WWDD?

What would Darwin do? For the first time in fifteen years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has unveiled a plan to overhaul school lunches nationwide. It includes less fat, sugar and sodium. The proposal calls for more whole grains, fruits and vegetables and low fat milk.
There is a limit on starchy vegetables, like french fries, to one cup a week. The proposal applies to lunches subsidized by the federal government, and the hope is that it will keep our children alive long enough to make those kind of healthy choices when they are adults. Or just long enough to be old enough to get in their friend's car and pop off campus to the Pizza Hut lunch buffet.
If they happen to be fortunate enough to live in San Francisco, the local legislators will make certain that they will steer clear of McDonald's. The fast food giant has been prohibited from offering a free toy with meals that contain more than set levels of calories, sugar and fat. This prohibition on little plastic swag should keep kids away from the shakes and fries. Unless the kids are going there for the shakes and fries in the first place.
Perhaps we are fated to evolve, as in the minds of the Pixar animators, into a race of tottering, round creatures whose bones no longer connect in the midst of all that soft tissue, unable to do much more for themselves than push the button that sends the tidy-up service in. Or maybe this is the time when those tai-chi trained Chinese finally catch up to us and overwhelm us in our sugar-crash-induced slumber.
Maybe we just need to be smarter about what we put into our mouths in general. Last Thursday, seven San Francisco middle school students were taken to area hospitals after apparently mistaking rat poison for candy. Happy Meals aside, it does make you wonder what they've been feeding those kids the rest of the week.