The federal government wants to make school lunches healthier — which also may mean raising the cost for students in certain areas. The White House's child nutrition bill suggests costs go up by 10 cents at the most, but some places are raising prices more than that. Some people are worried that this might generate some backlash from recession-strapped families. How much should Americans have to pay for a healthy school lunch?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided to knock down the 20-year-old nutritional food pyramid and replace it with a simpler guide to healthy eating — a plate. Today the USDA will unveil how they think your dinner plate should look. But while the portion-divide plate might be a more digestible representation of a good diet, the question is will the message get through to people who really need to change their habits? Tony Geraci, former food service director for Baltimore City Schools and consultant for the Got Breakfast Foundation says that the USDA is addressing many health problems head on.

According to the White House, 23.5 million Americans currently live in what are known as 'food deserts.' Food deserts are essentially nutritional wastelands that lack reasonable, affordable access to grocery stores. They exist primarily in urban and rural areas of the country, but can be found just about anywhere. And the people who live in them, more often than not, are forced to stock their cupboards with food from the convenience store, or even the drug store.

Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” anti-childhood obesity initiative has set the goal of eliminating all America’s food deserts in the next seven years. But if you’re living in a food desert, you might be wondering what you’re supposed to do until then to stay healthy and eat right.

Janine Whiteson, author of “Cooking Light: What to Eat,” has some ideas. She's a nutritionist who’s visited convenience stores and drug stores in some of New York’s poorest neighborhoods, and she’s found that it’s actually possible to eat healthily in a food desert if you have some practical guidelines.

• FINANCE TAKEOUT: New York Times finance correspondent, Louise Story, explains a new investigation into eight banks which may have misled ratings agencies in order to inflate the grades of certain mortgage securities.
• LISTENERS RESPOND: Yesterday we discussed the benefits and risks of drinking raw milk. Our listeners shared their strong opinions about whether milk should be raw or pasteurized.
  

Tuesday, the board of supervisors in Santa Clara County, California, decided to take a step further in the fight against obesity: they banned toy giveaways with kids' meals that don't meet certain nutritional standards. (Overall calorie count and salt content chief among them.)  This is the latest attempt in a series of measures taken by counties, cities and states to combat obesity, and is widely seen as specifically targeting McDonalds' Happy Meals.

UPDATED 9:20 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark, the Senior Producer on the night duty here.

Well, after a little investigating we're changing our changes. The producer we put on the explosion story out of Connecticut reported back that there don't seem to be all that many incidents involving natural gas plants and safety issues. We didn't want to treat this like shark attacks where we make a bigger deal out of a high profile incident and create the impression there is a trend or persistent danger worthy of panic.

So instead, we're talking about what we do think is a potential real danger (though on a much longer time horizon). Tomorrow we'll try to evaluate the scope and trajectory of Iranian nuclear ambitions. Are sanctions the answer? Is engagement? And how far along is Iran really? 

Our Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich will also bring us a radio obituary of John Murtha, including a list of all the public buildings already named after the Democratic Congressman in his district. It's way way more than you'd expect. 

 

 

For many of us, saying 'so long' to summer is not an easy thing. But there is one way to capture the sunny season in a bottle – or a jar, at least. With the abundance of wonderful fruits and vegetables that are bursting out of our gardens and farmers' markets, canning offers a way to eat summer tomatoes in the dead of winter. We speak to Takeaway food contributor Kathy Gunst, author of "Stonewall Kitchen Breakfast" and "Stonewall Kitchen Winter Celebrations." We also talk to John Forti, curator of historic landscapes at the Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Click through for a recipe for Kathy Gunst's roasted tomato sauce

A new study finds that a diet rich in red meat and processed meats can lead to premature death. The study, which is the largest of its kind, came out yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. For 10 years researchers tracked 500,000 people, ages 50-71, documenting what they ate over the course of that decade. The results find that people who consumed the equivalent of one hamburger a day increased their chances of dying by 30 percent. To fully understand the implications of this research we are joined by Barry Popkin who wrote an editorial accompanying this study. He is a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where he heads the division of nutrition epidemiology.

Advocates for everything from healthier school lunches to more humane treatment of farm animals to sustainable agriculture see an ally in the future President, but so far there's not much evidence that Obama himself is interested in reforming the U.S. food system. Kim Severson of The New York Times joins The Takeaway to talk about what foodies want from the new administration.

A striking one in ten Americans use food stamps, but many who are eligible aren't getting help.

"Baby-led weaning" is about skipping the baby food and letting your infant feed himself. The Takeaway talks to Helen Stewart, who blogs about baby-led weaning and to Keith Dixon, the father of an infant who eats everything he does — in mashed up form.

Shops and supermarkets across China have been withdrawing dairy products after the revelation that powdered baby milk, and now liquid milk, has been contaminated. A government watchdog group said nearly ten per cent of milk samples taken in recent days contained the industrial chemical melamine, which makes the protein content appear higher. Four babies have died and more than six-thousand children have fallen ill as a result of the contamination.

Food manufacturers are increasing the healthful properties of orange juice, chocolate, yogurt, peanut butter and countless other products by adding "nutraceuticals," foods (or part of a food) that provides medical or health benefits. Omega-3 oil can be extracted from fish and mixed in with orange juice. Antioxidants extracted from beets, carrots and bananas can be added to peanut butter. Is it really healthier, or is it just another strategy to open wallets a little wider with something new to shove down the gullet?

Do you want to battle climate change effectively? Then put down that cheeseburger! The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that direct emissions from meat production account for about 18 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas — roughly equivalent to the amount from cars and trucks. Are there really global benefits for going meat-free?

In a section of Los Angeles, the city council has put a moratorium on new fast food restaurants. The measure is intended to promote healthier lifestyles in a working-class area where obesity is a concern. New York has required calorie labels at chain restaurants to combat obesity — where do government responsibility and personal responsibility intersect?

With food and gas prices soaring, eating out has become a luxury. But a growing movement, with its pay-what-you-can policy, is making a trip to the restaurant affordable—and for some, free. The Takeaway talks to Denise Cerrata, a pioneering foodie with civic-minded flair. Five years ago she opened a restaurant that lets people work for a meal or donate whatever they can afford.

Guest: Dr. Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University

Back in the 1960’s, when the middle-class fled the cities for suburban refuge, there was an unforeseen consequence: the ‘grocery gap.’ It’s been widening over the years and as gas and food prices soar it’s gotten harder for the poor to get healthy and affordable food. One man, however, with a very simple plan, is turning this around: Pennsylvania State Representative Dwight Evans.

Guest: Dr. Peter Jung, pediatrician, Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas