NEW HAVEN, Conn.—Kids eat less junk food when middle schools remove low nutritional value snack foods and soft drinks as options from school vending machines and cafeterias, according to a new study from at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
“We found that when you take soda and high-fat snacks out of schools, students did not compensate at home. Instead, they ate better at school and no worse at home,” said lead study author Marlene Schwartz, PhD, deputy director at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
Schwartz explained that financial pressure from both the food industry, looking to build brand loyalty, and the schools, which get a cut of the profits from vending machines, is the main reason there is opposition to removing soft drinks and junk foods.
The study, published in the December issue of the journal Health Education & Behavior, looked at six middle schools over two years. In the three target schools, snacks meeting current nutrition standards in Connecticut (including water, 100-percent fruit juice, baked chips, pretzels, granola bars and canned fruit) replaced items that did not meet the standards (including potato chips, doughnuts, sweetened sports drinks, soda, snack cakes and cookies). The foods at the three comparison schools remained the same.
“We live in a society where it is easy, cheap, and convenient to eat unhealthy foods, and difficult to eat healthy foods,” Schwartz said. “It’s been this way for so long that many people consider this normal. It’s not. Schools need to be a safe haven for children that sell healthy foods children need to eat more of, not the unhealthy foods we tell children to limit.”