What Happens When the Government Provides Food? Yup, You Eat Crap

Tell me again why we want to expand the size of government? They can't even make a decent grilled cheese sandwich:

A Daily News survey found lunchrooms routinely serve highly processed foods such as mozzarella sticks and pizza, which critics charge are loaded with preservatives and other unhealthy ingredients.

"It's more window dressing than real change," said nutritionist Susan Rubin, founder of the Westchester-based advocacy group Better School Food. "Just cutting the calories and fat doesn't make this processed food healthy."

The simple-sounding toasted cheese sandwich on oat bread is a case in point: Ingredient lists obtained by The News show the frozen sandwich contains more than 30 ingredients - including high-fructose corn syrup, which officials have vowed to cut out.

"It just looks so greasy, you can tell it's unhealthy," said Schnedie Dorizan, 16, a junior at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn.

Nutritionists said processing foods, such as turning chicken into nuggets, removes nutrients while adding possibly unhealthy preservatives and fillers. Processed foods also pack more sugar, fat and salt to make up for flavors lost in processing.

Pizza is served regularly in city schools. Bronx high schools were scheduled to offer pizza at least nine times this month.

One pizza option has more than 25 different ingredients, including azodicarbonamide, which is used as a bleach for foods or a defoaming agent in plastics, and datem and sodium stearoyl lactylate, two food additives for blending the ingredients together.

"It's better for kids' bodies to get nutrients from real food without all these additives," said NYU nutrition expert Marion Nestle.

The prefab grilled cheese - which is heated and served in the plastic bag it comes in - wasn't the only problem The News found inside school lunchrooms while comparing official claims with what is served.

- The Department of Education claims in a parent brochure it is "eliminating" high-fructose corn syrup, a processed sweetener that critics have linked to the obesity epidemic. But The News found it is still in such staples as ketchup, chocolate milk and corn flakes.

- The department says it has slashed fat and calories, and in large part, it has. But its own Web site lists some shockers: Beef chili contains 27 grams of fat - or more than half the recommended daily allowance for many kids, said nutritionist Elisa Zaid. Mozzarella sticks have 21 grams of fat.

- Officials say they are upping fresh fruit and veggies and adding salad bars, but The News found the picture can be misleading: At the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Brooklyn, the "salad bar" often features little more than lettuce and pickles, students said.

At Public School 42 in the Bronx, "fresh" fruit often means prepackaged apple slices, while frozen veggies are offered only a few times a week, parents and staffers said.