With the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans due at any time, a major change brought about by the 2010 version-the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act-remains a point of contention in lunchrooms and with the Congress, which has delayed requirements concerning whole grains and sodium following complaints that cafeteria programs were losing money and many kids wouldn’t eat the food.
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“Both the longitudinal design and food-specific data collection included in the Johnson et al study provide strong evidence supporting the positive impact of this legislation”, they said. The study examined changes in more than 1.7 million lunches at three middle and three high schools in an urban school district in Washington state from 2011 through 2014. “Because the National School Lunch Program reaches more than 31 million students each day in 99% of US public schools and 83% of private schools”, the two wrote, “the new standards have the potential to significantly and consistently affect the nutritional health of children”. The School Nutrition Association and the School Superintendents Association, for instance, are among groups opposed to HHFKA because they believe the act has caused fewer students to eati meals at school and has driven up the cost of food.
Now a new study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics reveals that school lunches have indeed gotten healthier, and close to the same number of students are still participating in the school lunch program. These changes added a cap to calories, as well as requiring at least a serving of a vegetable or fruit.
A limitation of the study was that it only measured what foods the students selected, not what they actually ate or might have thrown away.
Move over, mystery meat – students are choosing more nutritious school lunches under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, new research suggests.
Measuring empirical values by using the meals’ mean adequacy ratio (MAR), they calculated that nutritional quality increased by almost 30 percent, from a MAR of 58.7 before the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act to 75.6 after implementation.
“We tend to eat more if larger portions are put in front of us and if there’s more variety”, Johnson said.
“We found that the implementation of the new meal standards was associated with the improved nutritional quality of meals selected by students”, wrote the authors, according to a press release.
The 2010 HHFKA updated nutritional standards for the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.
“The HHFKA created significant improvements in school nutrition, but that progress is now at risk of repeal….”
The study authors also pointed out that because the study only included one urban school district, the results may not apply to schools in other areas.
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“This is a new policy so we’re just starting to see these nicely designed studies come out that show an impact or no impact [on what students are eating], and I bet we will see a lot more data in this year come out about consumption and choice”, she said.
