RAND Corporation — MedicalXPress, 5 May 2022
Regulations that strengthened the nutritional requirements for school lunches were associated with a decline in signs of obesity among free or reduced-price lunch participating school children in kindergarten through 5th grade, according to a new RAND Corporation study published in JAMA Network Open. Examining low-income children over two periods of time, researchers found that students who participated in the federal National School Lunch Program after nutrition standards were strengthened showed less weight gain than children who participated in the earlier version of the programme.
“Our findings suggest that improving nutritional standards for school lunches can help reduce the trajectory toward obesity among the low-income children who participate in federal school lunch programs,” said Andrea S Richardson, the study’s lead author. The healthier menus, which included increased fruit, vegetable and whole grain amounts, were adopted in 2012 following the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. The study found that children who participated in the school lunch programme before the nutritional reforms showed more signs of weight gain by the time they reached 5th grade, compared to children who did not participate in the school lunch programme. Once the healthier nutrition standards were put into place, children who participated in the school lunch programme showed no differences in weight gain compared to those who did not participate. While the findings support the benefits of higher standards for school lunches, researchers noted that many of the low-income students still appeared to be headed toward obesity, suggesting that “increasing access to school meals with more rigorous nutritional requirements that are culturally pleasing to children may be needed to achieve greater success in reducing child obesity.”