This past week I learned from two separate studies that kids should drink water at school and they shouldn’t eat junk food. That’s it for today, class dismissed, quiz next week.
Yes these results seem glaringly obvious but the importance of having peer-reviewed journal references to back up what you stand for cannot be understated. In the recent issue of the journal of Pediatrics, a European study found that when kids consume more water at school and they are taught about the importance of consuming water, they weigh less. Now, that seems pretty straightforward and simple to me: if you are building a new school, add water fountains throughout and teach kids to drink water. Not exactly a costly intervention program. In currently existing schools add a lesson about hydration (it may help keep the kids awake during class too).
In the second study I mentioned (Eur J Clin Nutr), they followed 4,000 children participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children and found that those consuming a diet with more junk food ended up with more behavioral problems. Parents, this means you need to start early. Kids don’t know they prefer chicken nuggets, fries and junk juice (“juice” with no nutritional value) until you start feeding it to them. They don’t know about all the packaged lunch foods loaded with saturated fat and sugar until you start putting it in their lunchbox daily. And, they think that what’s on the school lunch line is acceptable food (and sometimes it is) just not always edible depending on the school cafeteria.
As adults we can choose what we want to eat. Most of us can’t make excuses about not having enough good, healthy food options. Kids on the other hand are at our mercy and the mercy of their elementary school. Feed them right and you’ll decrease their risk of becoming obese, developing chronic diseases at a young age and acting out. What more could you ask for?