"The Institute of Medicine report, which Congress requested, said less-nutritious items should be replaced with healthier stuff such as fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products. It emphasized adding snacks with more whole grains and less sodium, saturated fat and added sugar."

" ? Packaged products must contain at least one serving of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, or nonfat or low-fat dairy products. "

"Federal officials recently proposed raising the nutritional standards for school lunches or breakfasts, but the recommendations issued yesterday are the first national attempt to address the healthfulness of "competitive" school foods -- snacks and drinks that often are sold to raise money for schools."

"In place of potato chips, chocolate bars and other popular snacks, the report said, schools should sell healthier options such as apples, carrot sticks, raisins, low-sugar cereals, whole-grain tortilla chips, granola bars and nonfat yogurt with no more than 30 grams of added sugar."

"The proposed guidelines also urge limiting the calorie content of snacks and drinks -- to no more than 200 per portion -- and switching to items that contain no trans fats, lower levels of sugar and sodium, and no more than 35 percent of calories from fat, less than 10 percent from saturated fat."

"The report by the institute, a branch of the National Academies, also urged eliminating sports drinks, soft drinks and caffeinated drinks. Instead, the guidelines call for schools to provide free, safe drinking water or give students the opportunity to buy nonfat or low-fat milk or limited amounts of 100 percent juice."

"After hours, high schools would be allowed to sell less nutritious snacks and drinks such as baked potato chips, whole-wheat pretzels, seltzer water or caffeine-free diet soda."

"But the committee recommended against making fortified water available and urged that sports drinks be available only at the discretion of coaches and for students who engage in an hour or more of vigorous activity."

"The recommendations will help the food industry by providing "a uniform set of guidelines that can be accepted throughout states and agencies for competitive school foods," said Dennis M. Bier, chairman of the institute's Food and Nutrition Board and a member of the committee of experts that drafted the report."

"The Agriculture Department, which sets the standards for school lunches, has no authority to regulate snacks, but nine senators are co-sponsoring the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act to give the USDA that power. If passed, school districts would be required to meet the guidelines or face fines or loss of school-lunch funding."

""For the first time, we have gold standard recommendations for school nutrition standards from one of America's
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