School lunch lines can provide children

By Lisa Harnack, Dr.P.H.

How healthy are school lunches? With obesity and other nutrition-related problems at an all-time high among youth--and memories of their own corn-dog-and-french-fries days stuck in their minds--many parents fear school meals are nutritional wastelands.

In the early 1990s, a U.S. Department of Agriculture study found that 99 percent of school lunches--the standard meals offered as part of the federally funded National School Lunch Program--contained more fat than USDA dietary guidelines recommended. But, the Healthy Meals for Healthy Americans Act of 1994 began requiring school lunches to meet the guidelines and the meals took a turn for the better. Today, a much larger percentage of schools meet the recommended fat standards.

Currently, the major nutritional problems arise not from the standard school meals, but from a la carte foods, those money-making items many schools add to the lunch line. Although some a la carte foods are nutritious, the ones often chosen--cookies, chips, ice cream, and so on--are far less so. A 2003 study by my colleagues in the School of Public Health found that students in schools with a la carte programs ate fewer fruits and vegetables and got more of their total calories from fat than did students in schools without the programs. On the encouraging side, additional research showed that promoting lower fat a la carte foods and providing more of them can boost sales of such foods in high schools, and providing and promoting fruits and vegetables can increase consumption in elementary students.

What's a parent to do? Here are some tips for helping your child eat a healthy lunch:

• Make family meals a model of healthy eating. Don't underestimate the power of family meals. Research at the U shows that adolescents who regularly eat with their families consume more fruits, vegetables, and calcium than those who don't.
  
  
• Steer your child away from a la carte items. Better yet, work with your school to get those items out of the lunch line. Discourage the use of vending machines, which often dispense items such as pop and chips.
  
  
• Monitor your children's meals. Ask your children what they had for lunch or check their lunch account online. Talk about the importance of good choices for growing strong, smart bodies.
  
  
• Pack well-balanced lunches at home. Avoid high-fat, high-sodium prepackaged convenience lunches. Encourage your child to buy milk at school if you can't send it along.
  
  
• Ask to see your school's wellness policy. If you aren't happy with the limits it places on the availability of junk food at school, get involved in changing it.

This column is an educational service of the University of Minnesota. Advice presented should not take the place of an examination by a health-care professional. For more health-related information, go to http://www.healthtalk.umn.edu.

Note: Lisa Harnack is an associate epidemiologist in the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the relationship between diet and chronic disease and obesity.