Students’ Food Intake from Home-Packed Lunches in the Traditional versus Balanced School Day

Neilson, Lisa J.; Macaskill, Lesley A.; Luk, Jonathan M H; Sharma, Navreeti; Killip, Steve M.; Salvadori, M; Seabrook, Jamie A.; Dworatzek, Paula D.N.

doi:10.3148/cjdpr-2016-024

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(52 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Research indicates that when compared with students following the traditional school day, a greater number of snack servings are both packed and consumed in the balanced school day. 31 Additionally, Dorman et al 2 found students following the balanced school day schedule had significantly more beverages per day than those following the traditional schedule, and Neilson et al 31 found more balanced school day students had a sugar-sweetened beverage packed in their lunch compared to students following the traditional school day. Although the balanced school day may have unintended negative consequences on the quality and quantity of foods packed for school lunches, 31 there is limited data on the impact of this schedule on children's eating habits 9 or parental school lunch packing habits.…”

Section: Research Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What's for Lunch? Investigating the Experiences, Perceptions, and Habits of Parents and School Lunches: A Scoping Review

O'Rourke¹,

Shwed

Bruner

et al. 2020

Journal of School Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BACKGROUND Research indicates home‐packed school lunches are lower in nutritional value compared with school‐provided meals. Due to the lack of a school lunch program, most of what Canadian children consume during the school day is determined by parents and caregivers through packed lunches. Despite this, little research has focused on the school lunch packing habits and attitudes of parents. The purpose of this scoping review was to improve understanding of parental perceptions, experiences, and habits with respect to home‐packed school lunches. METHODS We conducted a scoping review of peer‐reviewed and gray literature. We reviewed only studies published from January 2000 to January 2019 with a focus on parents' lunch packing habits for their school‐aged children. RESULTS The review included 7 studies, with articles from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. The studies identified 6 themes influencing parental decisions regarding what to pack in their child's lunch—school environment, food as fuel, convenience, child's influence, cost, and the lunch experience. CONCLUSIONS The decisions that influence what is packed in a school lunch are complex and indicate the need for support. Parents, schools, districts, and government policymakers need to work collaboratively to improve the healthiness of home‐packed school lunches.

show abstract

Section: Research Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What's for Lunch? Investigating the Experiences, Perceptions, and Habits of Parents and School Lunches: A Scoping Review

O'Rourke¹,

Shwed

Bruner

et al. 2020

Journal of School Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This approach is similar to the standards set by the United States National School Lunch Program, which uses one-third of the 1989 Recommended Daily Allowances for energy, protein, iron, calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin C as minimal nutritional quality criteria for school meals (United States Department of Agriculture 2012). A similar approach has also been used in previous Canadian studies that used one-third of the daily recommended intakes as nutritional criteria for meals consumed at school (Taylor et al 2012;Neilson et al 2017). For the C-HEI, diet quality categories have been previously established (Garriguet 2009).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the United Kingdom, 1 study examining dietary contributions of nutrients from lunch among older adolescents reported relatively lower intakes of vitamin C, folate, calcium, and iron compared with the mean caloric contribution (Prynne et al 2013). In Canada, a limited number of studies from regional, context-specific samples have examined in-school dietary intakes suggesting overall poor dietary practices (Woodruff et al 2010;Taylor et al 2012;Ahmadi et al 2015;Neilson et al 2017), but no study has assessed the dietary contributions from foods eaten at school in relation to whole-day intakes or compared nutrient intake patterns between school and non-school hours.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining school-day dietary intakes among Canadian children

Tugault-Lafleur

Black

Barr

2017

Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding how dietary intakes vary over the course of the school day can help inform targeted school-based interventions, but little is known about the distribution or determinants of school-day dietary intakes in Canada. This study examined differences between school-hour and non-school-hour dietary intakes and assessed demographic and socioeconomic correlates of school-hour diet quality among Canadian children. Nationally representative data from the Canadian Community Health Survey were analyzed using 24-h dietary recalls falling on school days in 2004 (n = 4827). Differences in nutrient and food-group densities during and outside of school hours and differences in School Heathy Eating Index (School-HEI) scores across sociodemographic characteristics were examined using survey-weighted, linear regression models. Children reported consuming, on average, 746 kcal during school hours (one-third of their daily energy intakes). Vitamins A, D, B 12 , calcium, and dairy products densities were at least 20% lower during school hours compared with non-school hours. Differences in School-HEI scores were poorly explained by sociodemographic factors, although age and province of residence emerged as significant correlates. The school context provides an important opportunity to promote healthy eating, particularly among adolescents who have the poorest school-hour dietary practices. The nutritional profile of foods consumed at school could be potentially improved with increased intake of dairy products, thereby increasing intakes of protein, vitamin A, vitamin D, calcium, and magnesium.

show abstract

“…This study conducted a secondary analysis of data available from another study [ 32 ]. Elementary school principals in the Thames Valley District School Board, who agreed to host this study, facilitated recruitment of grade 3 and 4 students (aged 7 to 10 years).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Picky Eating Is Associated with Lower Nutrient Intakes from Children’s Home-Packed School Lunches

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The objective was to assess the relationship between children’s picky eating (PE) status and nutrient intake from home-packed school lunches. The lunches of 321 students, aged 7–10 years, were quantified via cross-sectional direct observation. Children were classified as having PE (n = 155) or not (non-PE; n = 166) based on food neophobia scores and parental perceptions of PE. The PE group consumed significantly less protein, folate, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, D, and E than the non-PE group; however, both groups consumed amounts exceeding Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for protein, carbohydrates, sugar, sodium, iron, and vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, and C. Conversely, both groups consumed amounts significantly lower than DRIs for calcium, fibre, folate, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and vitamins A, D, E, and K. The PE group ate significantly less meat and alternatives, vegetables and fruit, and fruit than the non-PE group, and did not meet any of Canada’s Food Guide (2007) recommendations. The non-PE group met recommendations for meat and alternatives only. PE impacts the dietary intake of children’s home-packed lunches; however, many packed lunches were of low nutritional quality. Focus should be placed on provision of nutritionally complete school lunches for all children.

show abstract

Students’ Food Intake from Home-Packed Lunches in the Traditional versus Balanced School Day

Abstract: The BSD may have unintended negative consequences on the type and amount of foods packed in school lunches. Support for families should focus on encouraging more vegetables and fruit and fewer SSBs and snacks in packed lunches.

Cited by 18 publications

References 27 publications

What's for Lunch? Investigating the Experiences, Perceptions, and Habits of Parents and School Lunches: A Scoping Review

What's for Lunch? Investigating the Experiences, Perceptions, and Habits of Parents and School Lunches: A Scoping Review

Examining school-day dietary intakes among Canadian children

Picky Eating Is Associated with Lower Nutrient Intakes from Children’s Home-Packed School Lunches

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About