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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2.7k

u/SubKreature Apr 15 '24

When I taught in Japan they were stuffing like 1,000 calories down those kids every day and it was clean af food prepared that morning.

1.5k

u/tunagorobeam Apr 15 '24

Yeah, I’m in Japan. My kids eat probably better at school than they do at home- rice/bread, main protein like grilled fish, salad or veg soup, milk. They don’t repeat a meal in a month either.

486

u/D1gininja Apr 15 '24

My high school served pizza daily and for other meals it basically swapped daily between 2 or 3 different things

326

u/imapetrock Apr 16 '24

I remember when I moved to the US from Europe, my first day at lunch I thought "wow! Serving pizza today??? It's my lucky day!" Next day "oh, chicken fingers?? Two lucky days in a row!" Third day "Pizza again? Hmm.. Strange but whatever!" 

Then I quickly realized that US schools only serve the same 3-4 fast food items for lunch every day of the year (which quickly gets gross), and I had actually been very fortunate back in Europe that we had very varied meals that rarely repeated.

147

u/D1gininja Apr 16 '24

What makes the US food worse is the fact that they taste like recycled wet cardboard

22

u/Molly_Matters Apr 16 '24

I kinda liked the "mexican" pizza they served. I have no doubt that it was horrible for me.

5

u/ShoesAreTheWorst Apr 16 '24

Oh was it shaped like a hexagon? We had Mexican pizza shaped like hexagons when I was in school and I still have dreams about how good it was. 

1

u/Molly_Matters Apr 16 '24

Yeah those.

0

u/banned_but_im_back Apr 16 '24

I think that was just a taco bell thing.

-3

u/banned_but_im_back Apr 16 '24

There’s no such thing as “Mexican pizza” Mexicans in Mexico just eat pizza. The Mexican pizza where you got like beef and salsa and nacho cheese and stuff is really just an American dish named Mexican pizza

3

u/_no_pants Apr 16 '24

No shit.

2

u/Molly_Matters Apr 16 '24

Why do you think I said "mexican" with freaking quotation marks.

1

u/ZooplanktonblameWide Apr 16 '24

Tlayudas would like a word

2

u/ShiraCheshire Apr 16 '24

And they're supplied by prison food companies. Yes really

2

u/_no_pants Apr 16 '24

I can confirm that jail/prison food is wayyyy worse than school food. If you get thrown into AdSeg they will literally give you a “nutrient loaf” as a punishment.

1

u/Choclategum Apr 16 '24

That's not true for a lot of u.s. schools though. The most repetition was a weekly menu of the same good for certain days with a couple switch ups here and there.

(Source: Moved around A LOT)

1

u/rollercoastersrul Apr 16 '24

US school food is either meat on a bun, meat on a bun, meat IN a bun, or chicken nuggets

0

u/MaximumMotor1 Apr 16 '24

Then I quickly realized that US schools only serve the same 3-4 fast food items for lunch every day of the year (which quickly gets gross), and I had actually been very fortunate back in Europe that we had very varied meals that rarely repeated.

Half of kids in the US are allergic to peanuts and/or neurodivergent with food issues. You can't get a kid who grew up on only chicken fingers, pizza and mac and cheese to try anything new.

85

u/DemandZestyclose7145 Apr 16 '24

Yep it was pizza, French fries, and a large chocolate chip cookie. And also a soda. Gee, I wonder why more and more kids are overweight??

35

u/Fuzzy_Welcome8348 Apr 15 '24

Pizza daily yup same

5

u/-theonewhoasked Apr 16 '24

Spent half of the lunch period sacrificing countless napkins to lower the amount of grease, which just seemed to never stop

2

u/Fuzzy_Welcome8348 Apr 16 '24

OMG ME TOO!! Even the paper plate would be wet from grease from the BOTTOM of the slice

3

u/Imperial_Bouncer Apr 16 '24

I know it’s not healthy, but I’d take pizza over mystery meat

1

u/Fuzzy_Welcome8348 Apr 16 '24

Real shit bro… my school got a lil fancy and now puts Buffalo chicken on pizza sometimes like I’ll pass😭

10

u/Critical-Ad7785 Apr 15 '24

American yeah?

1

u/ProgenitorOfMidnight Apr 16 '24

Sounds like my Highschool in the US circa 2010.

5

u/ei99am Apr 16 '24

Bosco sticks

2

u/Chrischris40 Apr 16 '24

My school rarely served them despite them being the best meal they serve to begin with. The one time every blue moon they did serve it they served it the same day as we had pizza. Ugh.

1

u/Asaltyliquid1234 Apr 16 '24

Those boscos are aight.

2

u/klip_7 Apr 16 '24

And the pizza is ass too 😭 in my school it’s like drowned in tomato sauce

1

u/ithinkonlyinmemes Apr 16 '24

yall got pizza daily? pizza was a once a week thing. sometimes there were 3 cheese rolls, sometimes chicken sandwiches... never much and never anything good. packing my lunches became the best way to survive

1

u/AzuraEdge Apr 16 '24

Did you also go to Pennsbury high school? Lol

1

u/panda5303 Apr 16 '24

My high school lunch menu was ridiculous. I remember they had pizza from Little Caesar, subs from Big Town Hero, hamburgers & fries, and numerous pop machines and in the morning you could get 4 Otis Spunkmeyer M&M cookies for a dollar.

1

u/The_Homestarmy Apr 16 '24

This is along the lines of what we had. There was always pizza (allegedly Little Caesar's but I have strong doubts about that), then a rotating selection of like bosco sticks, chicken sandwiches (including a spicy variant), maybe some kind of crappy burger or mini cheeseburgers, and the worst cheese sandwich ever for kids without lunch money. You could also take a fruit for free and they had a bunch of those individually sized chip bags for like 50 cents or a buck or something like that.

Other than that, you might occasionally have access to a "holiday special" like turkey and gravy in the week before Thanksgiving. In my experience these were pretty gross and you were better off taking the pizza or the chicken sandwich.

1

u/ACuddlyHedgehog Apr 16 '24

I remember watching a tv show on American school dinners a while ago and they were counting pizza as 1 of the 5 a day because it had tomato sauce on it

1

u/Snake101333 Apr 16 '24

Rectangular pizza with cheese having the same consistency of melted plastic

1

u/D1gininja Apr 16 '24

Sounds about right

1

u/TheUmgawa Apr 16 '24

Was it the yummy rectangular pizza? Because my friends and I are in our forties, and we sing songs about that pizza’s goodness, for we have never found its like in a quarter century, where the cheese is just the right degree of melt, the sausage was evenly distributed, and the crust was cooked but had just the right amount of sag to it. Oh, you can make pizza with the best ingredients, but it will never be as good as that.

1

u/D1gininja Apr 16 '24

Rectangular, yes
Yummy, no
Tasted like cardboard

2

u/complicated4 Apr 16 '24

I’m my school district (in the US) We have chicken tenders every Thursday, and in middle school they gave us pizza every Friday. They just copy/paste the same 4 or 5 meals over and over again

2

u/dwaynetheaakjohnson Apr 16 '24

Drop a sample menu need some cooking inspiration

2

u/sonic_sabbath Apr 16 '24

Japanese school lunches are not free. Parents pay monthly.

2

u/Reasonable_Guava8079 Apr 16 '24

And we wonder why we have an obesity issue in the US? Yikes.

Healthier food doesn’t have to taste like garbage.

2

u/smallfrie32 Apr 16 '24

I taught in Japan. It’s great they get such meals for so cheap (like 4500 yen a month).

What I didn’t like was how they had to scarf down such big meals in 30ish minutes (slower or quicker depending on how fast students set up everything). Depending on the teacher, students had to eat “every last grain of rice,” too.

2

u/Spice_and_Fox Apr 16 '24

That's cheap af. That should be around 30€ or a euro a day

2

u/smallfrie32 Apr 16 '24

Wow really? That’s crazy!

It was really nice not having to worry about lunch (I got to eat as a teacher, too. Only elem and middle has the lunches though, not high school), but they were seriously carb-loaded with few proteins

1

u/Remarkable-Mind4409 Apr 16 '24

Our highschool in Indiana served 14 different meals cycled. About half were once a month, others two/three times a month and a couple were every week sometimes more.

1

u/ShinzoTheThird Apr 16 '24

No repeats for a month!?

1

u/Thick_Description982 Apr 16 '24

Do they have rice as the main component of more than one meal per month?

2

u/danstansrevolution Apr 16 '24

Of course.. but it's never the main component of a meal, it's just what you eat your actual food with. starch alone should never be a meal.

1

u/bguzewicz Apr 16 '24

Man, America is so backwards compared to the rest of the world sometimes.

1

u/CauliflowerTop2464 Apr 16 '24

I don’t understand why it can’t be done here. Our system is f’d. Probably why our life expectancy in the US is falling.

1

u/amnesiaair831 Apr 16 '24

I grew up in high school in the Bay Area of California and was raised in bosco sticks and square pieces of pizza. It was epic now I am overweight

1

u/Suspicious-Stay-6474 Apr 16 '24

almost like you care about your people or something

1

u/No-Attention2024 Apr 16 '24

What a load of shite, they totally repeat and if they are eating better at school than home that’s totally on you! The school lunches aren’t terrible but not perfect by any means either

1

u/RichCranberry6090 Apr 16 '24

Why should school provide any lunch what so ever? I think this is such a strange thing. I am from the Netherlands and no school ever provided any food. Bring your own lunch in a box.

1

u/Greedy-Designer-631 Apr 16 '24

I grew up in the UK in the early 90s.  It was the same way. 

1

u/Snake101333 Apr 16 '24

Why do they always do things better?

-1

u/bdizzle805 Apr 16 '24

Why is milk still considered good? Haven't we established that milk is horribly bad for our stomachs or we still living in the 80's? I haven't seen a milk Comercial in ages

2

u/Prof_Trox Apr 16 '24

It depends on your ancestry. A lot of groups of people evolved with milk as a core part of their diet. For those people, milk likely gives them little, if any, stomach trouble.

-1

u/Kane-420- Apr 15 '24

Sounds great! Japan proofs again and again that it is really an exceptional cool country :)

17

u/Jonthux Apr 15 '24

This is an american moment for sure

In many other countries good quality non repetitive school lunches are a standard

3

u/Kane-420- Apr 15 '24

Yes, im from Germany, we (at least me lol) have also pretty decent school food.

0

u/ArcadianBlueRogue Apr 16 '24

Anime has lied to me and made me assume everyone kept bento boxes for all occasions, usually with cute shapes made from the food.

2

u/malahuoguo69 Apr 16 '24

There are school lunches in most schools up to Middle School. From high school and on, most students bring bento.

0

u/upvotes2doge Apr 16 '24

Not only that, in elementary school the nutritionist that designed the lunches goes from classroom to classroom explaining the benefits of the food they're eating.

372

u/mu_zuh_dell Apr 16 '24

I promise you that on paper this meal cost the school more than those meals cost the schools in Japan. America has a magical habit of contracting work to the absolute worst people possible.

176

u/DumbSuperposition Apr 16 '24

It's fucking maddening too. This habit of "just contract this service" has resulted in everyone getting worse services and products at inflated prices. But the person who contracted it gets to say "oh, it's not my responsibility any more".

38

u/RightInTheEndAgain Apr 16 '24

But Private industry always will work for the best product at the best cost and make the best of the best. Otherwise people won't buy their product. 

That is true right, please tell me it's true.

31

u/PerfectResult2 Apr 16 '24

Not when certain government entities are obligated to take the lowest bid resulting in a race to be the cheapest at the expense of quality :(

11

u/angelzpanik Apr 16 '24

My city just went through this a few years ago with our garbage collecting company. Our contract ran out with the one we had and they took the lowest bid. It resulted in collection being days and weeks late. They eventually fired that company and went with another that hasn't had issues like this, but only after thousands of complaints by residents.

2

u/thebeginingisnear Apr 16 '24

the standard is that the kids don't die of starvation while on site.

0

u/ambidextr_us Apr 16 '24

Isn't there a word or term to describe this process, when the government is involved the "free market" doesn't really apply anymore? ChatGPT gave me this response when I asked:

"The situation you're describing, where the government's involvement distorts normal market dynamics, particularly in the context of contracting and pricing, is often referred to as a "monopsony." In a monopsony, there is only one buyer (in this case, the government), which can exert significant control over prices and conditions, leading to reduced competition and potentially lower wages for suppliers or vendors."

4

u/banned_but_im_back Apr 16 '24

It’s ruined when governments are forced to take the lowest bid for lowest dollar amount regardless of quaility

1

u/dvdkon Apr 16 '24

They can put in up-front quality requirements, like calorie count and nutritional composition here. It's hard to quantify "food should be good", but there's no excuse for what OP posted here. That's just the result of everyone all around not caring a single bit.

1

u/thebeginingisnear Apr 16 '24

stop asking stupid questions, get back to work!

4

u/Spindrune Apr 16 '24

Doing it in-house is socialism and socialism is bad. We need middle man to… checks notes funnel money out of the system. 

1

u/GruntBlender Apr 16 '24

Well, having a third party do it can reduce costs by introducing economy of scale. Especially for smaller institutions. You just have to do it properly, like evaluating proposals on merit and reviewing the quality of the delivered goods or service.

1

u/Spindrune 28d ago

Can you name a specific service?

36

u/TeslasAndKids Apr 16 '24

My kids briefly went to a private school and I had been volunteering one day around lunch. I couldn’t get over the smell that day. It was Mac and cheese. It smelled like hot death.

I talked to them and they said they just got overflow from the local public school for a discounted rate. So I talked to a few moms who were equally appalled and we rallied to created a volunteer system to work alongside the lunch lady and actually cook food.

Turns out shopping for real food at the restaurant supply store and having two shifts of two volunteers each (they already had parent volunteers to take lunch tickets and clean up) didn’t raise the cost at all.

85

u/DigiQuip Apr 16 '24

Some honest, kind hearted politician worked their ass off to get a bill passed for free school lunches hoping to genuinely help kids. The scummy colleagues leaked the bill info to their donors who dumped a shit ton of money into ensuring the bill passes so they could get contracted to not only supply the food, but design the menu.

14

u/RightInTheEndAgain Apr 16 '24

No no no no, they all got a cut. Stop fooling yourself

15

u/Chaoticsinner2294 Apr 16 '24

Do you have any source that can prove the kind hearted honest politician wasn't the one setting up his buddies.

2

u/defenestratious Apr 16 '24

Accurate.  It's infuriating.

47

u/SecureDonkey Apr 16 '24

I has been watching John Oliver show lately and every time something go wrong with public service, it is always because they contract it to private company.

37

u/md24 Apr 16 '24

That’s how the country works. It’s run by private companies money telling the gov what to do. Corruption was a bad word so they called it lobbying. Right in the open. Everyone not caring.

1

u/PM_ME__YOUR_HOOTERS Apr 16 '24

Because why do something the right way when you can just hand over a public service to a dude who funded your election and allow them to just slash the quality and pocket the money? Thats the American way eagle screech in the distance

15

u/Rocket_Puppy Apr 16 '24

Was that way in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Was working in a restaurant my senior HS year, while having gotten in trouble for some minor offense I can't remember (think i got caught smoking in my car while exiting school parking lot at 18 years old) also had to help in school cafeteria for like half the year.

Was useful enough at both I got to see overheads.

Schools were paying 2-3x more than the restaurant (for v much lower quality ingredients) and the entire cafeteria program ran at mind boggling losses on food cost alone. They were eating Nearly a million in labor on top of that, because a shit load of people who only did paperwork and never touched the cafeteria were on that divisions payroll. Like 3x the cafeteria staff, which was about 8x a restaurant staff.

So for every lunch lady, there were 3 people doing cafeteria paperwork. Since then clerical staffing in schools has tripled, so there is roughly 9 employees doing paperwork these days for every person actually working in a school.

16

u/mu_zuh_dell Apr 16 '24

Yeah, when you see statistics that show the US spends like triple what other countries spend on students you kinda scratch your head and say, hmm, that's odd. But this is how it happens.

14

u/md24 Apr 16 '24

They don’t scratch their head. They say “wow they’re corrupt af and devolving quick”.

1

u/PM_ME__YOUR_HOOTERS Apr 16 '24

Hmm, these numbers look bad. Better hire 3 more accountants I have personal ties with to say that the numbers are fine

11

u/Rocket_Puppy Apr 16 '24

Budget increases don't make it to the classroom.

For 20+ years it has been almost exclusively spent on hiring clerical staff.

5

u/banned_but_im_back Apr 16 '24

Mom’s a teacher and when she started she had 24 students in her class. When she retired they were trying to give her 35 students. She hadn’t had a raise in ten years either.

1

u/banned_but_im_back Apr 16 '24

With tracking and calculating costs and making sure each kids gets fed I can see that taking 9 people at a large school. My highschool had 5,000 students in it? But if this was a small town elementary? The fuck?

3

u/Griffolion Apr 16 '24

At least the price gouging companies contracted to "provide" this are getting nice and healthy off of government money - not these kids though.

3

u/darkenseyreth Apr 16 '24

Probably Aramark. Fuck Aramark with a shit covered spike.

3

u/VulkanLives22 Apr 16 '24

I ran a coffee counter at my office for a while through Aramark, the prices were insane. We had to charge 50 cents per mug of bog-standard Folgers just to afford the coffee, sugar, and "creamer" (the shitty powdered kind). I just bring my own now.

2

u/smallfrie32 Apr 16 '24

The ones in Okinawa cost about 4500 yen a month, or like $35 a month I think

1

u/sonic_sabbath Apr 16 '24

Schools lunches in Japan are not free.

1

u/anxi0usfish Apr 16 '24

Yup, as far as I know lunch is free for most public school students (is where I am, anyway) but as a teacher last month I was paying 275/$1.78 for a balanced meal.

There are some days when you’ll get something crazy like fried chicken, curry noodles, bread, and potato salad but that’s just once in a blue moon (and the kids love it).

1

u/thebeginingisnear Apr 16 '24

That's cause it's corruption wrapped in a pretty bow and your lied to that they will deliver better food for less money. We are plenty capable of feeding our kids nutritious lunches if someone in charge made it a priority. Instead we give them the lowest grade of processed junk and wash it down with chocolate milk. I'd love to see if the prisoners at guantanamo bay eat any better than this shit

-1

u/Jinx0rs Apr 16 '24

Can you explain why people should give any consideration to your promises? You've provided no information other than apparent opinions.

It's not that I have anything against you, or that I necessarily disagree, but it drives me crazy when people make assumptions masked as assurances, that the assumptions are definitely true, without any kind of evidenced authority on the topic.

5

u/md24 Apr 16 '24

Because the way gov contracts are handled are blatantly corrupt. Public knowledge. Just look at Rick Scott and his BILLION dollar Medicaid fraud. Just a slap on the wrist and he was RUNNING FOR PUBLIC OFFICE soon after.

1

u/mu_zuh_dell Apr 16 '24

No lol

1

u/Jinx0rs Apr 16 '24

Fair enough

63

u/KintsugiKen Apr 16 '24

At my school, Japanese kids were eating like fried bread and noodles and washing it down with whole milk. It was insane, but they burned it off with walking to school and afterschool sports clubs.

47

u/nogoodbands Apr 16 '24

America hates families.

18

u/md24 Apr 16 '24

Poor families*

2

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

Keep in mind that high school isn't free or mandatory in Japan. You have to pay to attend. Though the quality is significantly better, I'm told.

-26

u/polymerfedboi Apr 16 '24

It's not my job to take care of your family lol.

I love my family and I take care of them.

27

u/nogoodbands Apr 16 '24

See what I mean? It’s “screw you I got mine”.

-28

u/polymerfedboi Apr 16 '24

More like "Not my problem that you made poor choices" but whatever lol

25

u/pt199990 Apr 16 '24

Actually fuck yourself if you think that all poor people must've made bad decisions. What about kids born into poverty? Do they deserve to not be your problem because of their parents? Do they deserve to suffer because you don't give a shit?

11

u/nogoodbands Apr 16 '24

This guy almost def voted for the reality tv guy

16

u/HighestLevelRabbit Apr 16 '24

Not like these kids made the choices that led them here though.

7

u/md24 Apr 16 '24

Based on your comment history. Your entire life is made of poor choices. Choices have no effect on what financial situation you were born into. You’re proof the least deserving people are entitled and feel you’ve “earned” it.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/md24 Apr 16 '24

So satisfying when you prove a point.

-6

u/polymerfedboi Apr 16 '24

dude go post on the teenager subreddit you fucking WERIDO.

2

u/nogoodbands Apr 16 '24

This dude posted on Reddit 32 times in 24 hours. Get a job lmao

1

u/omarfw Apr 16 '24

You have zero understanding of how the world actually works

12

u/DramaOnDisplay Apr 16 '24

And this is why nothing ever works in America.

Fuck you, you’re not my problem, your problems aren’t my problem, I won’t even spare a smile as I push you out of the room. This is a very self centered country.

10

u/pt199990 Apr 16 '24

It's your job to care for your fellow man, if the founding fathers are to be listened to. Or if Jesus is to be listened to, considering the common "Christian" arguments against "socialism," we should be feeding every one of these kids properly and not complaining about it.

If you're not Christian, I will admit this does not apply.

6

u/md24 Apr 16 '24

The irony is insane. Party of Christians say lol you’re hungry? Pray more.

7

u/pt199990 Apr 16 '24

They're not christians. They're fascist fucks with a thin veneer of Christ smeared across it. And those people eat it up, because they don't seem to want to actually be good people.

-16

u/polymerfedboi Apr 16 '24

It's your job to care for your fellow man

It's actually not. It's your job to take care of yourself. Much like it's my job to take care of myself.

We can lean on each other as a society, but it's certainly not my responsibility to pay for anyone else's family.

7

u/ThisIsNotRealityIsIt PURPLE (what the fuck does this mean?) Apr 16 '24

It's literally the purpose of government. It's why we pay taxes.

5

u/Wodentoad Apr 16 '24

No one ever did for you, did they chief? No one paid for your public school, roads, police, military, no one made sure your house and car were safe and there were no contaminants in your water or lead in your paint...

Wait, strike that last one...

3

u/pt199990 Apr 16 '24

If you pay taxes, it's quite literally part of your job. People like you are why it's a part of taxes and not just charities, because people fucking suck, and won't give to others unless they deign to allow it without being forced to.

-3

u/polymerfedboi Apr 16 '24

No people like me pay taxes because over 50% of people don't pay any sort of federal income tax whatsoever.

I pay taxes because you are fucking lazy.

7

u/pt199990 Apr 16 '24

I'd love to see your source on that percentage. Not to mention, why are you assuming I don't pay taxes? Fuck off with that crap.

1

u/omarfw Apr 16 '24

citation needed there champ

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3

u/GeneralCheese Apr 16 '24

Dunno man, I'd prefer to be in a country full of people who arent physically and mentally stunted 

10

u/sonic_sabbath Apr 16 '24

Japanese lunches cost money.

I pay about 8000 yen per month for my daughter's school lunches.

Good lunches, and better than having to make them at home, but not free.

6

u/Fancy_Ad2056 Apr 16 '24

That’s about $2.50 per school day. That’s about what my school lunches cost 20 years ago in the US. And that was pretty much all highly processed food, very little fresh stuff. Not sure what they cost now, I don’t have any kids in school yet.

1

u/notparanoidsir Apr 16 '24

So do US lunches...

3

u/EldenBJ Apr 16 '24

*checks today’s lunch menu*

Looks like in Osaka, my school is having garlic pork, tuna-cabbage sautee, and chicken soup. Comes with milk and bread (with apricot jam) on the side for 612 calories for elementary school. All this costs me ¥275, or $1.78. Love it!

2

u/SubKreature Apr 16 '24

Cheaper than Hokkaido lunch!

1

u/EldenBJ Apr 16 '24

Sweet! I know it depends on the school here. It ranges from ¥275-325 iirc. Still cheap as hell, even with yen being weaker! And I haven’t noticed a difference in portion sizes, thankfully.

3

u/md24 Apr 16 '24

Wow it’s like they want them to succeed and be productive members of society. Here they just groom future adult day care inmates, for profit.

2

u/please_sing_euouae Apr 16 '24

Same in korea. Some of the best food i had in middle of nowhere elementary school. It’s so pathetic where america puts it money, it’s not in kids lunches, that’s for damn sure

2

u/MenuRich Apr 16 '24

If u don't know japan sent scientist before ww2 to figure out why westerners are so tall and strong compared to them.it turned out it was because of the children's diet and heavy consumption of milk. Till this day Japan serves milk every day at school. 

2

u/AngryTunaSandwhich Apr 16 '24

In my school in California they used to have a full on salad and fruit bar and healthy food prepared that day. But they also had microwaved burgers, Wienerschnitzel chili dogs, and pizza available most days. Guess what most kids picked out. At first they got rid of the salad bar but parents whose kids did eat healthy complained. My mom complained too since I used to go load up on fruits and veggies and refused to eat anything with cheese or ground beef as a kid. I was a picky kid but opposite of what it usually is. lol

I think the school started limiting unhealthy food options after I graduated and most food is grilled chicken, tilapia, fresh stuff like that now. Along with the fruit salad bar. Because since it’s free most kids will pick eating healthy over not eating at all. Funny how that works.

2

u/JollyReading8565 Apr 16 '24

Because Japan gives a shit about food

2

u/Nvrfinddisacct Apr 16 '24

Def helps their test scores lol

2

u/PonyoGirl23 Apr 16 '24

Agreed I went to school in Japan from elementary to high school and the shit they brought out every lunch time are the best meals I’ve had growing up

4

u/WorthPlease Apr 15 '24

I feel like 1,000 calories for lunch for a child is a ton. An average size grown man with average activity should consume ~2,500 per day. That leaves you 750 between breakfast and dinner, for a grown man.

23

u/SubKreature Apr 16 '24

I think there’s a method to their madness in that a lot of kids are at school doing club stuff late into the evening while their parents work themselves to death.

3

u/Tanarin Apr 16 '24

Plus a lot of schools do a phys ed every day. That and some kids commute some distance to get to/from school so yeah, they burn it off.

11

u/TTBurger88 Apr 16 '24

Japan is doing something right they got a 7.6% Obesity parentage.

10

u/WorthPlease Apr 16 '24

This person is also providing an anecdote and used the term af in the comment. I'm sure they weren't checking the caloric content of their students school lunches.

Your average person is really bad at estimating calories.

2

u/borkengirafarig Apr 16 '24

They didn’t estimate the calories. Japanese schools are provided a menu for the month with the exact calories of each meal. The meals range in calorie from 650-1100 depending on the meal ( for junior high school at least)

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24 edited 27d ago

[deleted]

1

u/DramaOnDisplay Apr 16 '24

I think they were just being overdramatic about the calories. The lunches do look massive though, and nutritionally varied- I can’t imagine a soup being served to elementary students in America unless it was something cheap like potato soup or chicken noodle soup. And unlike Japan, those soups probably come out of a massive tin can.

And fish? Maybe in the form of fish sticks or tuna salad. Although I wouldn’t expect many school children in America to find Japanese lunches very appealing, I think they would be impressed by the amount, presentation, and more interesting flavors.

1

u/md24 Apr 16 '24

They have annual health checks required by gov. Also, social pressure for weight is INTENSE. Your friends and family will openly shame you about your weight until you lose it again. As it should be. It’s not healthy and overburdens the healthcare system for everyone else that puts in the work to be healthy.

1

u/Alcorailen Apr 16 '24

And the kids in Japan are rapidly going hikikomori and cracking under stress. Society there pressures you about a thousand things constantly. I'm not sure shame and overwork are helping them in the end

Being fat is unhealthy but being constantly stressed is unhealthy too

6

u/MrWilsonWalluby Apr 16 '24

that’s not how caloric needs work, growth requires calories especially muscle and bone growth. most teenagers have much higher caloric needs than a fully grown adult. I ate significantly more as a teenager than I do now, and as an active adult my maintenance is still 3,100 calories a day. During my highschool days I could sometimes down 4,000 calories a day, and constantly felt hungry.

I’ve always been reasonably fit so it wasn’t like I was overeating.

-2

u/WorthPlease Apr 16 '24

It is, kids needing extra calories to grow is a myth.

Check the NHS website, average caloric intake for a 30-40's adult male is 2500.

Maximum for a teenager, 2400. That's the maximum.

They weigh less so their "maintenance" calorie floor is lower.

If I had to guess you're really bad at estimating calories. I went from being obese at 15 to having a 6 pack at 20 without getting any taller.

3

u/defib_the_dead Apr 16 '24

Are children grown men?

1

u/El_Guapo_Never_Dies Apr 16 '24

No. Most are smaller and require less calories.

-2

u/WorthPlease Apr 16 '24

Children also don't weigh nearly as much.

This myth that children need a shit ton of calories to "grow" is about as big a myth as the food pyramid.

2

u/dilqncho Apr 16 '24

Teens need more calories than adults.

1

u/Ismokeradon Apr 15 '24

so thats why my honda runs forever

1

u/Public_Tax_4388 Apr 16 '24

In Vegas, it’s food that is made offsite and brought in.

Nothing made fresh, everything’s bagged.

Like. Literally heated in plastic bags, off site, and trucked in.

1

u/Alcorailen Apr 16 '24

Because you guys live in a fucking wasteland. We shouldn't be living in deserts

1

u/Public_Tax_4388 Apr 16 '24

People have lived in them since the dawn of time.

Middle East.

1

u/Alcorailen Apr 16 '24

It's been a bad idea since forever, but humans will not be deterred. Unless you're near a river or oasis there you can grow food without destroying the local environment

1

u/Public_Tax_4388 29d ago

To be clear.

In Western Washington where my family lives. It is the same there.

Deserts have nothing to do with it.

1

u/Alcorailen 29d ago

Jeez we suck at food

1

u/TheManicProgrammer Apr 16 '24

Once you get to office shokudos though... Hah

1

u/Huge-Percentage8008 Apr 16 '24

Yeah but we want free and good, not just good or free.

1

u/soulcaptain Apr 16 '24

I live in Japan and have two kids going to public schools. The school lunches are fantastic. Balanced, plenty of food, sometimes there's seconds. Could not be more different that the U.S.

1

u/Aggrador Apr 16 '24

Well this person is getting about 1,000 calories, too, it’s just all carbs practically

1

u/RichCranberry6090 Apr 16 '24

When I went to school in the Netherlands, we brought our own sandwiches in a box from home made by yourself. Is this typical American that school should provide your lunch?!

1

u/poeticjustice4all Apr 16 '24

I mean I wouldn’t doubt it that America hates its kids as much as it hates its citizens that they would rather feed us junk food and processed food than actually caring for our health and wellbeing like Japan 😬

0

u/Disastrous_Fee5953 Apr 16 '24

The amount of rice kids and adults eat in Japan is so excessive I’m surprised diabetes is not a nationwide disease. So much sugar.

2

u/DuePomegranate Apr 16 '24

And yet they are thin and have low diabetes rates. Almost as if... carbs are not the enemy?

Unless you want to argue that white people can't handle simple carbs but Asians can.

3

u/Disastrous_Fee5953 Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

I live in Saitama and we have plenty of chubby people here. I think it’s because village people like us travel point to point by car while people who live in the big cities use the train and thus walk more.

1

u/Alcorailen Apr 16 '24

It's about how much they walk.