020843 School Lunch is the Nutrition Winner!

Alexandria, VA (PRNewswire) - Moms, you can take a break from packing school lunches with a clear conscience. Research shows that children who participate in school lunch programs eat more nutritious noon meals than do those who bring lunches from home.

Measuring food actually eaten, registered dietitian Dr. Alice Jo Rainville, of The Human Nutrition Program of Eastern Michigan University, compared the lunches of 570 second, third and fourth grade students in two Michigan school districts. She observed calorie counts of school and bag lunches to be similar, averaging 577 calories. However, school lunches, which must meet one-third of a child's daily nutritional needs, and follow the Dietary Guidelines, provide more variety, and better nutrition.

Overall, the school lunches provided more of eight major vitamins, and more calcium, iron and zinc, protein and fiber. School lunches had twice as much fruit and seven times the amount of vegetables as lunches brought from home.

Because the mainstay of the lunchbox is the sandwich, it offers more bread and meat items. Kids are also treated to three times more snack foods in lunches brought from home. This combination makes for more carbohydrates, fat, sugar and Vitamin C in the lunchbox, the latter from fortified fruit drinks or fruit snacks.

Juice boxes are prevalent in lunches brought from home and they encourage children to forgo the purchase of milk to go with their lunch. Nutritionists suggest that "overjuicing" contributes to low calcium intake as well as weight problems in children. Milk was included in 87% of the school lunches and only 7% of lunches from home. "The calcium shortage among American children is a major public health issue," says Gaye Lynn MacDonald, president of the American School Food Service Association. "Kids' drinks can help make or break good nutrition. That's why milk is always offered as a part of school lunch. Most schools make a point of serving a variety of flavors of milk, as well as low fat and fat free milk choices."

Similar research results comparing school lunches with brown bag lunches have been shown in studies in New York, Minnesota and Salt Lake City. "These studies show that school lunch plays a major role in keeping our children healthy," says registered dietitian Martha Conklin, chairman of the school nutrition practice group of the American Dietetic Association. Gaye Lynn MacDonald adds, "School lunches sometimes get a bad rap, but this research is further evidence that school meals are healthy meals!"

ASFSA (http://www.asfsa.org) is a national, non-profit professional organization representing more than 55,000 members who provide high-quality, low-cost meals to students across the country. The association and its members are dedicated to feeding children safe and nutritious meals. Founded in 1946, ASFSA is the only association devoted exclusively to protecting and enhancing children's health and well being through school meals and sound nutrition education.

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