Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Health & Wellness
Health & Wellness

Healthy Free School Lunches Help Students Control Weight

Posted byBy ABS Contributor | Published on: | Updated on June 12, 2013 CommentsComments (0)

While the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sets federal nutritional standards for school lunches, states vary in how strictly they adhere to the guidelines, and, in recent years, nutrition experts have criticized the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), which began in 1946 to provide free or discounted lunch to students from low-income households, with doing a poor job of meeting nutritional requirements.

Some states passed laws to require NSLPs in their jurisdictions to exceed the USDA’s standards, while others failed to even meet the government’s standards completely.

And in a study published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago show how important school lunches can be in helping children to maintain healthy weights. The scientists found that children attending schools where  lunches exceeded the USDA standards were leaner compared to those in schools falling short of USDA nutritional guides.

The researchers studied 4,870 eighth-graders in 40 states during the 2006-2007 school year, and found that those attending schools that did not exceed nutritional standards were twice as likely to be obese as those in schools where these standards were surpassed.

In fact, at schools where meals exceeded USDA nutritional guides, the students eating the free or discounted meals were 12.3 percent less likely to be obese than those who didn’t eat the lunches. Since low-income kids are at a higher risk of developing obesity, the researchers focused on this population of students and found that stricter nutritional standards were particularly effective in controlling weight.

The NSLP currently feeds over 31 million students each day, and in response to concerns that the lunches  do not meet all of the government’s nutritional standards, in January 2012 the USDA revised school meal guidelines by requiring more fruits and vegetables, whole grains and stricter calorie limits. While the current study was conducted before these stricter guidelines were implemented, the schools that exceeded the older USDA standards were essentially enforcing these latest changes.

Read More: healthland.time.com

 

 

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top