Schools have supposedly made a huge effort in the past few years to offer healthier food options, but one little food critic says that effort is failing miserably. Eleven-year-old Zachary Maxwell, a fourth grader in New York City, who sounds like a combination of Morgan Spurlock and Jamie Oliver, made a 20-minute documentary highlighting his school's woeful lack of nutritious meals -- and even accused the school of false advertising. After his parents told him that they wanted him to eat school lunches -- considering how great they looked on the school's website -- Zachary argued that the online menus did not depict reality. Then he did what any precocious kid would do these days. He got out his video camera.

I grew up eating bologna sandwiches but now that my thinking about food has evolved -- thank you Fast Food Nation, Morgan Spurlock and Michael Pollan -- I can't even look at a hot dog or a chicken finger. Still, both are often in my shopping cart because they are among the few items my 6-year-old daughters will consistently eat.

Same with sugar. I have read countless articles about how sugar, not fat, is the root of all nutritional evil and my kids eat ice cream or some kind of dessert every night.

They are skinny kids. This is not about weight (for now). But I find myself having a crisis of conscience about the fact that I have different standards for my food than I do for theirs.

I feel for the parents of kids with food allergies. I really do. It must be terrifying living with the possibility that something as simple as a peanut butter sandwich could kill your child. And yet, a mom's suggestion that parents stop taking snacks to the playground, lest her kid get sick, is the latest example of the food allergy community taking things a step too far.

Take mom and author Curtis Sittenfeld (whose books I happen to adore) who opined in Slate this week that parents need to rein in their hungry kids at the park. Her fear, of course, is that her daughter's food allergies will be spiked by some careless kid wiping his PB&J all over the jungle gym.

Gee, what a surprise! A new report from the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), finds that a whopping 97 percent of “kids meals” at chain restaurants do not meet nutrition requirements for four- to eight-year-olds. And, lest you think to yourself, hey, what is the CSPI anyway? Consider this: 91 percent of kids’ meals at America’s major chains do not even meet the nutritional standards of the National Restaurant Association’s lobbying group’s Kids LiveWell program.

Um, gee, ya think? This doesn’t exactly come as a major newsflash, does it? I mean, let’s consider the typical fare presented as kids’ options at just about ANY restaurant, not even just the major chains ....

Here’s a good reason to think twice before you say yes to that soda with dinner, or even a glass of OJ with breakfast: a new study finds that a full 1 percent of obesity-related deaths can be attributed to sugary drink consumption. That’s 180,000 deaths per year, including 25K Americans. Can I get a YIKES?

I’m always surprised by how many kids my fourth-grade daughter’s age (and below!) are allowed to drink actual cans of soda. But it’s not just soda that we have to watch out for! Even fruit juice is loaded with sugar, something that I didn’t fully really realize until my husband and I got into an argument about it the other weekend while we were out to breakfast with our daughter. I whipped out my iPhone to prove him wrong when he said that sugar-wise, I might just as well let Isabella have a can of soda as let her order a glass of orange juice. And sugar-wise -- he was right! (I hate that!)

Gwyneth Paltrow has a new cookbook coming out next month. Yay! It's called It's All Good, only it's not exactly about "it" being "all good." She probably should have called it "It's all good except for gluten, meat, eggs, dairy, and sugar." The book is full of recipes that conform to the elimination diet her doctor put her on. And what's good for Mama is good for the kids, too, right? Gwyn put the whole family on the diet -- yes, including her kids.

Well, good for her, feeding her kids healthy, wholesome foods. But did Gwyneth go too far with her kids' low-carb diet? She admits in her book, "Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread, or processed grains like white rice, we’re left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs." That part made me cringe. Hungry kids? Oh no!

Your bags are packed, the gas tank is full, and the keys are in the ignition. But before you can even turn the car on, there’s a familiar cry from the back seat: “Mom, I’m hungry!”

As every parent knows, a hungry kid is an irritable and cranky kid -- hardly the kind of passenger you want to be trapped in a moving vehicle with for hours on end. So how can you avoid this scenario the next time your family hits the road? Try these steps to fuel your crew before you go:

A 7-year-old girl's diet list has been circulating on the web recently, causing heartbreaking gasps and an outcry against our weight-obsessed culture. The handwriting is childish, but the sentiments it contains are those we like to think don't begin haunting children until later in life, though time and again, we're shown otherwise.

The note came from mom Amy Cheney who shared the "diyet" list with all of its misspellings at Mamamia. She said she found it in her daughter's room, amidst the Polly Pockets and friendship bracelets.

The note outlines foods the girl lets herself eat: "Appals, keewee, yoget" as well as exercises she needs to do: "pooshups, 16 star jumps 2 time a day, and rid my bike 3 times a day."

Again, this is from a 7-year-old girl.