Lunch After Recess Increases Kids' Fruit and Veggie Intake, Study Finds
Photo by Thinkstock
One simple change during the school day could drastically increase students’ fruit and vegetable intake — and it has nothing to do with improving the taste or sneaking spinach into otherwise kid-friendly recipes. According to a new study, simply moving the lunch period to after recess might do the trick.
According to the study, which appears in the journal Preventative Medicine, when kids eat lunch after recess instead of before, they eat 54 percent more fruits and veggies, and 45 percent more students eat at least one serving of those healthy foods.
STORY: Kids ‘Thank’ Michelle Obama for ‘Mystery Mush’ School Lunches
Joe Price, an economics professor at Brigham Young University and an author of the study, says one reason kids may not currently eat their fruits or vegetables at lunch is that they know they can go outside to play as soon as they’re done. “Recess is a pretty big deal. If you make students choose between recess and veggies, recess is going to win,” Price tells Yahoo Parenting. “Plus, if you’re outside playing and working up an appetite, you will eat more afterwards, and that includes the fruits and vegetables.”
The researchers analyzed the lunch intake of students at seven schools in Utah – three of which hold recess before lunch and four that hold it after lunch. Over the course of 13 school days, researchers kept track of what students ate and what they threw away.
STORY: School Prepares Kids For Intruders By Teaching Them To Throw Canned Food
Recent federal guidelines require that students who get their meal under the National School Lunch Program must take a serving of fruit or vegetables. “For a long time, we were worried about kids not having access to healthy foods,” Price says. “But now that they have access, we need to make sure those items get eaten and not thrown away.” Swapping lunch and recess across the country could be the final piece of the puzzle.
“For most schools, it’s probably an easy change at no cost,” Price says. “And even if there is a small price — maybe it’s a pain for a teacher to have to corral students in from lunch — it’s about weighing the cost of that change against the benefits of kids eating a healthier lunch.”
STORY: Parents of Picky Eaters, Take Heart: This Author-Dad Understands
Those benefits include maintaining students’ energy levels and increasing their focus and ability to absorb information, according to nutritionist Patricia Bannan, author of Eat Right When Time Is Tight. “For some kids, the only healthy meal they get all day is at school and if it’s in the trash can it’s not doing anybody any good.”
The large-scale impact of this change could be a game-changer for kids’ nutrition. “We serve 32 million school lunches a day in this country,” Price says. “When you start to think about these changes to one kid’s behavior, and you scale it up by 32 million, that’s a big deal.”
Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? E-mail us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com
