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School Kids Choose
Unhealthy Lunches, Study Finds
The
above headline comes from a July 01, 2003 Reuters Health release. The
article begins by saying that according to new research, "Schools that
offer students pizza and fries as alternatives to healthier lunch fare are
not only encouraging children to eat high-fat foods during lunch hour, but
after school and at home as well."
Researcher and registered nurse, Martha Kubik of the
University of Minnesota, and her team collected data on 16 middle schools.
They noted the difference between schools that offered an a la carte
program and availability of vending machines, which offer children more
"popular" foods alongside the traditional, and carefully balanced, school
lunch. The results were published in the American Journal of Public
Health. In the journal Kubik stated, "This is probably the first paper
that looks at the a la carte programs in schools and their influence on
student dietary behavior."
"We weren't just looking necessarily at food they
ate at school. We looked at food they ate outside of school as well,"
Kubik said. She continues, "That suggests how important the school
environment is. If they were at these schools that offered a la carte,
they were not making up for choices made at school by eating healthier
foods out of school. It shows how powerful the school influence is, not
only are they exposed to their own choices, they are exposed to the
choices of their peers."
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture 9
out of 10 U.S. schools offer the a la carte programs, which do not have to
meet the U.S. government's nutritional recommendations. These
recommendations call for eating at least five servings a day of fruits and
vegetables and getting no more than 30 percent of calories from fat.
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