School Lunches are nutritionally worthless. They are so focused on lowering fat that they've gone to using lots of bread and sugar. They served eggs at breakfast up until about 1990. After that, they replaced them with Fruit Loops (Sugary Cereal) and Bread. Now, there's a way to start off the day: load 'em up with sugar and starch...and they wonder why children can't focus in class. Lunch was never anything decent. The meats never tasted like what they were supposed to be. The chicken nuggets bounced when you dropped them on the floor and everything was fried except when they had Hamburger, Pizza, or Pasta...French Fries or Mashed Potatoes and overcooked spinach which you had to take, but never ate were the sides. As for the salad bar...we had that when I was in 3rd grade. I loved it. More accurately, it was about the only thing that tasted like real food. Then again, that was back when I ate lots of vegetables at dinner at home. They dropped the salad bar after that year...and never brought it back. I personally believe that childhood obesity can be to some degree reversed simply by improving school food:

1) Meats should not be fried;
2) Replace the overcooked spinach with a salad;
3) Replace Juice Bars with FRESH low-glycemic Fruit;
4) Replace French Fries with FRESH Green vegetables;
5) Bring back the damned salad bar; and
6) Get rid of the soda/snack machines.

As for PE...it was good in Elementary School. But, in Middle School they made us change into uniforms in the locker room...With ZERO supervision, the jocks would routinely harrass and beat up the outcasts (such as myself). I managed to get my mother to write something to get me out of PE...because I got beat up everyday in the locker room. If they are going to require you to change in the locker room...there should at least be some adult supervision to prevent this sort of thing.

High School was better...in that I didn't get beat up everyday. But, it also wasn't really PE. We only had PE for 1 semester (not even a full year) and we only spent half that time exercising. The other half of the time, was spent learning that carbs were our friend and fat was our enemy. The second semester we had Health which went back over that same crap, and added to it why smoking a joint will cause you to go nuts, that if you have pre-marital sex...you will get a VD/STD, etc...We barely did any exercise of value in HS PE. Most of the time was spent indoctrinating us to eat low-fat, not do drugs, and abstain from sex.

As for the exercise days...we had those in Elementary School. I always did well in them, but I was skinny in Elementary School. I won the mile run in 3rd grade. I always won the sprints. Chin ups were no problem. But, at the time...I wasn't eating alot of carbs and I was in good shape. That didn't change too much until 6th/7th grades.

We had recess in Elementary School...and we always got plenty of exercise. In Kindergarten, we ran around alot. In 1st and 2nd grades we played lots of Baseball. In fact, after school I would go down to the Boy's Club and play roller hockey (hockey on roller skates). In 3rd grade we played alot of kickball. In 4th and 5th we played alot of Football and Baketball at recess. In the first half of 6th grade...even though we didn't specifically have recess, we could go outside and play sports after we finished eating. That ended when some kid broke his head open on the basketball court. No more going outside and getting exercise after lunch. We could still show up early and use the basketball, etc...courts. But, most kids did not want to get to school early.

Forcing kids to run wind sprints a few times doesn't solve anything. You need to get them interested in exercising...and that means sports: Basketball, Football, Kickball, Dodgeball (with kickballs, not tennis balls...as they really hurt), Baseball, Volleyball, and Soccer. We shouldn't leave the ability to play sports at school to just those few who make the team. PE should give the kids options...something that is exercise, but they like to do. I.E. sports of their chosing.