Healthy Lunches: How Will Schools Get Students To Eat Better?

As schools across the nation try to replace fattening lunch menus with healthier items, they are seeing less children wanting to eat the lunches.

According to CNN, a report shows that the number of kids getting school lunches is dropping off because of healthier -- and less alluring -- choices in Chicago.

Author Brian Wansink delves into the topic and explains the complexities of trying to get kids to eat healthy and some of the creative tactics schools are trying.

WATCH:

Comments

[marshhen]

08:51 AM on 03/08/2011

Unless you control what the child eats at home, and when, and what they are fed, the child will skip and not eat a lunch they don't want. Since we have no control over that issue, and will never be a reality, offering a healthy lunch, which they don't eat, is a waste of food, effort and taxpayer money. If this was the only meal that a child ate, they would eventually eat it out of starvation, but face facts, that is not reality for the vast majority

[rmarie]

03:12 PM on 03/03/2011

The thing is, kids who shy away from healthy foods do so because they aren't used to it. The same way that if you try to give my kid Cheetos, he won't eat them, because he's not used to that kind of thing.

When exposed to it, hungry, and given no other option, kids will eventually eat the healthier food.

[Christopher Bowen]

05:21 PM on 03/03/2011

Exactly. A child won't starve him or herself. As stubborn as my kids were at one time, they eventually ate the foods before them.

[1Woman4Obama]

01:50 PM on 02/28/2011

I can't even believe this is a question -- if they won't eat healthy lunches, they won't eat. If the parents care so little about their children that they will continue sending junk with them to school, so be it.

[marshhen]

08:39 AM on 03/08/2011

I worked as avoid sevice director for a school. The problem is is tha the parents will feed them what they want out of school. So, they don't eat the healthy lunch, and go home hungry where the parent gives them what they want. So no matter how healthy the lunch is they just won't eat it because of choices made at home.

[marshhen]

08:40 AM on 03/08/2011

I worked as a school food service director, sorry for the errors.

[DaBluAce]

03:09 PM on 02/27/2011

then you either pack your own or wait till you get home to eat and you better not complain that you are hungry! give them one day without any lunch...i bet they will eat at least a piece of fruit the next day! kids will roll with the punches they adapt... it is the parents that are sticks in the mud set in their ways

[marshhen]

08:41 AM on 03/08/2011

Schools won't let the child go hungry and the parent will feed them as soon as they get home.

[WestOfTheMoon]

11:52 AM on 02/27/2011

Let them eat cake!

[cmr86]

01:55 AM on 02/27/2011

If they're hungry enough they'll eat.

[marshhen]

08:42 AM on 03/08/2011

So your child comes home hungry from school, do you feed them or not?

[CptFreakout]

06:18 PM on 02/26/2011

The problem is the parents , has anyone else noticed the near constant whining of the parents that no one can tell them no junk foods may be sent or that schools decide what is served ?.
It's the same logic that makes it harder for schools to enforce discipline the belief that no one has the right to punish or criticize or control your child or you will sue . GROW UP and stop acting like selfish spoiled babies and crying every time you don't like something the schools do with your kid .

[been2there]

05:53 PM on 02/26/2011

Well, it does save money.

[marshhen]

08:43 AM on 03/08/2011

No, it makes the program more costly

[Fromageball]

02:45 PM on 03/08/2011

It would probably do us all well to spend a little more for better food. The money we "save" by buying cheap food is made up easily by medical bills down the road.

[Turtlenewz]

04:56 PM on 02/26/2011

This is not about Freedom. This is about Common Sense . If one loves and cares about their child they would not want their child to eat foods high in fat , trans fats ,sodium , sugar and added preservatives and chemicals. It is just Common Sense . Stop making everything Political

[Turtlenewz]

04:49 PM on 02/26/2011

Why is a Topic Like This Moderated ??????

[Turtlenewz]

04:49 PM on 02/26/2011

This is not about Freedom . It is about Common Sense . If You Love Your Kid You Would Not want Him/Her to Eat Junk, with High fat , Trans Fat and High Sodium and Sugar

[bhuddaDoc]

02:25 PM on 02/25/2011

With all due respect, if the kids refuse to eat, then they get hungry...end of story. They will eat when they get hungry enough and realize that we are serious. They have to eat better. We should not provide crap for school lunches. If they want that, they can get it at home, but it should not institutionally mandated that they eat junk. They can have all the temper-tantrums,breath holding, whining fits they want, but when they are really hungry, they will eat.

[Turtlenewz]

04:43 PM on 02/26/2011

Agree: They need to detox from their junk food addictions

[rmarie]

03:16 PM on 03/03/2011

Exactly, I want to know that my tax dollars are actually nourishing children, not giving them health problems.

[raechel]

11:46 AM on 02/25/2011

Every child should be offered healthy food at school. All kids in Finland are fed at school, and there is essentially no poverty there. It's sensible, and a great investment. Healthy kids learn better. Definitely better return on investment than new history textbooks.

It will take a generation or so, but over time kids will choose to eat healthy. There should be no compromises -- no candy, no chocolate milk, no crap at all. And if a child refuses the food, ok. You'll have to look long and hard for a kid in this country who can't afford to skip a meal.

I would not let parents send food to school unless it met the same criteria -- no junk. I know my grandkids' pre-schools refuse to alloy unhealthy food through the door.

[raechel]

11:49 AM on 02/25/2011

and that would be allow, not alloy.

Also, I'm not trying to say that poverty has been abolished as a result of school lunch (yeah, that's crazy, but I'm sure someone will bring it up). What I'm saying is that they don't feed kids because poor kids don't have food otherwise; they feed them because it makes sense. And remember, they pay a lot less for their education system, including food, than we do.

[Quitcherbichin]

10:20 PM on 02/25/2011

"I would not let parents send food to school unless it met the same criteria -- no junk. I know my grandkids' pre-school­s refuse to alloy unhealthy food through the door."

Who gave you the right to tell a parent what their child can or cannot eat. If I send my child to school with a bag full of hamburgers it is not the responsibility or the business of the school. If a school refused to allow my child to eat what I consider OK...a lawsuit would follow.

[raechel]

07:53 AM on 02/26/2011

In most countries this wouldn't come up, of course. Parents wouldn't demand the right to feed junk to their kids when healthy food is provided for free. In most countries people don't demand the "god-given right" to do harm to their kids. I guess here this is what "freedom" means.

Remember the uproar about the 3-year-old kid who chain smoked? What's the difference?

[Turtlenewz]

04:45 PM on 02/26/2011

If you decide to feed your kid that : You do not care about your kids health

[Kevin Watik]

09:44 PM on 02/24/2011

Let the kids who refuse healthy diet eat burgers and fries at McDonald's or BurgerKing, 3 meals a day for a month.

They would beg you for a vegan salad, guaranteed.

[ladyj75]

10:53 PM on 02/24/2011

no they would not! these are kids, they will continue to eat the junk! it is the responsibility of the adults (parents, guardians, educators, etc) to teach kids what to eat and why to eat right. the more sugar and salt you eat the more your body craves it!

children's health is not an issue to be dealt with being passive aggressive or to attempt reverse psychology!

[raechel]

11:42 AM on 02/25/2011

Not really true. I know an 18YO kid who, with his parents, has eaten at McDonald's with occasional trips to a local diner, for every meal since he was 2. It's addictive, the fat-salt-sugar food. We need to tax the heck out of it in order to recoup the cost of the medical consequences, provide healthy alternatives to children at school, and educate-educate-educate.

[anelder]

01:40 PM on 02/25/2011

What a mess his insides must be. Adjusting to that diet would make many changes that would not be evident for some years. When it begins breaking down it's like a domino effect.

Hungry kids will eat what's out there.
Kids not given funds to do otherwise will eat at school.
Parent who support the programs are necessary.
It doesn't take much time for the body to adjust to a good diet and for results to show.

[hershala]

08:56 PM on 02/24/2011

Offer good healthy food, emphasis on healthy. If the kids are not willing to eat it they are not hungry.

If parents are not feeding their children adequately the kids will eat school meals. The school districts bribing the kids with candy is not doing them any favors.