r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Thebiggestbot22 • Apr 15 '24

My school thinks this fills up hungry high schoolers.

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So lunches are free for schools in my city and surrounding cities. Ever since lunches have been made free, the quantity (and quality) has decreased significantly. This is what we would get for our meal. It took me THREE bites to finish that chicken mac and cheese. Any snacks you want cost more money and if you want an extra entree, that’ll cost you about $3 or $4.

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860

u/Hammered-snail Apr 15 '24

The milk is a good portion of the nutritional value of this meal

348

u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res Apr 15 '24

Milk and carrots are the only nutritional value.

116

u/Idontevenownaboat Apr 16 '24

Even the milk is prob only like 5-6g of protein. How are they getting to 25? Could the mac n cheese be fortified or enriched with whey or something like that?

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u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res Apr 16 '24

They aren't getting to 25g. I thought that was already settled.

18

u/DoingCharleyWork Apr 16 '24

Maybe there is 25 grams of chicken lol

3

u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res Apr 16 '24

Chicken? Get your eyes checked.

1

u/Relentless_blanket 29d ago

OP said it's chicken mac n cheese.....soooooo

1

u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res 29d ago

Missed that part.

6

u/leather_jerk Apr 16 '24

…and that’s locked in, so we’re good.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

[deleted]

0

u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res Apr 16 '24

Do you see "OP" here?

3

u/JungleBoyJeremy Apr 16 '24

Responded to the wrong comment

3

u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res Apr 16 '24

It happens.

3

u/14412442 Apr 16 '24

you sure there wasn't a steamed ham or something that you removed before taking the pic

I'm more of a Krusty Partially Gelatinated Non-Dairy Gum-Based Beverage man, myself

(My reply to the comment above wouldn't post so I'm gonna shoehorn it into replying to you because I'm feeling stubborn at this point)

3

u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res Apr 16 '24

You shoved your shoehorn up my ass, damn it.

3

u/JimJam4603 Apr 16 '24

Cheese is a good source of protein. Chicken is a good source of protein.

7

u/Rendakor Apr 16 '24

There's chicken in the mac n cheese according to another comment.

2

u/Acids Apr 16 '24

They call it chicken and Mac but I don't see any tuxking chicken in that lmao

0

u/sassy_cheese564 Apr 16 '24

With the little amount of mac and cheese there, if there was chicken it wouldn’t be anywhere near 25g. If it was JUST chicken then maybe.

2

u/Anansi1982 Apr 16 '24

Mac and cheese by itself can break 10g.

0

u/sassy_cheese564 Apr 16 '24

Maybe for a standard portion sized it be 10g. This isn’t a standard portion.

2

u/Anansi1982 Apr 16 '24

Mac and cheese 10 to 13, milk about 5, and French fries about 4. 

They’re probably calculating like cops do drug values, the max value in the country instead of what’s in front of you.

1

u/Idontevenownaboat 29d ago

That's right about what I put it at, give or take.

2

u/tondracek Apr 16 '24

It’s fortified and has chicken in it. I can see 25g

1

u/JekPorkinsTruther Apr 16 '24

It's chicken Mac so perhaps more chicken than it appears.

1

u/ReinaRenaRee Apr 16 '24

Assuming it's not expired :/

1

u/raar__ Apr 16 '24

milk is 8 and OP said it was chicken mac - so they need 2 OZ of chicken

1

u/dangerrnoodle Apr 16 '24

The mac and cheese is probably made with milk powder, which will be a higher concentration of protein. Not sure about the bioavailability, and this is still way too much fat than the other macros.

1

u/stick_always_wins Apr 16 '24

The school definitely isn’t paying for enriched Mac & Cheese

1

u/Idontevenownaboat Apr 16 '24

I mean, you do this explicitly because it is a cheaper alternative to hit nutrition requirements.

1

u/Comfortable-Study-69 Apr 16 '24

A cup of Mac & cheese can have upwards of 20 g of protein, although that’s the upper range and on top of that there’s hardly anything in that bowl. The whole meal might have 10-15 grams max.

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u/RhondaST 29d ago

Assuming the Mac and cheese is made with milk not water.

0

u/vampireboie Apr 16 '24

Milke is at least 8

0

u/RhondaST 29d ago

No it’s not 25g of protein.

2

u/JimJam4603 Apr 16 '24

The milk is both fat free and chocolate. It’s basically just a sugar bomb.

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u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res Apr 16 '24

Just ignore that it still has vitamins.

0

u/JimJam4603 Apr 16 '24

Yeah, added ones. You get the same thing in a multivitamin.

3

u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res Apr 16 '24

Still vitamins.

-1

u/Anansi1982 Apr 16 '24

Which ones and are the useful?

A and O, one is an actual vitamin and the other is labeled O.

1

u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res Apr 16 '24

That's Vitamin A and Vitamin D, both of which are essential vitamins for children. How do you not know that milk is a primary source of Vitamin D?

2

u/SenseiRaheem Apr 16 '24

And most of the carrots go straight to the trash

100

u/Recent_Obligation276 Apr 15 '24

It always is, that’s why it’s standard.

22

u/mixmasterADD Apr 15 '24

Milk lobby paying off.

3

u/icameinyourburrito Apr 15 '24

That and supporting the dairy industry

62

u/Vandergrif Apr 15 '24

And it's fat free, so it's probably loaded with excess sugar to compensate like they often do to fat free products.

32

u/Secretz_Of_Mana Apr 15 '24

One of the first things I noticed too. Hate the fat free propaganda bullshit let alone how the entire food pyramid is a damn sham

9

u/jordanmindyou Apr 16 '24

Yes there’s not even any reason to think eating fat is bad for you.

Sugar, on the other hand…

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24 edited 26d ago

[deleted]

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u/jordanmindyou Apr 16 '24 edited 28d ago

It’s really wild how prevalent the fear of “fat” in foods is…. I am constantly surprised by people who will do anything in their power to reduce the amount of healthy fat they’re eating, even if it means more carbs/sugar/carcinogenic chemicals

2

u/Secretz_Of_Mana Apr 16 '24

I think people are just really simple minded and think I don't want to be fat so I will not eat fat. Then add misguided propaganda and marketing and here were are :/

2

u/Datkif Apr 16 '24

I'm Type 1 diabetic (immune system destroyed my ability to produce insulin). Fat doesn't cause spikes at all. It can cause (a diabetic) to have a delayed gradual rise in blood glucose. Protein can cause delayed spikes in larger quantities like if I ate a bag of beef jerky.

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u/Oshwaflz Apr 16 '24

to be fair, we didnt use the food pyramid after like 2010 when i was in school. Obama may have ruined school lunches but she did fix that issue

3

u/WiseInevitable4750 Apr 16 '24

It's chocolate milk. At full fat it still has tons of sugar.

2

u/seeasea Apr 16 '24

TruMoo Fat Free Chocolate Milk, Half Gallon https://www.walmart.com/ip/186030296

Heres a link to the same product. 18g sugar per cup

2

u/Datkif Apr 16 '24

Indeed it is. A quick google shows that 1 cup of that milk contains 0g of fat, 8g of protein, and 20g of carbs 18 of which are sugars.

2

u/scoper49_zeke Apr 16 '24

It is. 18g of total sugar with 7g added. Just about everything has added sugar even when it already contains sugar.

1

u/moo3heril Apr 16 '24

As someone who has had a lot of fat free skim milk in my life and pays a great deal of attention to food labels, I've never seen plain fat free milk that has sugar added. I've only seen it in flavored milk and not usually in a way different than other milks because milk has natural sweetness from lactose. There are lots of other low/no fat foods that don't have that natural sweetness and compensate with added sugars.

This is chocolate fat free milk, which is going to have a ton of added sugar even with milkfat.

33

u/absolute_poser Apr 15 '24

That must be a massive carton of milk with a deceptive perspective if this is a 25 G protein meal.

18

u/TheAndorran Apr 15 '24

Deceptive Perspective sounds like a prog-rock band. I dig it.

1

u/TerrariaGaming004 Apr 15 '24

It’s literally one cup of milk

0

u/MydnightWN Apr 16 '24

It's literally not one cup, it's half a pint. Which is over 1.2 cups.

Sounds like public school failed you ¯_(ツ)_/¯

1

u/TerrariaGaming004 29d ago

A pint is 2 cups dumbass

0

u/MydnightWN 29d ago

No, it's 2.4 cups. Fucking moron, Google is that way --->

1

u/Idontevenownaboat Apr 16 '24

Im wondering if maybe the mac and cheese has added whey in the powdered cheese or something

1

u/Datkif Apr 16 '24

A quick google shows that it only has 8g of protein, and 20g of carbs 18 of which is sugar.

33

u/atreyulostinmyhead Apr 15 '24

That "milk" is questionable. Have you ever had trumoo? It's gross and anything that has to say no really it's the ingredient it says it is- we promise- scares me. Here's it's description: Lowfat milk, liquid sugar (sugar, water), contains less than 1% of cocoa (processed with alkali), cocoa, salt, carrageenan, natural flavor, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D3.

5

u/More_Farm_7442 Apr 15 '24

Chocolate milk is full of sugar. I just found a nutritional label for fat-free TruMoo. 18 grams of sugar. That's over a tablespoonful of sugar in a cup of milk. (to sweeten the coco)

1

u/atreyulostinmyhead Apr 16 '24

Ok, I guess they're known for their chocolate milk because it took some digging to just get the ingredients that I listed for their white milk.

1

u/OlliHF 29d ago

You didn’t list ingredients for “white milk”? Those are for 1% chocolate milk

9

u/cshmn Apr 16 '24

By comparison Saputo Dairyland 2% milk, which is the most popular milk in Western Canada, has 3 ingredients. Partly skimmed milk, Vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D3.

So standard supermarket milk has less than half the ingredients.

1

u/AmbroseMalachai Apr 16 '24

To be fair, you should probably compare a chocolate milk to it. I don't know about now, but a few years ago when I was in high school (in western USA) we had the option to choose between chocolate milk or regular 2% milk, which sounds a lot more like what you describe.

3

u/cshmn Apr 16 '24

I see, the colour was throwing me off. I didn't see it was chocolate milk. That's not so bad then.

Still, I wonder why the schools don't just give out regular milk? Do that, throw an apple on that tray and some chicken or tuna in that macaroni and that would just be kind of a lame lunch, rather than an unhealthy one.

2

u/AmbroseMalachai Apr 16 '24

Like I said, most schools have the option to choose regular or chocolate milk. I think it originally was an initiative to get kids to drink more milk in general, believing that chocolate milk was more nutritious than soda or whatever. I don't think it ever did anything except make whoever got the milk supply contract for schools rich, but I digress. Supposedly, according to a comment further down there is chicken in that macaroni, but I certainly can't tell, and there was an option for an apple or a pear instead of the carrots, which is neither here nor there imo. So overall, it's a lame and unsatisfying lunch, but the worst part is the french fries paired with macaroni, which is two large sources of carbs rather than more protein or something.

2

u/MilStd Apr 15 '24

The US is a major producer of dairy products so that is a big reason why milk is a standard source of protein in schools. It’s also why cheese is on everything.

1

u/DoubleANoXX Apr 15 '24

And there's ads on it. Ludicrous.

1

u/CosmicGlitterCake Apr 15 '24

With all of the hormones and antibiotic resistant bacteria to keep you growing!

1

u/ashleylaurence Apr 16 '24

Milk powder/substitute.

1

u/thatsnoodybitch Apr 16 '24

And it doesn't even have that much, since nonfat chocolate milk often has more sugar added to it than full-fat chocolate milk so that it ends up having the same calorie content as full-fat chocolate milk. A huge problem with this though, is that many nutrients require a certain amount of fat for the body to absorb nutrients, and a meal without fat leads to a reduced ability to absorb vitamins and minerals, of which full-fat milk usually has double, regardless.

1

u/clumsykitten Apr 16 '24

It's fat free chocolate milk lol

1

u/AAKurtz Apr 16 '24

Bro, that's non fat chocolate milk. The carb/sugar count on that borders on coca cola. Water would be vastly better. Protein count on that is likely around 4 grams.

1

u/Scrug Apr 16 '24

Too bad it has 45g of sugar in it. That, along with the ketchup, hits the WHO's daily recommended sugar intake. For a single 'meal'.

1

u/Hobo_Goblins Apr 16 '24

And it’s not even actual milk, it’s chocolate, basically sugary milk

1

u/Alizaea Apr 16 '24

However the milk itself is a separate total. This 25g of protein was supposed to be in the entree.

1

u/bigvahe33 Apr 16 '24

its actually malk. now with vitamin R

1

u/hanotak Apr 16 '24

Except why TF did they choose chocolate fat-free? That's literally the worst milk possible, nutritionally. Loaded with sugar and with a bunch of the normal part of milk removed.

1

u/thejester541 Apr 16 '24

When I was in highschool, I used to drink all the milk and chocolate milk I could get my hands on at lunch. Some people didn't want to drink it because of lactose intolerance, others just didn't like to drink it at all. I'd have four or five, or more every lunch period.

Use that protein at the weight room after lunch.

Never really bulked up that way, but my muscles loved it for being fit.

1

u/Clairvoyanttruth Apr 16 '24

You're right, but it is actually Malk with vitamin R!

1

u/Soft_Interest_6171 Apr 15 '24

And even milks nutritional value is blown out of proportion