ResearchResearch and Professional BriefImpact of Portion-Size Control for School a la Carte Items: Changes in Kilocalories and Macronutrients Purchased by Middle School Students
Section snippets
Methods
The Studies to Treat or Prevent Pediatric Type 2 Diabetes (STOPP T2D) were funded to develop a type 2 diabetes prevention program for middle schools. The overall goal of the larger intervention study, which began in 2006, is to reduce diabetes risk factors, including body mass index, blood sugar, and insulin levels among middle school students. Dietary outcomes for the main trial include increasing water, fruit, and vegetable consumption, and decreasing sweetened beverage and dietary fat
Results and Discussion
The demographic characteristics of the participating schools are shown in Table 1. The majority of students identified themselves as members of ethnic minority groups (Hispanic, African American, and Native American).
At baseline, only one of the goals was met by one school; North Carolina school 2 offered reduced-fat/baked chips as 25% of their snack chips. At week 6, all goals were achieved by five of the schools. California school 1 did not meet the reduced-fat/baked-chip goal.
Table 2 shows
Conclusions
Results from this pilot study document that school foodservice changes in the school snack bar/a la carte line can be implemented in middle schools. However, changes in revenue were not ascertained, and any deleterious impact on school revenue could be an issue for sustainability. Also, it was apparent that restrictions on portion sizes of other snack foods like dessert foods were needed. Marketing and promotion of the healthful food offerings also appears necessary. Future work should
J. Hartstein is a nutritionist, University of California Irvine.
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Rural Disparities in the distribution of policies that support healthy eating in US secondary schools
2013, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and DieteticsCitation Excerpt :The likelihood of limited package or serving sizes of foods sold in school stores or vending was significantly higher in urban and suburban schools than in town/rural schools. Studies have identified an impact upon student dietary intake when portion sizes were limited in schools.32,33 To our knowledge, this is the first study to compare a multistate sample of food and nutrition–related policies and practices across categories of place, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status after the implementation of the 2004 CNRA in 2006.
The caloric calculator: Average caloric impact of childhood obesity interventions
2013, American Journal of Preventive MedicineCitation Excerpt :For instance, there is growing evidence that physical activity has beneficial effects on mental health outcomes and academic performance.51 Similarly, an intervention to improve the nutritional quality of a la carte foods and beverages improves the overall nutritional profile of foods consumed at school despite having no significant effect on the total number of calories sold.52,53 Some investments in childhood obesity prevention have been projected to be cost effective.54
Modification of the school cafeteria environment can impact childhood nutrition. Results from the Wise Mind and LA Health studies
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J. Hartstein is a nutritionist, University of California Irvine.
K. W. Cullen is associate professor, Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
K. D. Reynolds is associate professor, Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Alhambra.
J. Harrell is professor and P. Kennel is project coordinator, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Nursing, Chapel Hill.
K. Resnicow is professor, University of Michigan, Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, Ann Arbor.