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Speed eating legend and Nathan's
hotdog receptacle Takeru Kobayashi might have to throw in the -- imaginably very greasy -- towel, with a new generation of American children being groomed to master the fine art of stuffing face.
Mother Jones has picked up on an outrageous report out of Minnesota, where two elementary school students claim they're given a
measly 10 to 11 minutes to eat lunch. 10 to 11 minutes! Let's break that down. That's one to two minutes getting served food with
highly questionable nutritional content, another minute trying to squeeze a seat in at the cool-kid's table. Finally, these sixth graders are given a whopping seven minutes to socialize -- and do I dare say, enjoy themselves -- and, oh yeah, carefully chew and digest their food. School administrations might shave off another minute if they switched to
edible packing, allowing students to avoid a trip to the garbage by saving their trash for an afternoon snack.
Fast eating among US students is an unfortunate nationwide norm.
The School Nutrition Association, whose mission it is to educate and empower its members to provide healthy meals for children, estimates students have on average 25 minutes to eat lunch. Cost restrictions are equally as tight. Even with
new federal guidelines, which provide more funding for fresh and healthful foods in cafeterias, schools have less than $3.00 per a student to spend on mealtime. That's roughly the cost of large cup of coffee at your local Starbucks.
