Do better school lunches help kids learn?

[futurebeachbum]

This Washington Post article is about the effort Chef Jamie Oliver mounted to improve the nutrition of school lunches in one London Borough.

From the article:

What caught the attention of Michele Belot and Jonathan James, though, was the way Oliver?s project had been implemented. Belot and James ? economists at Nuffield College, Oxford, and at the University of Essex respectively ? noted that the campaign had created a near-perfect experiment. The chef had convinced Greenwich?s council and schools to change menus to fit his scheme; he mobilised resources, provided equipment and trained dinner ladies. Other London boroughs with similar demographics received none of these advantages ? and indeed, because the programme wasn?t broadcast until after the project was well under way, probably knew little about it. The result was a credible pilot project. It wasn?t quite up to the gold standard of a randomised trial, but it wasn?t far off.
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Interesting article. Attendance and scores in that borough improved. So, it turns out that the answer is probably yes.

 

[scooterbug44]

Food in kids' tummies helps them learn better, and reducing sugar highs and lows also improves behavior and concentration.

 

[Gidget]

I can certainly tell the difference when I am trying to learn something.

Thanks for posting.

G

 

[Lynnie]

I've had this discussion with family before and we concluded that we learned well in school because we had a huge breakfast everyday of eggs, grits, bacon and toast with milk - chocolate milk for me! I.E. lots of protien to fuel both energy and brain cells!

Our meals in school were a meat, starch and green veggie with milk - chocolate milk for me. And, a cookie.

In HS - same drill except we had a vending machine of co-colas and the girls always got a TAB. During Lent, no meat on Fridays - some kinda fish pattie that was NASTY! We would skip off the campus to the Mom & Pop Grocery next door and load up on candy and junk. Usually a Nun was waiting for us with detention when we got back, but we had enough junk food to get us through that rough 45 min.

 

[LuciferSam]

Thing is, the brain runs on glucose so I don't know what to think. I say add Ritalin to the koolaid and watch those test scrores skyrocket.

 

[surf fishin]

Thing is, the brain runs on glucose so I don't know what to think. I say add Ritalin to the koolaid and watch those test scrores skyrocket.

better they put it in the koolaid than up their nose...that stuff will eat away your septum