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 “We assumed there would be differences between school and packed
lunch, but not such stark differences,” said lead author Alisha R.
Farris of the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise in
the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech in
Blacksburg, Virginia.
“I also think, for a long time, people have viewed packed lunch as
the healthier option, but our results show that's really not the
case,” Farris told Reuters Health by email.
She and her coauthors used checklists to record the nutritional
content of daily lunches at three elementary schools for five school
days, with each researcher assigned to 10 students.
Of the 1,314 lunches they observed, the school provided 57 percent.
Calories, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, sugar, vitamin C and
iron were higher, on average, for packed lunches compared to school
lunches.
School meals averaged 512 calories and 13 grams of fat per lunch,
compared to 608 calories and 21 grams of fat for packed lunches.
Packed lunches averaged 10 grams more sugar than school lunches.
Protein, sodium, fiber, vitamin A and calcium were lower in packed
lunches compared to school lunches, according to the results in the
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.
About 60 percent of public elementary and secondary school students
in the U.S. get their lunches free or at low cost from the National
School Lunch Program, the authors write, and the NSLP is required to
meet nutrition standards aligned with the 2010 Healthy and
Hunger-Free Kids Act.
Both school and packed lunches were quite close to nutritional
standards, according to Jason Schaub of The University of Arizona in
Tucson, who was not part of the new study.
“What’s more revealing though is the sources of calories in these
meals; bagged-lunches contained more savory snacks and sugar
sweetened beverages with fewer fruits and vegetables,” Schaub told
Reuters Health by email. “This is significant because children start
developing preferences and behaviors towards food at a young age.”
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Farris agreed. “Sugar-sweetened beverages and dessert items are very
rare items in school lunches but are quite common in packed
lunches.”
Vegetables, on the other hand, are more common in school lunches,
she said.
The researchers did not measure what or how much the students
actually ate for lunch.
“Food-waste in the National School Lunch Program is tremendous, with
reports of over 45 percent of all food served going to waste,
including over 50 percent of vegetables served,” Schaub noted.
Older kids may have more options for lunch so these results may not
be applicable to them, Farris said.
“Our results may not be applicable to other elementary students
either, because of differences by state, region and local
environments,” she noted.
To make packed lunches healthier, parents could substitute water or
milk for a sugar-sweetened beverage and substitute fruit for
dessert, she said.
“Involving children in the packing decisions is a great way to
encourage them to eat what is being provided as well,” Farris said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/14f6n91 Journal of Nutrition Education and
Behavior, online November 7, 2014.
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