2011年12月四级阅读：校园食堂拒绝垃圾食品

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MELISSA BLOCK, host: There's a food fight on Capitol Hill over the federal standards for school nutrition. New revised standards have been in the works for six years and the Agriculture Department recently published them for public comment.

As NPR's Peter Overby reports, some of the proposals don't sit well with the food industry and some House Republicans want the department to start over.


PETER OVERBY: One hot item in the serving line and on Capitol Hill: French fries（炸薯条）.

Mr. JOHN KEELING (CEO, National Potato Council): The products that are in schools today, basically, are not your daddy's French fries.

' t" X! h. {; N2 H* ]OVERBY: That's the CEO of   the National Potatog. He's had the potato industry on full lobbyists alert for the first revision of the school nutrition standards since 1994.
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7 b7 U$ [8 D0 x) HUSDA would put a new limit on starchy vegetables - that is French fries and other potatoes - plus corn, green beans and lima beans(青豆). The limit would be one cup - that's two servings per week.

Like other industry lobbyist, Keeling uses the yes-but argument. Yes, it's good to fight obesity. But...
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( g, N: ?$ d) i. l; fMr. KEELING: The obesity thing, you won't solve obesity on the backs of a single vegetable. You won't solve it on the diet in the schools.
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OVERBY: So, the Potato Council reached out to members of Congress, it helped them send pointed letters to USDA. This spring, Potato State Senator Susan Collins of Maine carried the message into a hearing, along with a potato and a head of lettuce(n.莴苣，生菜). She held a vegetable high in each hand.
' q! j+ s1 d# L  e4 ]Senator SUSAN COLLINS (Republican, Maine): One medium white potato has nearly twice as much vitamin C as this entire head of iceberg lettuce.
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OVERBY: Potato advocates say today's fries are healthier than in the olden days, with way less actual frying. But the Center for Science in the Public Interest says they're still not healthful, and what's worse, they lure kids away from other vegetables.
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Margo Wootan is the center's nutrition policy director.
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Dr. MARGO WOOTAN (Director, Nutrition Policy, Center for Science in the Public Interest): When the kids are offered French fries versus carrots or green beans, too often the kids choose French fries.
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7 y2 _. X/ m& J1 UOVERBY: And that's not the only dish up for debate. USDA would downgrade another lunchroom staple, pizza. It's like that old thing about ketchup. Right now, the tomato sauce on a frozen pizza slice counts as a full serving of vegetables. The proposed new standards would end that.

+ n% Q6 X. E+ l; U8 J% dCorey Henry of the American Frozen Food Institute has an ominous forecast.
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; D) }! Q8 q0 X6 o: H% i' rCOREY HENRY (Vice President, Communications, American Frozen Food Institute): You would likely see a dramatic reduction in the amount of frozen pizza or pizza in general that you're able to serve in school cafeterias.
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( \9 a* p  B  P6 A/ |# q# HOVERBY: That's a problem, he says. Kids like pizza and school nutritionists would have to find an acceptable substitute. That would add to costs which are projected to go up about 12 percent. The program is about 90 percent federally funded.

Obviously, changing the school nutrition program would affect the food suppliers, too. Industry lobbyists aren't so eager to talk about that but Margo Wootan is. She says feeding school kids is a long-term marketing opportunity.

Dr. WOOTAN: So they're used to eating certain kinds of foods, so the kids will want those foods outside of school and as they grow up.

OVERBY: More battles will be fought over these revisions; battles that could take months or even years. Meanwhile, children who were in first grade when USDA started working on this are now finishing up sixth grade.

你是否有这种感觉：即使你并不饿有时会突然很想吃一种食物？而且这种食物多是高脂肪、高糖分的垃圾食品，而并不是健康的蔬菜或水果。英国《每日邮报》给出了答案：专家们认为这些是事出有因的，他们把这归结于进化论、精神因素，还有身体需求。
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为什么大家都爱吃一些高脂肪、高糖分的垃圾食品？“从进化论的角度来解释，这种需求从史前就开始了，因为是高热量食物使人们生存下来，多巴胺和阿片样物质也因此得以存活，所以它们让我们在这些高脂和高糖食物中得到了享受，大脑便下令让我们去寻找这些食物。进化到今天，这种化学反应仍然存在，所以我们仍然爱吃。”
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另外一个原因是压力。“当人体感受到压力，身体会分泌一种激素皮质醇，它的首要任务就是提高血糖水平，以给细胞提供能量，但是也会使食欲增加、导致肥胖，还能阻止瘦蛋白和胰岛素的分泌，增加饥饿感，导致人会更想吃高热量食物。”

此外，基因也会影响人们对食物的需求。希尔教授称，研究发现，女性大多爱吃甜食、高脂、高能量食物，而男性更爱吃辣、咸等开胃食物。

3 I# _! f- x0 Z' N, k- ^3 @0 i. d而有时对于食物的渴望是因为身体确实需要某种物质，吉布森博士曾指导过的一项实验印证了这个理论：“动物喜欢吃某种食物，是因为它们有营养上的需求。人类也如此，对于一些垃圾食品的需求可能是多种因素导致的，但是对于健康食品来说，大多是身体需求所致。”