Do children’s diets suffer during school hours?

New research shows that key nutrients such as calcium and vitamins A, B12 and D were lower

NEW research has found that Canadian children are falling short of dietary recommendations on school days, by not eating enough vegetables, fruit and dairy products during school hours.

Carried out by the University of British Columbia, Canada, the team looked at data from the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey involving 4,827 children across Canada between the ages of 6 and 17.

Participants were asked to report on the food and beverages they consumed in the past 24 hours, with the researchers comparing the nutritional value of foods consumed during school hours (between 9am and 2pm) with foods consumed outside of school hours.

The results showed that children consumed approximately one-third of their total daily calories during school hours, but their intake of dairy products and the key nutrients found in milk, such as calcium and vitamin D, as well as vitamins such as A and B12, were at least 20 per cent lower during school hours compared with non-school hours.

New Canadian research has found that children eat more nutritious food when at home compared to when

in school.

LESS NUTRITIOUS FOOD

In addition, their consumption of less nutritious foods such as sugar-sweetened beverages, salty snacks and candies was higher during school hours. On sociodemographic factors, the team found that children from families with post-secondary education had scores that averaged two points higher, enough to be statistically significant. In addition, age also made a difference, with the diet quality of children aged 14 to 17 found to be lower than those aged 6 to 8.

“Before this study, nobody in Canada had looked at actual differences in dietary intake patterns between school hours and non-school hours,” said lead author Claire TugaultLafleur commenting on the findings.”

The team are now looking at comparing their findings from the 2004 data with those collected during the 2015 Canada Community Healthy Survey to see which various initiatives or school nutrition policies might have made improvements in diet quality during school hours in those 11 years.

They believe the findings suggest that the nutritional value 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.

The findings can be found in the journal