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Barbara Stitt's message sounds simple and makes sense. Eat well and be well -- calmer and smarter and happier. Then she says that this can begin in a school cafeteria.
Ah, the world needs its idealists. They're the silver lining in our pragmatic clouds, pleasing to behold even while their goals seem as insubstantial as a trick of light.
But there is some heat in Stitt's light. The glow is coming from Appleton, Wis.
In 1997, one of Appleton's high schools removed every vending machine and hired two cooks to prepare meals based on fresh produce, whole grains and energy drinks. For several weeks, the kids ate healthful foods, though somewhat reluctantly.
The key was a "reward" day with pop, candy and other junk food. Accounts of that day range from nuclear to merely ballistic. The kids were manic, the teachers were harried. But more important, the kids didn't feel well. "They said they wanted to feel good again," Stitt said.
Barbara and Paul Stitt believe diet and behavior are linked.
After five years, the number of students at Central who have dropped out, been expelled, been found using drugs, were caught with weapons or who committed suicide is . . . zero. In a video about the experiment, superintendent Thomas Scullen said students are better able to focus in class, and also feel like better people. Students said they appreciate that someone is spending time and effort on their behalf.
Stitt and her husband, Paul, a biochemist, underwrote the $100,000 five-year program in Appleton's Central Alternative High School, for students identified as at-risk or with discipline problems. In 1976, Paul Stitt had founded Natural Ovens, a food company in nearby Manitowoc that specializes in whole-grain bread. (http://www.naturalovens.com)
Last week, the Appleton district approved a nutrition plan that will be phased into its 25 schools that serve 15,000 students. Assistant superintendent Lee Allinger said they're not reinventing the wheel, but are working with the existing food service, as most districts would need to, to shift the emphasis from fats and sugars to fresh foods and grains. He said that Aramark Food Service has hired a nutritionist and is looking at how well government commodities meet the district's nutritional goals.
"We have to get the support of the whole nation behind what we're feeding our kids," Allinger said.
Stitt, 72, had gained a measure of national fame in 1977 when the Wall Street Journal wrote about her success with a low-sugar diet she developed as a probation officer to help convicts change their behavior. The Appleton experiment had similar goals, but also sought to make a dent in student obesity. The bump in grades was, pardon the expression, gravy. "Today, their biggest problem is enough parking," Stitt said.
I can imagine several hundred school administrators shaking their heads now, thinking, "No, their biggest problem is making up for the revenue they lost after giving vending machines the boot."
Stitt will have none of that. "Our children are our future, and I don't think you should make money at the detriment of our children's ability to learn and function and be of good health," she said. Central's administrators say the money is a wash, one expense reducing another because they're spending less on costs such as counseling and vandalism.
It's not as if we don't want the best for our kids, or for ourselves. So what holds us back from eating more wisely?
Stitt would say we're pawns of the food companies, which place profits above nourishment. She may be right, but we've also proven willing collaborators in upending the food pyramid to favor fats and sugars. It's tempting to chalk up the outcome to survival of the fittest -- except that we're also hurting others.
Stitt's epiphany came while reading about low blood sugar and recognizing symptoms common to her probationers: irritability, having a "short fuse," insomnia, violence and aggression. You don't have to be a genius to ponder the coincidence between our diets getting crummier and the increase in the "fill-in-the-blank rage" in our culture.
The Appleton model is inspiring. Allinger said the kids are changing the way their parents eat, even the way the school raises money. No more bake sales with cakes and cookies. Now, he said, their fundraisers sell trail mix.
Kim Ode's columns run Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Write to her at kimode@startribune.com,or 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis MN 55488.
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