Slow down and chew on this

Your mom probably used to tell you not to wolf your food.

Who knows, maybe she still does.

And she should: It's more than rude to shovel meals into your mouth like some kind of starving animal - it's bad for your health.

Studies have shown that eating too fast may contribute to obesity - your body's appetite control system can't keep up with the intake; the signals it sends letting you know you've had enough to eat come too late. It takes 15-20 minutes for your brain to start sending the message that you've had enough to eat.

That's exactly the length of many local elementary school lunch breaks - including the time it takes to go through the lunch line. More than a fun fact, it's a serious concern.

With childhood obesity at epidemic levels (state health experts say that already by third grade, three of 10 Iowa kids are overweight or obese), schools should use lunch time to teach lessons about healthy eating and nutrition. One important lesson, impossible to teach during crunched lunches, is how to slow down and pay attention to your eating.

Iowa City school district parents are banding together to complain about their elementary school kids' lunch break. School district Superintendent Stephen Murley will hold a meeting to talk with parents about their lunch time complaints

(6 p.m., Dec. 13 at Shimek Elementary School,

1400 Grissell Pl., Iowa City).

At 15 minutes, Iowa City's elementaries have the shortest lunch breaks, but other Corridor schools aren't far behind. All over the country, in fact, lunch periods have been shrinking as schools try to cram in more and more responsibilities.

It's not that nobody cares about school lunch - you've probably heard more about school meals this year than you have since you were in the hot lunch line yourself.

Last week, federal lawmakers finally gave a nod to new, healthier lunch guidelines in their reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act. Locally, some schools are charging even farther ahead by participating in the state Farm to School program, which brings fresh fruits and vegetables to students' plates by linking schools with local food producers.

But if the kiddos don't have time to chew those local, healthy foods, the programs won't do a whole lot of good.

By the time she graduates from high school, today's average kindergartner will have eaten more than 4,000 school meals. It's important to pay attention to what students eat at school.

How those students eat those meals is important, too.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net