The American Heart Association now says that kids between the ages of two and 18 should have no more than six teaspoons of sugar a day.
Parents we spoke with say that limiting sugar intake at home is up to them but controlling what their children eat outside the home can be tricky.
“It’s really hard when they go to school, you never know what they are going to have,” says mom Dathel Golden Storey, “but with the new program at school they do have free lunches; they are able to make good healthy choices.”
She, and thousands of other parents across Tulsa, look to the Tulsa Public School district to help. Since 2010, the area’s largest school district has followed strict USDA dietary guidelines in all of its kitchens.
The Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 tells schools how much fat, sodium, calories and whole grains have to be in each meal.
This does not incorporate the new American Heart Association guidelines though, and TPS won’t anytime soon. Right now, TPS is reimbursed for every meal that meets the minimum USDA standards.
Child Nutrition Director Kit Hines says that the USDS standards already brought down added sugar content, “there are not many things that they are getting sugar that are added to it.”
