Republicans question healthier eating proposals, citing cost, over-regulation

Lunchtime at Battle Creek
In this March 2010 file photo, students at Battle Creek Elementary in St. Paul stand in line for lunch. Republicans in the U.S. House want to roll back some rules that would make school lunches healthier.
MPR Photo/Tom Weber

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans are pushing back against Obama administration efforts to promote healthier eating.

In a spending bill that pays for food and farm spending, GOP lawmakers have added provisions that would direct the Agriculture Department to rewrite rules it released in January that would make school lunches healthier. Republicans say they are too costly. The legislation is expected to be approved by the House Appropriations Committee Tuesday.

The bill also questions a government proposal to curb marketing of unhealthy foods to children, and urges the Food and Drug Administration to limit rules requiring calorie counts be posted on menus.

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The overall spending bill would cut billions from USDA and FDA budgets, including for domestic feeding programs and international food aid.

Chris Crawford, a spokesman for Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said that Republicans are concerned with the cost of many of the Obama administration proposals and that the proposals may be overregulation.

The effort would dial back many of first lady Michelle Obama's priorities in her campaign to curb childhood obesity.

Crawford said the marketing guidelines, released last month, are "classic nanny-state overreach." Though the guidelines, which would restrict which foods could be marketed to children, are voluntary, many companies are concerned that they will be penalized if they don't follow them.

"Our concern is those voluntary guidelines are back-door regulation," he said, deploring the fact that kids can watch shows that depict sex and drugs on MTV, but "you cannot see an advertisement for Tony the Tiger during the commercial break."

The school lunch guidelines are the first major nutritional overhaul of students' meals in 15 years. Under the guidelines, schools would have to cut sodium in subsidized meals by more than half, use more whole grains and serve low-fat milk. They also would limit kids to only one cup of starchy vegetables a week, so schools couldn't offer french fries every day.

The starchy vegetable proposal has been criticized by conservatives who think it goes too far and members of Congress who represent potato growers. They say potatoes are a low-cost food that provides fiber and other nutrients.

The Republican spending bill also encourages the FDA to limit new guidelines that require calories to be posted on menus to restaurants, asking that grocery stores, convenience stores and other places whose primary purpose is not to sell food be excluded from the rules.

The effort would dial back many of first lady Michelle Obama's priorities in her "Let's Move" campaign to curb childhood obesity and hunger.

"This shows a very clear trend in trying to undermine some of the important gains in nutrition policy," said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)