School lunch experiment that served healthy foods actually worked

by Brian White (Subscribe to Brian White's posts)
May 13th 2007 1:02PM

Categories: Healthy Kids, Nutrition & Supplements

What would happen if a public school was to drop junk foods from the menu completely and started serving fresh grains, fruits and vegetables to students? Would they like the change or demand their junk food back?

A town in Massachusetts did something similar to this, as the goal of helping kids eat better made for an interesting experiment indeed. Some kids even ate broccoli if you can believe that.

Experiments like these need to increase in schools across the country. Fast (cold turkey) changes and slow/gradual menu changes could all be part of experiments to see if kids would choose healthier food over junk food. If you're a parent concerned about what your kids may be eating at school, are you for these kinds of experiments?

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Comments (2)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Migraine 5-13-2007 @ 2:56PM

I think for some schools there is a financial incentive to sell junk foods because either large corporations provide dividends on every purchase e.g. Pepsi or Coke, or the cost is so cheap that schools can markup the prices on these processed foods.

Steve Cook 5-14-2007 @ 5:09AM

I am all for it (though I live in Sweden, not the US). Seeing Jamie's campaign in the UK made me hugely determined that when my son is of school age that I will do all I can to help make sure that his school dinners are as healthy as the food I serve him at home.

Children's eating habits are just that - habits and habits can be changed. But it does take time and effort and if the schools and the parents aren't behind that change then the junk-food sellers will take the opportunity to make as much money as possible.