Posted on 11/08/2014 9:02:17 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Many parents prefer to send their children off to school with a packed lunch, believing that the food they have given them is far healthier than school lunches. But a new study, published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, claims this may not be the case.
The research team, led by Alisha R. Farris of the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Exercise at Virginia Tech, found that school lunches had better average nutritional quality than packed lunches.
"We found that both packed and school lunches almost entirely met nutrition standards, except school lunches were below energy and iron recommendations, whereas packed lunches exceeded fat and saturated fat recommendations," says Farris.
But despite drives to improve the quality of school lunches, around 40% of parents continue to prepare a packed lunch for their children. However, Farris notes that - unlike school lunches - there are no guidelines that recommend what foods parents should include in their children's packed lunches.
The team found that packed lunches contained a lot more energy, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat and sugar than school lunches. They also contained much lower levels of protein, fiber, vitamin A and calcium.
The researchers say these findings are likely to be a result of the USDA guidelines promoting higher exposure to fruits and vegetables, while packed lunches were more likely to contain savory snacks, desserts and sugar-sweetened drinks.
Sodium content, however, was found to be much higher in school lunches that packed lunches, even though the team says packed lunches were more likely to contain processed foods. What is more, school lunches were found to contain lower levels of vitamin C and iron than packed lunches.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalnewstoday.com ...
Welcome to the abc's of tyranny!
What a stupid premise. So EVERY packed lunch, all of them; whether it is parboiled tree-bark or a hard boiled egg, is less nutritious than school lunches, any of them. Only a complete fool would make such a statement.
9/10ths...
And sic the IRS on Alisha R. Farris, Virginia Tech, and the Journal of Nutrition, Education & Behavior.
Ditto. I am UNREASONABLY healthy for my age.
Would anybody care to wager against me as to the source of funding of this study being from a government grant? Possibilities are almost endless as to a specific source but none-the-less it does put a place-holder in the concept that parents are dangerous to their children, does it not? Taking this concept to its logical conclusion would probably result in bag lunches being banned and lunch room monitors forcing the students to eat their 'healthy' school lunches! Paging the current FLOTUS and overflowing waste cans at schools everywhere!
Is he packin’ a pistol in his Superman lunch box?
I agree absolutely.....
I guess we can’t do anything at all anymore without instructions from the government. How did those of us born before 1980 survive?
8/9ths, 9/10ths, 99.9/100ths?
No. Just a sandwich from home that isn’t government approved.
> “We found that both packed and school lunches almost entirely met nutrition standards, except school lunches were below energy and iron recommendations, whereas packed lunches exceeded fat and saturated fat recommendations,” says Farris.
yep... me too.. for almost a whole year, I ate Reeses Peanut butter cups and Snickers bars, washed down with a Coke..
did much better the next year and ate school lunches..
still here... and I’m thin.. I eat very well.. excersise, etc
Fresh out of the Journal of Pure and Applied Medical Propaganda.
"I approve this study! Now, gimme my 5%!"
The smart TV in their house.
Doubt that. Would prefer home cooking.
a poor nutritional lunch actually EATEN, is better than a great nutritional lunch thrown into the garbage...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.