Pupils who receive free school meals pick healthier options

CHILDREN on free school meals are more likely to chose healthier options than their more affluent classmates, according to new research.
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School meals

The study of more than 2,500 pupils at two schools in Yorkshire also found that despite canteens offering a number of freshly prepared hot meals many pupils were ignoring these in favour of “grab and go” choices such as pizza, jacket potato, and puddings.

Sheffield University academics are now recommending that free school meals are extended beyond pupils from the lowest-income families and that menu options are changed to ensure that popular choices are healthy.

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The research, which involved speaking to 2,660 pupils from two large secondary schools in the region, found that those on free school meals were more likely to pick “nutritionally valuable freshly prepared dishes of the day”.

Researchers hope the findings can help to ensure more pupils eat healthy school meals.

The university said the free school meal programme, which provides a free meal for children from low-income families, can make an important contribution to the diet of poorer children, especially in cases where there may be little guarantee of nutritious food at home. The study warns that obesity in childhood is fast becoming a global epidemic and within the UK is at unprecedented levels.

Latest figures show that 28 per cent of girls and 31 per cent of boys between the age of two and 15 are now classified as being either obese or overweight.

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The study says nutrition and obesity are public health priorities because of their links with chronic and life-threatening diseases as well as huge associated costs for the NHS. School meals can substantially affect a pupil’s diet and overall health and wellbeing.

There are more than eight million schoolchildren in England and more than three million eat a school meal every day, contributing to 590 million school lunches consumed every year.

Lead author Dr Hannah Ensaff, from the university’s Department of Oncology, said: “Eating behaviour is learnt early on and food preferences established in childhood and adolescence tend to persist into adult life, with related consequences for long-term health.

“Healthy eating habits are crucial to reducing children’s risk of health problems, both long and short term. The school food environment is an obvious public health intervention, particularly as children today seem to rely more on school food than decades ago.”

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The university said that over recent years food-based and nutrient-based standards have improved the provision of school food, especially through the restriction on the sale of foods with high fat and sugar such as sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks.

However, the new research highlights the fact that, although a school menu may contain healthy main meals, pupils are often turning to what it calls “grab and go items”.

Researchers say this shows the need to consider “children’s food choice behaviour”, and to make the most popular food items on the menu more healthy.

Dr Margo Barker, senior lecturer in nutritional epidemiology, said: “The patterns of food choice of students receiving free school meals with those that pay for them are of particular interest.

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Students receiving free school meals made nutritionally superior choices in the school canteen, although surveys show that their overall diet is lacking.

“This anomaly seems to be evidence for those calling for policy to extend free school meals beyond those families of lowest income.”

The research was published in Public Health Nutrition.

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