Tossed salad for school lunch. That's good. Right?

Looking at the lunch menu the children in our local public school will be offered, I couldn’t help but notice that the majority of vegetables offered to children will come in the shape of a type of salad, mainly “tossed”, “green” or “Caesar”. In plain terms, this means a lot of iceberg lettuce, some shreds of carrots, perhaps a couple of cucumber slices, and if the children are lucky, a tomato wedge. Very rarely, other varieties of lettuce- and considerably more nutritious- let alone other types of vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, edamame, squash, sweet potato are offered. According to my daughter’s very keen observations, almost all of these vegetables are tossed in the can.

The fact that children throw their veggies away is no surprise -ask any parent and indeed they will tell you that their kids are just not into the green stuff. This sad reality has been confirmed by a recent report which found that, while school children chose to put more fruit and vegetables on their plates at lunch time, they tended to eat less of them, and the food waste increased. The report did not elaborate on what vegetables were offered at lunch time, but I would guess that the iceberg lettuce salad staple made up for a significant part of them.

There is nothing inherently wrong with eating “tossed salad” — although a recent controversial article in the Washington Post would argue otherwise, stating that salads provide little nutrition, growing up the main salad ingredients use a lot of resources and takes up valuable farmland that could be used to grow more nutritious foods.

My issue with the fact that we have limited our vegetable options to vegetables that provide very little nutrition, and that children are getting used to seeing salads as something that is only good for nourishing the compost bin. Iceberg lettuce, for example, ranks lowest in nutritional value given its high water content, providing only 44% of vitamin K in a 2 cup serving, for instance, vs. the 362% of the recommended daily intake that the same amount of spinach can provide. All other salad greens have a much greater nutritional value that our old friend iceberg: Romaine lettuce offers 164% of your daily requirement of vitamin A, while our bland iceberg only offers 14%. When it comes to salad greens, it is safe to assume that the darker the colour, the higher your lettuce content of antioxidants and nutrients will be, given that looser leaf lettuces will have a greater chance to absorb more light and synthesize more vitamins.

Lack of variety within the salad itself is the second issue. While it is understandable that school-wide programs limit the amount of foods offered due to cost and potential allergies in the children, it is very much possible to construct a salad that has more variety than your typical combo while lettuce-tomato-carrots. Strawberries, oranges and spinach are a winning combination, and so are beans, corn, shredded romaine topped with broken-up tortillas and red kidney beans. There are also options to make grain-based salads that would be a great vehicle for healthy fats and would be packed with lots of yummy fibre — if made from whole grains, of course.

What I would like to see more of, though, is children being exposed to a greater variety of the “heartier” vegetables. Not every time we think “veggies” we should think “salad”. While many of the most nutritious vegetables are not necessarily common salad material, they should still be kept in mind. Of course, we all now about kale (awesome source of vitamins A, C, K, B6, as well as calcium and magnesium. Make them into delicious Kale chips for a kid-friendly snack) or their equally nutritious counterparts Swiss chard (with plenty of vitamins A and C, and a good amount of iron and fiber), collard greens ( a serving of collard greens has more calcium than a glass of milk. It also has several potent anti-cancer properties, and they are rich in vitamins K, C, & A. I love — and so do my kiddos- collar green pesto!) but I also know I am daydreaming here ;)

Other more accessible vegetables though, like broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato, asparagus, avocados, bell peppers, zucchini, green beans are sure to pack in more vitamin and minerals than your regular tossed salad, and should be introduced to children… who knows if they end up liking them?

If there are doubts that children can, and do eat their vegetable-heavy school lunches, look at the yummy examples from around the world here