Dominated by doughnuts, pizza and foods-on-a-stick, the average school menu in West Virginia can read like the offerings at a glutton’s dream buffet. At one elementary school, a breakfast offering is “Pancake on a stick,” a variation on corn dogs with sausage and pancake batter, to be dipped in syrup. For lunch, pepperoni and cheese-stuffed pizza breads. Bologna sandwiches for snacks.

While the food choices may appear unhealthy, administrators say they are sneaking in nutrition to combat childhood obesity in a state where 13.7% of children were overweight in 2005. In schools across the state, fat and calories are being cut by furtively supplementing hamburgers with soy and subbing applesauce for shortening in cake.

The faux-junk food push is the nutritional equivalent of making airplane noises while zooming a spoonful of food into a child’s mouth: a dressy distraction intended to get children to clean their plates.

“The problem is we can’t always have our cake and eat it, too,” said Dr. Stephen Daniels, a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

He worries that children who grow up eating faux fast foods may have trouble making good food choices as adults.

“There are ways to prepare healthy foods to make them more palatable, but I’m not sure we need to hide them in a doughnut or a hot dog,” he said.

Read (AP via USA Today)