An attempt to get school kids to eat healthier lunches is only resulting in more food going in the garbage.
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The new study has sparked some controversy as a previous study conducted by Harvard’s School of Public Health in 2014 investigated the same issue and concluded that school kids actually started consuming more fruits and vegetables after the new federal guidelines went into effect.
That question was whether simply telling school kids to add more fruits and vegetables to their diet, “under the updated national school lunch program guidelines that”, did indeed correspond with an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption.
Amin stressed that what’s important is to make it easy for kids and teens to eat fruits and vegetables. After the guidelines were put into place then children had around 13% fewer fruits and vegetables. They agree to put more fruits and vegetables on their food trays, however they refuse to eat them. “The answer was clearly no”.
“The beauty of this method is that you have the data to store and code to indicate what was selected, what was consumed, and what was wasted as opposed to weighed plate waste, where everything needs to be done on site”, said Amin, who hopes to develop an online training tutorial that could be used by schools across the country to measure consumption and waste.
The small study, published online in Public Health Reports, comes about a month before Congress is scheduled to vote on whether to reauthorize the program.
It is also one of the first to compare fruit and vegetable consumption before and after the controversial legislation – the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 – was passed. The researchers had to document the waste of food in an irrefutable manner to make the waste plain to the U. S. Legislature that is scheduled to renew and fund the programs that do not work in 2015. According to Medical Daily, the team found that children preferred “processed fruits and vegetables” such as “fruit juices and tomato paste on pizza”.
“There are some really promising strategies targeting school settings such as farm-to-school programs and school gardens that can help to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption in addition to what the cafeteria is providing”, says Amin. They also found that for fruits and veggies to be eaten, they are either sliced and served with dips or serving them with other foods as well.
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Finally, Amin pointed out that once schools fully acclimate to the guidelines, she thinks overall consumption will increase, especially for those students who entered school as kindergarteners under the new guidelines in 2012 and know no other way. “We have to have patience with this and not give up hope yet”. School lunch study: Visual Proof Kids Are Tossing Mandated Fruits And Veggies In Trash.
