USDA Rules Give School Meals a Healthy Makeover

First lady Michelle Obama takes her seat as she has lunch with school children at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va.

—Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

More vegetables, less salt called for

By Nirvi Shah

Over the next few years, school breakfasts and lunches will undergo their first metamorphosis in a generation—the result of new U.S. Department of Agriculture rules that say they must contain more fruits and vegetables, less salt, less fat, and more whole grains.

The changes , issued by the USDA last week, were applauded by celebrity chefs, the first lady, and child-health advocates. The new requirements, triggered by the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act , will affect the daily eating habits of the 32 million students who eat school-supplied meals, many of whom get more than half their daily caloric intake from school meals.

"When we're doing what we're supposed to be doing at home, the last thing we want is for things to be undone at school," first lady Michelle Obama said at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. She was on hand to promote the new requirements and eat a lunch of turkey tacos, brown rice, fresh fruit, and milk—a meal that meets the new standards—with...