Health News
- Scheduling Lunch After Recess, Very Unusual In Elementaries, May Lead To Less Food Waste And Better Nutrition, Study Says
Scheduling school lunch later in the day could help children to eat more nutritious foods and reduce food waste, according to a study at seven schools in Utah. Researchers found that children threw away more food when they ate lunch before recess instead...
- Study Finds Kids Eat Too Much Pizza, Too Often, And It's Bad For Their Health
While pizza consumption is lower than it used to be, kids are still eating too much of it, and it's affecting their health, Roberto A. Ferdman reports for The Washington Post. The health issues are a result of the extra calories, fat and sodium consumed...
- Mass. Study Finds Home-packed School Lunches Lack Whole Grains, Fruits And Vegetables, And Have Too Much Sugary Stuff
Packing a healthy lunch that kids will eat is an ongoing challenge for families, and a challenge that is often not met, according to a study by researchers at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. ?When deciding what to pack, parents are juggling time, cost,...
- Schools Keep Adjusting To National Nutrition Guidelines
Paducah-area school districts "continue to adjust school meals to ensure students are fed complete, healthy meals every day," Kathleen Fox reports for The Paducah Sun. The revised National School Lunch Program "places the emphasis on portion size and...
- Study: Children Are Obese Because Of Bad Habits, Not Heredity
Researchers at the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center have found poor health habits, not heredity, are making children fat. Check-ups of 1,003 Michigan sixth-graders showed children who were obese were "more likely to consume school lunch instead...
Health News
Study in Virginia finds school lunches are healthier than home-packed lunches
Preschoolers and kindergartners at three Virginia schools tend to eat healthier when they eat school lunches compared to lunches packed at home, Roberto A. Ferdman reports for The Washington Post.
Researchers at Virginia Tech surveyed more than 1,300 lunches at three schools in Virginia, and found that parents often packed chips, sweets and sugary drinks. These items are not allowed under the recently revised National School Lunch Program.
"I wasn't expecting there to be such a strong difference between school meals and lunches packed by parents," rsearcher Alisha Farris told Ferdman. "We thought that parents would send lunches that reinforced the sort of healthy habits we hope they are trying to establish at home."
"More than 60 percent of meals packed at home had one dessert (nearly 20 percent had two or more); just under 60 percent had savory snacks, like chips; and roughly 40 percent had a soda or sugar-added juice," Ferdman reports. "The school meals were more likely to contain fruits, vegetables, naturally sweetened juices and milk."
While the sample is not nationally representative, the study says there is no reason to believe the problem is limited to public preschools and kindergartens in Virginia, Ferdman writes. A similar study in Massachusetts this year found a similar pattern for its elementary-school students.
Stricter nutritional guidelines might explain why packed lunches perform so poorly by comparison from a nutritional standpoint, Ferdman reports.
Children get between a third and one half of their daily calories, on average, while they are at school, Ferdman writes. And this study shows that the 60 percent of children who eat school lunch, appear to be getting more nutritional meals.
"I wasn't expecting there to be such a strong difference between school meals and lunches packed by parents," rsearcher Alisha Farris told Ferdman. "We thought that parents would send lunches that reinforced the sort of healthy habits we hope they are trying to establish at home."
"More than 60 percent of meals packed at home had one dessert (nearly 20 percent had two or more); just under 60 percent had savory snacks, like chips; and roughly 40 percent had a soda or sugar-added juice," Ferdman reports. "The school meals were more likely to contain fruits, vegetables, naturally sweetened juices and milk."
While the sample is not nationally representative, the study says there is no reason to believe the problem is limited to public preschools and kindergartens in Virginia, Ferdman writes. A similar study in Massachusetts this year found a similar pattern for its elementary-school students.
Stricter nutritional guidelines might explain why packed lunches perform so poorly by comparison from a nutritional standpoint, Ferdman reports.
Children get between a third and one half of their daily calories, on average, while they are at school, Ferdman writes. And this study shows that the 60 percent of children who eat school lunch, appear to be getting more nutritional meals.
- Scheduling Lunch After Recess, Very Unusual In Elementaries, May Lead To Less Food Waste And Better Nutrition, Study Says
Scheduling school lunch later in the day could help children to eat more nutritious foods and reduce food waste, according to a study at seven schools in Utah. Researchers found that children threw away more food when they ate lunch before recess instead...
- Study Finds Kids Eat Too Much Pizza, Too Often, And It's Bad For Their Health
While pizza consumption is lower than it used to be, kids are still eating too much of it, and it's affecting their health, Roberto A. Ferdman reports for The Washington Post. The health issues are a result of the extra calories, fat and sodium consumed...
- Mass. Study Finds Home-packed School Lunches Lack Whole Grains, Fruits And Vegetables, And Have Too Much Sugary Stuff
Packing a healthy lunch that kids will eat is an ongoing challenge for families, and a challenge that is often not met, according to a study by researchers at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. ?When deciding what to pack, parents are juggling time, cost,...
- Schools Keep Adjusting To National Nutrition Guidelines
Paducah-area school districts "continue to adjust school meals to ensure students are fed complete, healthy meals every day," Kathleen Fox reports for The Paducah Sun. The revised National School Lunch Program "places the emphasis on portion size and...
- Study: Children Are Obese Because Of Bad Habits, Not Heredity
Researchers at the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center have found poor health habits, not heredity, are making children fat. Check-ups of 1,003 Michigan sixth-graders showed children who were obese were "more likely to consume school lunch instead...