Unhealthy School Lunches Statistics
Parents, be aware! 2 out of three middle school students who eat school lunches regularly are overweight or obese. According to the unhealthy school lunches statistics released by experts, children who eat school lunches may have higher bad cholesterol or LDL than kids who bring their lunch along with them.
According to Elizabeth Jackson, MD, MPH, assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, unhealthy school lunches statistics will continue to climb as the efforts of schools to provide healthier lunch menus to students have a long way to go. According to her, the school environment must be an excellent opportunity for teachers and educators to teach kids on how to make healthy choices, both in terms of exercises and health.
This is highly important, particularly to middle school as this is the time when children start to become more independent. The choices that children make will shape their exercise and eating habits as they grow.
The University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor conducted a research study on 1,076 middle school students. They filled out questions asking them what they ate during lunch, how much physical activity they undertake, and the number of hours they spent on watching TV, spend in front of the computer each day, and the number of hours spent in playing video games each day.
In order to determine the unhealthy school lunches statistics, they were divided into three groups depending on their answers to questions asked to them: almost always or always eat lunch at school or bring packed lunch from home. The unhealthy school lunches statistics and other findings were presented at the meeting of the American College of Cardiology.
Shocking Truth about Unhealthy School Lunches Statistics
The facts below are the results of the study with students who ate school lunch and brought lunch from home.
• Students who ate school lunches are more likely to be obese or overweight (38.2 % vs. 24.7%).
• Students who ate school lunches are more likely to eat 2 or more servings of fatty meals like hot dogs and fried chicken daily (6.2% vs. 1.6%).
• Students were likely to eat less than 2 servings of fruits every day (32.6% vs. 49.4%).
• Were likely to have 2 or more sugary drinks per day (19% vs. 6.8%).
• Have higher levels of the bad cholesterol or LDL than students who bring packed lunch from home.
• Were likely to eat less than 2 servings of vegetables per day (39.9% vs. 50.3%).
• Students who ate school lunches were less likely to participate in active sports activities like football and basketball, moderate exercises like walking, and team sports than those students who brought lunch along with them.
The shocking truth about the unhealthy school lunches statistics is that one-third of all the kids in the United States is obese or overweight. This means that one-third of kids in the U.S. are at high risk of diabetes and heart attack when they get old.