Why Pizza And Fries Can Be Claimed As Vegetables Through School Lunch Programs with Sam Kass

Food is political, whether we like it or not. From the subsidies used to grow the crops that produce our massive amounts of ultra-processed foods, to school lunches, to the meals being served on our own dinner tables and even in the White House, the state of our food system is impacted by policy on an incredible scale. My guest on today’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy has played a very positive role in trying to impact those policies for the better to make America healthier as a whole. Sam Kass is the former Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition in the Obama administration. After cooking for the Obamas in Chicago for two years, Sam joined the White House kitchen staff in 2009. During his White House tenure, he took on several additional roles including Executive Director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign and Senior White House Policy Advisor for Nutrition. As one of the First Lady’s longest-serving advisors, he helped the First Lady create the first major vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden. Currently, Sam is a Partner at Acre Venture Partners. Acre is a venture capital fund investing in the future of food with a mission to improve human and environmental health in the food system. The fund focuses on early-stage, highly disruptive impactful companies in the food system focused on agriculture, supply chain, and consumer. Sam is also the author of Eat a Little Better: Great Flavor, Good Health, Better World. *For context, this episode was recorded in March 2020. This episode is sponsored by Athletic Greens, Thrive Market, Theragun and Farmacy. I use Athletic Greens in the morning as part of my daily routine. It’s really one supplement that covers so many bases and you’d be hard-pressed to find something else this comprehensive in one place. Right now Athletic Greens is offering my audience their Vitamin D3/K2 Liquid Formula free with your first purchase. Just go to athleticgreens.com/hyman to get your free bottle of Vitamin D3 and K2 with your first purchase. Thrive Market has made it so easy for me to stay healthy, even with my intense travel schedule. Not only does Thrive offer 25 to 50% off all of my favorite brands, but they also give back. For every membership purchased, they give a membership to a family in need. Get up to $20 in shopping credit when you sign up and any time you spend more than $49 you’ll get free carbon-neutral shipping. All you have to do is head over to thrivemarket.com/Hyman. The Theragun is a percussive handheld therapy tool that I can use at home on myself or you can use it on a partner. There are a variety of devices to choose from and multiple head attachments to get different kinds of targeted muscle treatments. The Gen Four series, with an OLED screen, personalized Theragun app, and plenty of power for deep relaxation start at just $199. Just go to theragun.com/Hyman to get your Theragun today. Here are more of the details from our interview : Sam’s experience training as a chef in Vienna and how it led him to think about agriculture and food policy (8:34) How Sam began cooking for the Obama family and his experience working in the White House (12:24) The passage of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act and the challenges around school lunch reform (16:05) How tomato sauce, French fries, and pizza came to be considered vegetables in schools (19:39) The impactfulness of the “Community Eligibility Program” provision in the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act which allows schools to serve free breakfast to students (25:24) The current administration’s attempts to roll back standards put into place through the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (31:26) The reason why junk food is more affordable than healthy food (41:07) Why government is not well positioned to change our food system (43:00) Innovation in the food industry (45:00) The negative feedback loop between food production and climate change (48:36) Check out Sam’s cookbook, “Eat a Little Better: Great Flavor, Good Health, Better World: A Cookbook” here. Follow Sam on Twitter @chefsamkass and on Instagram @samkassdc Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.