Surprising Findings about School Lunches
Surprising findings about school lunches – In a study of three rural Virginia elementary schools, both packed and school lunches almost entirely met nutrition standards, but those packed at home tended to have more calories, fat and saturated fat.
Of the 1,314 lunches that the research team observed, the school provided 57 percent. Calories, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, sugar, vitamin C and iron were higher, on average, for packed lunches compared to school lunches.
School meals averaged 512 calories and 13 grams of fat per lunch, compared to 608 calories and 21 grams of fat for packed lunches. Packed lunches also averaged 10 grams more sugar than school lunches.
“We assumed there would be differences between school and packed lunch, but not such stark differences,” said lead author Alisha R. Farris of the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.
“I also think, for a long time, people have viewed packed lunch as the healthier option, but our results show that’s really not the case,” Farris told Reuters Health by email.
Category: News Videos, Videos
