Dataset Information

Hyper-palatable foods in elementary school lunches: Availability and contributing factors in a national sample of US public schools.

ABSTRACT:

Background

School cafeterias are a major point of influence for child nutrition. United States federal legislation requires the presence of important nutrients in school meals. However, legislation overlooks the potential presence of hyper-palatable foods in school lunches, a hypothesized factor that may influence children's eating behavior and obesity risk. The study sought to 1) quantify the prevalence of hyper-palatable foods (HPF) served in US elementary school lunches; and 2) determine whether food hyper-palatability varied based on school geographic region (East/Central/West), urbanicity (urban/micropolitan/rural), or meal item (entrée/side/fruit or vegetable).

Methods

Lunch menu data (N = 18 menus; N = 1160 total foods) were collected from a sample of six states that represented geographic regions of the United States (Eastern/Central/Western; Northern/Southern) and that had variability in urbanicity (urban, micropolitan, and rural) within each state. A standardized definition from Fazzino et al (2019) was used to identify HPF in lunch menus.

Results

HPF comprised almost half of foods in school lunches (M = 47%; SD = 5%). Compared to fruit/vegetable items, entrées were >23 times more likely to be hyper-palatable and side dishes were >13 times more likely to be hyper-palatable (p values < .001). Geographic region and urbanicity were not significantly associated with food item hyper-palatability (p values >.05). The majority of entrée and side items contained meat/meat alternatives and/or grains and likely aligned with the US federal reimbursable meal components of meat/meat alternatives and/or grains.

Conclusions and implications

HPF comprised almost half of foods offered in elementary school lunches. Entrées and side items were most likely to be hyper-palatable. US school lunches may be a key point of regular exposure to HPF among young children, a risk factor that may elevate child obesity risk. Public policy regulating HPF in school meals may be needed to protect children's health.

SUBMITTER: Dilsaver D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9934344 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Hyper-palatable foods in elementary school lunches: Availability and contributing factors in a national sample of US public schools.

Dilsaver Danielle D Rohde Kaitlyn K Chollet-Hinton Lynn L Fazzino Tera L TL

PloS one 20230216 2

<h4>Background</h4>School cafeterias are a major point of influence for child nutrition. United States federal legislation requires the presence of important nutrients in school meals. However, legislation overlooks the potential presence of hyper-palatable foods in school lunches, a hypothesized factor that may influence children's eating behavior and obesity risk. The study sought to 1) quantify the prevalence of hyper-palatable foods (HPF) served in US elementary school lunches; and 2) determ ...[more]

PMID: 36795642

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Project description:BackgroundDuring 2010, the US Department of Agriculture updated the school meals standards, including three progressively decreasing sodium targets. The Target 1 standards went into effect in 2014, but during 2018, the US Department of Agriculture delayed the Target 2 standards until 2024 and eliminated the Target 3 standards citing concerns regarding the availability and acceptability of lower-sodium foods. In addition, there are currently no sugar standards, and it is unknown whether sugar is substituted for salt in lower-sodium school foods.ObjectiveTo examine the availability, selection, and consumption of school lunches already in alignment with the Target 2 and 3 sodium levels and the association between sodium and sugar.DesignAn observational cafeteria-based study conducted during fall 2018.Participants and settingStudents (n = 1985) in grades three through eight attending 13 elementary/kindergarten through eighth-grade schools in a large, urban school district in New England.Main outcome measuresAvailability, selection, and consumption were examined using plate waste methodology.Statistical analyses performedMixed-model analysis of variance accounting for student demographic characteristics with schools/students as a random effect (students nested within schools) were used to examine differences in availability, selection, and consumption. Linear regression was used to examine the association between sodium and sugar in the school foods.ResultsThe majority of meals selected (87%) and consumed (98%) were already in alignment with the Target 2 standards. There were significant inverse associations between sodium levels and consumption; each 100-mg increase in sodium was associated with a decrease in consumption by 2% for entrées (P = 0.002) and 5% for vegetables (P = 0.01). When examining the association between sodium and sugar, each 10-mg reduction in sodium was associated with 1-g increase in sugar among entrées (P < 0.0001), whereas there was a significant positive association between sodium and sugar with vegetables and condiments.ConclusionsThis study provides some evidence that schools may already have the ability to provide lower-sodium meals that are acceptable to students, and therefore the recent rollbacks to the sodium standards may be unwarranted. Study findings suggest that the US Department of Agriculture should take under consideration policies that would limit added sugar for school meals as sugar may be substituted for salt.

Project description:Various studies have reported the physical and mental health benefits from exposure to "green" neighborhoods, such as proximity to neighborhoods with trees and vegetation. However, no studies have explicitly assessed the association between exposure to "green" surroundings and cognitive function in terms of student academic performance. This study investigated the association between the "greenness" of the area surrounding a Massachusetts public elementary school and the academic achievement of the school's student body based on standardized tests with an ecological setting. Researchers used the composite school-based performance scores generated by the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) to measure the percentage of 3rd-grade students (the first year of standardized testing for 8-9 years-old children in public school), who scored "Above Proficient" (AP) in English and Mathematics tests (Note: Individual student scores are not publically available). The MCAS results are comparable year to year thanks to an equating process. Researchers included test results from 2006 through 2012 in 905 public schools and adjusted for differences between schools in the final analysis according to race, gender, English as a second language (proxy for ethnicity and language facility), parent income, student-teacher ratio, and school attendance. Surrounding greenness of each school was measured using satellite images converted into the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in March, July and October of each year according to a 250-meter, 500-meter, 1,000-meter, and 2000-meter circular buffer around each school. Spatial Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) estimated the impacts of surrounding greenness on school-based performance. Overall the study results supported a relationship between the "greenness" of the school area and the school-wide academic performance. Interestingly, the results showed a consistently positive significant association between the greenness of the school in the Spring (when most Massachusetts students take the MCAS tests) and school-wide performance on both English and Math tests, even after adjustment for socio-economic factors and urban residency.

Dataset Information

Hyper-palatable foods in elementary school lunches: Availability and contributing factors in a national sample of US public schools.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions and implications

Publications

Hyper-palatable foods in elementary school lunches: Availability and contributing factors in a national sample of US public schools.

Similar Datasets

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