School Foods at the Forefront of Research, Initiatives

More than one in three middle school students who regularly eat school lunches are obese or overweight. They're also more likely to have high LDL or "bad" cholesterol levels than kids who bring lunch from home.

The research suggests that efforts to provide healthier choices on school lunch menus still have a long way to go, says Elizabeth Jackson, MD, MPH, assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor. ...

Kids who bring lunch from home less likely to be overweight.

The study involved 1,076 middle school students who filled out questionnaires asking what they ate, how much physical activity they got, and the number of hours they watched TV, played video games, and spent on the computer each day. ...

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology. Compared with kids who brought lunch from home, those who ate school lunches were more likely to be overweight or obese (38.2% vs. 24.7%); were more likely to eat two or more servings of fatty meats like fried chicken or hot dogs daily (6.2% vs. 1.6%); were more likely to have two or more sugary drinks a day (19% vs. 6.8%); were less likely to eat at least two servings of fruits a day (32.6% vs. 49.4%); were less likely to eat at least two servings of vegetables a day (39.9% vs. 50.3%); and, had higher levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol.

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