center
Join us for this unique alumni panel event brought to you by the KU Alumni Association and the Student Alumni Association.
This is your chance to meet some prominent alumni, get great advice and learn more about the KU Alumni Association. Lots of door prizes and free food! Don't miss it!
5:30-6 p.m. Refreshments and meet the alumni panel 6-7 p.m. Alumni Panel
Questions? Contact Jennifer Alderdice at 864-9778 or email jalderdice@kualumni.org.
www.kualumni.org
Contaminated beef recalled Investigation found potential E. coli bacteria in meats
》 HEALTH
GREEN BAY, Wis. — A company voluntarily recalled nearly 96,000 pounds of ground beef products after two people were sickened, possibly by the E. coli bacteria, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said Saturday.
The beef products by American Foods Group include coarse and fine ground beef chuck, sirloin and chop beef. They were distributed to retailers and distributors in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Virginia.
an investigation by the Illinois Department of Health, which was looking into two reports of illnesses.
The problem surfaced after
The bacteria is E. coli O157:H7. E. coli is harbored in the intestines of cattle. Improper butchering and processing can cause the E. coli to get onto meat. Thorough cooking, to at least 160 degrees internal temperature, can destroy the bacteria.
E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea and dehydration. The very young, seniors and people with compromised immune systems are the most susceptible to E. coli.
The products subject to recall were produced on Oct.10. They were distributed for further processing and repackaging and will not have the company's establishment number on the package.
Some of the recommended use-by dates have already expired. In that case, consumers can contact their retailers to see if the products in question were at stores. Consumers are also urged to look in their freezers and return or throw out the products if they find them.
Associated Press
contaminated beef products
Bulk weight packages of:
— "BEEF, FINE GROUND 73/27"
Product code of "65000"
— "BEEF, FINE GROUND 75/25"
Product code of "65800"
— "BEEF SIRLOU, FINE GROUND
90/10" Product code of "66000"
— "BEEF, FINE GROUND 80/20"
Product code of "64400"
— "BEEF, FINE GROUND 75/25"
Product code of "19900."
— "BEEF, FINE GROUND 73/27."
Product code of "20100."
— "BEEF SIRLOIN, FINE GROUND 92/08" Product code of "30400"
Product code of 20160*
"BEEF CHUCK, FINE GROUND
82/18" Product code of "20600"
"CHOP BEEF STEAK, FINE GROUND
86/14" Product code of "30000"
— "BEEF ROUND, FINE GROUND
87/13:" Product code of "30200"
— "BEEF, FINE GROUND 80/20"
— "BEEF, CHUCK, FINE GROUND
82/18" Product code of "31400"
— "BEEF, GREEF GROUND 93/07"
Product code of "31600"
— "BEEF, GREEF GROUND 73/27"
Product code of "31700"
Product code of "30700."
— "BEEF MODIFIED, FINE GROUND
93/07/21 Product code of '19100'
WILDFIRE
Malibu flames ravage residences
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MALIBU, Calif. — Residents began making their way through back streets and dirt roads Sunday afternoon into evacuated areas of this upscale community to see whether their homes survived a wind-driven wildfire that scorched surrounding brush-covered hills.
Some homes along a road near the source of the blaze had been reduced to blackened wrecks, while others were barely damaged.
"There's no rhyme or reason to it," said Frank Churchill, who returned home with his wife and four children to find his white stucco home largely undamaged, while three surrounding homes were leveled. "It doesn't make sense."
Fifty homes were destroyed Saturday by the fast-moving wildfire, pushed by Santa Ana winds. Twenty-seven other homes were damaged, and 10,000 to 14,000 people remained under evacuation orders.
The fire, which scorched 4,720 acres since early Saturday, was about 40 percent contained, with few flames visible to water-dropping helicopters deployed over the fire zone, said Ron Haralson, Los Angeles County fire inspector.
By late Sunday morning, skies had cleared, and the column of smoke billowing over the hills had all but
"Winds have subsided considerably, and we're making good headway," he said.
vanished. Aside from the dozens of fire trucks dotting the Pacific Coast Highway, there was little evidence the fire still was burning.
Sheriff's deputies with dogs surveyed the roadside area Sunday, which neighbors said is a popular spot for late-night outdoor partying by young people.
Investigators had determined that the fire, which broke out along a dirt road off a paved highway, was caused by humans but had not determined whether it was started intentionally, said county Fire Inspector Rick Dominguez.
"I've been up there and seen howling groups of teenagers drinking," nearby resident Ricardo Means, 57, said of the rugged spot near the top of his winding street, where blackened beer cans littered the ground.
The seaside enclave was still recovering from a fire last month that destroyed six homes, two businesses and a church when the winds began whipping up again overnight Saturday.
"This time I lost," said a soot-covered Glen Sunyich, who watched the stucco and tile-house he built in 1990 burn to the ground. "It means that I didn't build it well enough."
Another resident who lost his home was Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose real name is Michael Balzary, property records showed.
Balzary had bought another home in Malibu last year, but the one destroyed was for sale for $4.8
million, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Hundreds of firefighters and equipment from throughout the state had been positioned in Southern California for most of the week because of the predicted Santa Ana winds.
All of the homes were destroyed in the fire's initial Saturday morning surge before the winds slowed and firefighters gained a foothold. Full containment was expected by Tuesday, officials said.
Fifteen helicopters and 15 airplanes, including a retardant-dropping DC-10 jumbo jet, attacked from the air Saturday while 1,700 firefighters battled flames on the ground. Seven firefighters suffered minor injuries.
Malibu, with homes tucked into deep and narrow canyons along 27 miles of coast at the southern foot of the Santa Monica Mountains, is prone to Santa Ana-driven wildfires. Among them was a 1993 blaze that destroyed 388 structures, including 268 homes, and killed three people.
Saturday's fire was west of the areas of Malibu that burned in October.
Santa Ana winds, triggered by high pressure over the Great Basin, blow into Southern California from the north and northeast, racing through the canyons and passes of the region's east-west mountain ranges and out to sea, pushing back the normal flow of moist ocean air.
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