www.irvingisd.net

Back

March’s Featured Product:
Reduced-Fat American Cheese

March is National Nutrition Month.  As such, it is appropriate that we start making positive changes to our lifestyle in an effort to improve our health.  Changes can be subtle, yet still make an impact.  Some examples of subtle changes can be parking further away from your destination so that you can walk further and thus increase your physical activity, switching from whole milk, to 2% to eventually 1% or better yet, fat free milk!  Changes can be as simple as purchasing whole grain bread instead of white, or reduced-fat cheese instead of whole milk cheese. 

At the Irving ISD Food Service Department, we decided to be proactive in our menu planning.  Years before the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Texas Public Schools Nutrition Policy was even drafted, we had already starting making positive nutritional changes.  During the last five years we have switched most of our bread products to wheat and whole wheat, significantly increased the serving of fresh fruits and vegetables, incorporated fat-free and low-fat mayonnaise and dressings, changed to fat-free gravy, incorporated reduced-fat cheese in our recipes, and increased the consumption of fat-free and reduced-fat milk – whole milk is not served unless a student has special dietary requirements.  Combined, all of these changes improve the health and well-being of our students.

Below you will find a comparison of the reduced-fat American cheese that we use versus regular American cheese.  As you can see, there is a significant difference in several key areas.  Our reduced-fat American cheese has 33% less calories, 55% less fat, 45% less saturated fat, 42% less cholesterol and more protein, vitamin A and calcium than regular cheese.  The reduced-fat cheese is used in recipes such as Cheeseburgers, Chili Macaroni, Beef Taco Pie, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Squash Casserole, our Hot Ham & Cheese Sandwich, Cold Sandwiches, and Chili Cheese Hotdogs.  Reduced-fat cheese has less of what you don’t want, such as fat and calories, but all of what you do---flavor, flavor, flavor!