Kids need fuel to keep both their bodies and brains functioning. Eating regularly improves focus and concentration. The right foods also help children stay alert through long afternoons of classes and strengthen the immune system so they miss fewer school days due to illness. Several studies demonstrate the importance of food for kids in school.
Breakfast
Children who eat breakfast learn more and behave better in school. A 2002 study of 97 inner-city students, published in the "Annals of Nutrition Metabolism" found that students enrolled in a school breakfast program "significantly" improved their math grades and had fewer behavior problems in class. When surveyed, children gave various reasons for not eating breakfast before school, including not being hungry and not having time to eat. Poor households may not have food to offer before school. Free or reduced cost breakfasts at school overcome these objections by feeding children once they get to school.
Lunch
Breakfast alone doesn't provide enough fuel to keep children going all day. A study reported in the November 2010 issue of the "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition" found that children involved in a school lunch program were more engaged and alert in the afternoons. The study also noted that, while the children had more energy, teachers had to work harder to channel that energy and keep the students on task, as opposed to the control group of students, who had less energy, but also were less likely to wander off-task.
Healthy Habits
People establish eating habits in childhood that carry over into adulthood. Elena Serrano, a nutritionist with Virginia Cooperative Extension, recommends involving children in packing their own school lunches as a way to teach children healthy eating habits. Include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy foods in your child's lunch. Allow your child to pick out a favorite fruit and include healthy snacks such as nonfat yogurt with fruit or low-fat granola, sliced apples with peanut butter for dipping, baby carrots with hummus dip and turkey and low-fat cheese roll-ups. Pack water or milk instead of soda.
Junk Food
Jeremy Shere with the Indiana University School of Medicine reported in January 2010 that when schools removed junk food vending machines, students ate healthier snacks both at school and at home. They didn't, as some had predicted, respond to healthier foods at school by eating more junk food at home but instead made healthier choices overall. Junk food is high in calories, sugar and fat and low in vitamins, minerals and fiber. Cutting out junk food is one way schools can help fight childhood obesity and teach children to make smarter eating choices.
References
- University of Washington: School Meal Programs, Learning and Behavior in the United States
- "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; School Lunch and Learning Behavior in Primary Schools; R. Golley, et. al.; November 2010
- Virginia Tech News; Virginia Tech Nutritionists Recommend Packing a Health Lunch for Kids Returning to School; August 2007
- Indiana University Sound Medicine; Did You Know? Junk Food at School; Jeremy Shere; January 2010
