Guest Blog Post: School Lunches

This week, my blog will be featuring a post from Cordelia Brand, check out her blog here.

During the school day, even lunch time is an important learning experience. What kids are served or able to buy is influential to student’s perceptions of nutrition. Lunchtime is the only education about nutrition many kids receive until they take an official health class in middle school. While formal nutrition classes aren’t crucial in kindergarten and into grade school, healthy school lunches make a large impact on how children view nutrition.

There are ongoing debates about the health of U.S. school lunches. Schools have to work within a budget, and when budgets are slashed, schools see food programs as an area to cut costs. Mass-produced frozen food is easier to prepare and cheaper for schools to provide, but are often much more unhealthy than fresh and natural food.

When schools serve kids frozen pizza, a can of pop, tinned fruit in syrup, and french fries, kids get the impression that this food is normal. When served these high-fat, high-sugar, low-nutrient dense foods regularly, there are negative impacts on physical and mental health. Not only do kids view these meals as normal and expected, their tastes mold to prefer these foods over healthier ones. Many studies have shown that poor nutrition negatively affects concentration, energy, and motivation. This can in turn lower test scores and happiness, along with increase unhealthy weight.

The U.S. can learn from Japan’s school lunch program. When students bring lunches from home (mostly in junior and high schools), bentos are standard lunch fare for all ages, especially children. Many elementary schools have school lunch programs that serve bento-style foods. They aren’t packed neatly into boxes, rather have smaller portions of a variety of foods. A certified nutritionist plans balanced meals, and food is often local and rarely frozen. Students help out with lunch by taking turns serving food and cleaning up. This gives a sense of responsibility to kids and teaches them different ways to serve a balanced meal. Like in America (although much less so), the meals aren’t perfectly healthy. There is often fried food and always whole milk, but smaller portions of these treats teach kids not to overindulge.

Bento vs. Typical American Lunch
 

Unsurprisingly, Japanese students are among the highest performing in the world. They also have a much lower obesity rate than American children. By comparing the two country’s school lunch programs, this should not come as a surprise. America can learn from Japan’s school lunch culture to teach children about nutrition with healthy, balanced lunches from the start of school.