{"id":531454,"date":"2026-01-21T05:07:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/531454\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T05:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:07:26","slug":"local-school-dietitian-weighs-pros-cons-of-new-federal-food-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/531454\/","title":{"rendered":"Local school dietitian weighs pros, cons of new federal food guidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"

QUINCY (WGEM) – For 20 years, Jean Kinder\u2019s mission has remained the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cSixty percent of our students are food insecure, and so… Our ultimate goal is to make sure kids are fed and we\u2019re meeting those needs,\u201d Kinder explained.<\/p>\n

In her time as the food service director at Quincy Public Schools, Kinder has seen several changes to USDA guidelines that dictate what foods can be served to students and reimbursed if purchased.<\/p>\n

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. announced updated nutritional recommendations<\/a>, emphasizing whole foods like red meat and whole dairy products, while warning against processed foods and blaming previous guidelines for chronic illness among Americans.<\/p>\n

Kinder argues blaming food-induced chronic illness on guidelines from previous administrations is not fair. She believes previous food recommendations have simply been ignored in favor of the \u201ctypical American diet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe previous guidelines have not caused chronic illness,\u201d Kinder said. \u201cIt\u2019s just what we actually do versus what we know we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal food guidelines can influence everything from food eligible SNAP benefits to lunch and breakfast offerings at schools.<\/p>\n

Kinder and schools across the country are operating off of prior guidelines, and no major changes for school meals have been announced.<\/p>\n

She said there are pros and cons to the new guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some really great things in it, absolutely. I think we can all agree we want to get back to… Unprocessed food, or less processed food. But at the same time, some of these things that they\u2019re asking are a little bit contradictory,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt talks about more meat, but it doesn\u2019t specify lean meat. It also has a red meat steak right up at the top [of the inverted food pyramid], which tends to be really high in saturated fat, but also it\u2019s the expectation that you still have less than 10% of calories from saturated fat. They want whole dairy products, but they still want saturated fat to be 10% of calories…\u201d Kinder noted.<\/p>\n

Diets heavy in saturated fat have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease<\/a> \u2014 and that is not Kinder\u2019s only concern.<\/p>\n

Whole foods cost more and require more preparation than many processed, pre-cooked meals. Kinder hopes any changes to school meals also come with more federal funding to afford higher-quality meats and pay trained staff to prepare it.<\/p>\n

If improperly prepared, whole meats pose a higher risk of food-borne illness, whereas most processed meals arrive fully cooked.<\/p>\n

For Kinder and school administrators, the cost of feeding a school full of kids is already growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to move to more whole, healthy foods, there is a cost associated to that. And right now, we are struggling to even feed kids any food, let alone these whole items, and make them taste appealing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The new guidelines could eventually affect which items are available for purchase through SNAP as well.<\/p>\n

Horizons Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry Director of Operations Eric Thorsen anticipates their clients will still want affordable and convenient options, even if they cannot be purchased with SNAP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you get a pound of ground beef, an easy way to make a meal is Hamburger Helper. That doesn\u2019t meet a guideline. It\u2019s just a filler, but it is a meal, and those with food insecurity are very thankful for those,\u201d Thorsen explained.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Kinder is concerned with making sure her students have food at all. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur kids can\u2019t learn if they can\u2019t eat. And we can\u2019t feed them without proper funding,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

Kinder recommends seeking advice from a doctor or physician before making any significant changes to your diet.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WGEM. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUINCY (WGEM) – For 20 years, Jean Kinder\u2019s mission has remained the same. \u201cSixty percent of our students…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":531455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[235511,990,210,1182,235512,147414,67,132,68,235513,235514],"class_list":{"0":"post-531454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-federal-guidelines","9":"tag-food","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-nutrition","12":"tag-quincy-public-schools","13":"tag-red-meat","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usda-guidelines","18":"tag-whole-dairy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115931358413866441","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}