The Unhealthy Consequence of Too-Short School Lunches

(Photo: Getty Images)

Kids rushed through school lunch may put a less balanced meal on their tray and end up throwing out more food because they don’t have time to eat, a study suggests.

Researchers compared how much and what types of foods 1,000 students in grades 3 to 8 selected and how much they ate based on the length of their lunch periods, checking in six times during the 2011-2012 school year at one urban, low-income school district. Lunch periods typically lasted from 20 to 30 minutes.

Students were significantly less likely to grab a piece of fruit if they had less than 20 minutes to eat, compared with kids who got at least 25 minutes for lunch. Children with less time were also less likely to finish their entree, vegetable or milk.

“They likely would have consumed more of their vegetables, milk and entrees if they had more time to eat,” lead author Juliana Cohen, a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, said by email. “If they are eating less of these foods on a daily basis throughout the school year, this can have important health implications for the students.”

When students had at least 25 minutes to eat, 57 percent of them took some fruit to eat, compared with 44 percent of their peers who had less than 20 minutes, Cohen and colleagues report in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Related: Best and Worst Fast Food Chains That Use Antibiotics—Ranked

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that students “should be allowed at least 20 minutes of actual eating time for lunch,” with the clock starting only when they’re seated with their meals.

In the current study, compared to kids with more time, the students who had less than 20 minutes also consumed 13 percent less of their entrée, 12 percent less vegetables, and 10 percent less milk.

One fix to this problem might be as simple as changing what happens right after lunch, said Gregory Madden, a psychology professor at Utah State University who wasn’t involved in the study.

When children have recess immediately after lunch, they may be inclined to rush through their meal and eat as little as possible to get to the playground sooner, Madden said by email. Students may also spend much of their lunch period planning games for recess rather than eating their food.

But if all they have to look forward to after lunch is a return to the classroom, they may be more inclined to linger in the cafeteria, Madden said.

One risk of rushing kids through lunch is that they may fill up on junk, fast food and sweets when they get hungry later in the day, Samantha Heller, a nutritionist at New York University’s Center for Musculoskeletal Care and Sports Performance who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

“Experts believe that when students are given an adequate amount of time for lunch, they will be more likely to try healthy options and make healthy food choices which down the road may lower the risk for obesity and other chronic diseases,” said Heller.

Read This Next: 50 Foods the Healthiest People Always Stock in Their Kitchens

Follow Yahoo Health on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have a personal health story to share? We want to hear it. Tell us at YHTrueStories@yahoo.com.