The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set new food nutrition standards for all schools to follow. According to the notification issued last week, schools will have to include more portions of fresh fruits, vegetables and food products made of whole grains in the lunches provided to students participating in the school lunch programmes. The revised food nutrition standards are to be implemented from the 1st of July in a phased manner over the next three years. All schools both private and public would have to provide more food nutrition in the form of increase in fruits, vegetables and whole grains served, as well as fat free and low fat milk. The schools would also have to adhere to meeting the food nutrition requirements of school going kids by decreasing the content of sodium, saturated fat as well as trans-fat in the school meals.
The new food nutrition standard has been brought about based on the proposals of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies which aims to reduce obesity in children through nutrition. According to the officials of the USDA, the main intention for change in food nutrition standards was to make available highly nutritious meals based on caloric needs to fulfil the healthy diet requirement for school kids.

My parents helped me set up a small room that I'm renting for my studies. There isn't a cooker, but a hot plate is allowed. The only problem is that there was carpeting. So, obviously that wasn't going to work so well with a hot plate. My mom is American, and used to work for Empire Today, a big flooring and carpeting company in the States. She said that the carpeting in the room seems like it had been good, comparable to Empire Carpet, but we could all see the signs of wear and tear. Thanks to that, we were able to negotiate with the owner to have the carpeting removed. The fact that there was hardwood flooring underneath made the decision all the more practical. I'll just have an area rug now, away from the hot plate. Besides reducing the risk of fire, this will make cleaning up a lot easier! As for cookware, we got a couple of pans that have the new non-toxic ceramic non-stick surfaces, and a stainless steel pan for cooking rice and pasta. I plan to eat in a healthy manner. To do this, I'm going to have a basic plan to stick to, that way when I have the odd cookie, ice cream, or cake, I'll still have my healthy staples to keep me from going too far off track. After all, as my parents know, it's pretty much a given, with me, that especially under pressure of exams, I'll be indulging my sweet tooth now and then!

According to a recent report released by Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength, people of Detroit are devoid of healthy food. The report revealed that about 92% of residents are sourcing their nutrition from non-healthy and unhygienic environment such as liquor stores rather than buying healthy food from clean grocery stores. The report's findings from the survey of 207 Detroit stores disclosed that 38% of stores sold expired food, 22% shops sold stale meat, 22% stores sold rot fruits and 18% of stores vended unwholesome vegetables.

Detroit had faced a major setback in the health segment in 2008 when two of its Farmer Jack Stores shut down. Though grocery vendors such as Mike's Fresh Market or Foodland are present in the city, the report indicated that people are still interested in spending more in shopping food from unclean shops outside the city.

This situation is indeed alarming and worrisome for Detroit. Strong measures need to be taken to increase awareness regarding procuring healthy food and improve the accessibility to healthy food for Detroit people, especially to the poor class people and the children segment of the society. This becomes challenging in a scenario where people are less interested in consuming healthy foods from local vendors.