Are early lunches foiling healthy food choices for teens?
A report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association answers yes. The Penn State study, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, surveyed 227 Pennsylvania high schools – 25 percent of which serve lunch before 10:30 a.m. Those schools had higher “a la carte” sales – food lines that are not part of the federally supported school lunch program. But critics say they often have lower nutritional value. And maybe the kids were buying a la carte cookies and snack cakes for later. Researcher Claudia Probart says parents can help kids on early lunch by packing a healthy snack: “Augment that meal pattern with fruits or vegetable sticks, or something that doesn’t need refrigeration and can be carried.” (eight seconds) Learn more at www.hhs.gov. HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.
