Health News
- Research Indicates That Students Throw Away Less Food Since New, Healthier Lunch Rules Were Put In Place
One of the most consistent complaints about the healthier school-lunch standards is that more food ends up in the garbage can, but a three-year study at urban middle schools says the opposite is true. "Overall, the revised meal standards and policies...
- 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...
- Kentucky School Officials Make Foods Look More Appetizing And Easier To Eat, In Order To Decrease Food Waste
Some school districts are working to keep fruits and vegetables from being thrown out by students who seem to be unhappy with their school lunches that must follow stricter nutrition guidelines to get federal subsidies. "The key to getting students to...
- 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 Serving Somewhat Healthier Lunches, But Short On Physical Activity, National Survey Shows
The nation's middle and high schools are feeding students somewhat healthier lunches, but are falling short in providing physical activity to students, a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Bridging the Gap program has found. And...
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 of afterward, and much of the food they threw away was fruits and vegetables, Roberto A. Ferdman writes for The Washington Post.
Cornell University and Brigham Young University researchers spent 14 days studying the behavior of children during lunch. Three schools served lunch after recess, and the other four before recess. The researchers kept track of how many fruits and vegetables children discarded and how many they ate.
"Students who ate lunch after recess ate 54 percent more fruits and vegetables than those who ate it before," Ferdman reports. The number of students who ate at least one serving of fruit and vegetables was 45 percent greater at the schools that served lunch after recess than the schools who served it beforehand. This is because students are hungrier for lunch after playing, and if they have already had recess, they will not rush eating their lunch so they can go play.
"If recess is held before lunch, students come to lunch with healthy appetites and less urgency and are more likely to eat their fruits and vegetables," David Just, one of the study's authors, told Ferdman.
A 2014 study also concluded, for about the same reasons, that providing lunch before recess leads to more food waste. It is unknown how many schools currently serve lunch before recess, but in 2011, only 4.6 percent of elementary schools reported serving lunch after recess. (Read more)
- Research Indicates That Students Throw Away Less Food Since New, Healthier Lunch Rules Were Put In Place
One of the most consistent complaints about the healthier school-lunch standards is that more food ends up in the garbage can, but a three-year study at urban middle schools says the opposite is true. "Overall, the revised meal standards and policies...
- 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...
- Kentucky School Officials Make Foods Look More Appetizing And Easier To Eat, In Order To Decrease Food Waste
Some school districts are working to keep fruits and vegetables from being thrown out by students who seem to be unhappy with their school lunches that must follow stricter nutrition guidelines to get federal subsidies. "The key to getting students to...
- 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 Serving Somewhat Healthier Lunches, But Short On Physical Activity, National Survey Shows
The nation's middle and high schools are feeding students somewhat healthier lunches, but are falling short in providing physical activity to students, a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Bridging the Gap program has found. And...