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Nutrition expert on how 'junk food' school lunches harm children's health

'Deep Nutrition' author and family physician Dr. Cate Shanahan explains why public school lunches qualify as junk food.

A mom sharing a personal upset involving her son's pre-school teacher and the lunches the mom packs for her son has elicited a torrent of input on social media. 

The mom described herself on Reddit as 34 years old and the mother of a five-year-old son who attends preschool. 

She wrote recently that "a few hours after I picked him up from school … I got a phone call from his teacher."

The mom, revealing her story on the subreddit known as "AITA" ("Am I the a--hole"), did not name her location. But she said her son's teacher apparently "made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches." 

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Added the mom, "I felt absolutely appalled when she said this," given that she and the teacher, she said, "have, up until now, always maintained a very friendly relationship."

Nevertheless, the teacher went on to tell the mother that "the lunches I’m packing my son are ‘very distracting for the other students and have an unpleasant odor,'" the mom reported.

A student is shown grabbing lunch in a school cafeteria. A teacher has told the mother of a young student that the lunches she's packing for him are "very distracting for the other students and have an unpleasant odor," according to a social media post to which thousands replied.  (AP Photo/Herald-Times Reporter, Sue Pischke)

She said she told the teacher that she understood her concerns, "as the lunches I pack are definitely not the healthiest," she also wrote.

However, the mother said the lunches she packs for her child "are according to my son’s preferences."

"I am not going to drastically change my son's lunches all of a sudden."