A few months ago there was an interview on NPR about placing salad bars in Los Angeles Elementary schools. The story said that, although schools did have to educate kids about nutrition and the different fruits and veggies in the salad bar, the kids liked making their own choices AND increased fruits and veggies in their diets by one full serving per day. Huge!
Last November, the Chicago Tribune ran an article on Chicago Public School's breakfast program. While I definitely support students eating breakfast at school if they aren't able to at home, the options of CPS's breakfast program were, shall we say, not the best. One standout quote from the article came with supporting research from a Yale University study done by Dr. Brownell and his colleagues that showed if kids were only given healthy options, they would eat them - AND eat the correct portion size!
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation did an investigation into how well schools are implementing the new standards (Child Nutrition Act of 2004) for establishing goals for increasing nutrition and exercise for children in schools. While it is quite a long report (find it here, and, okay, no I have not finished reading it yet), it is full of great information, including this gem of a quote:
"An intervention conducted in three Connecticut middle schools found that student consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages decreased when these items were removed from school, and there was no compensatory increase in consumption of those foods or beverages at home."
What I hope people take away from research-supported articles like these is that of course there is no easy answer to getting kids to eat healthier at school - but that doesn't mean it has to be difficult! Elimination of unhealthy options and simple solutions such as providing a salad bar make a world of difference for young children. Supporting school nutrition involves educating young children to make the right choice, encouraging them to make the right choice, and providing them with the right choice. Which, of course, should be the only choice!
Resources:
Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity: Dr. Brownell's research on children's cereals
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Local School Wellness Policies
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To add to the idea of how to get kids to eat healthy, one important idea is to just make healthy foods part of your "household culture." If you start early and don't make a big deal out of the fact that nutritious foods are, in fact, healthy, many kids will just consider these foods part of their normal diet! Now, that's not to say that if your kids are older then they are a lost cause. Jamie Oliver would beg to differ!
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