When kids sit down to eat lunch at school, fruits and vegetables may not be their first choice. But with more time at the lunch table, they are more likely to pick up those healthy foods. If we want to improve children's nutrition and health, ensuring longer school lunch breaks can help achieve those goals, according to research from the University of Illinois.
"Ten minutes of seated lunch time or less is quite common. Scheduled lunch time may be longer, but students have to wait in line to get their food. This means the amount of time children actually have to eat their meals is much less than the scheduled time," says Melissa Pflugh Prescott, assistant professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. " "During shorter lunch periods, children ate significantly less of the fruit and vegetable parts of their meal, while there was no significant difference in the amount of entrees (主食) they consumed. It makes sense that you might eat the part of the meal you look forward to first, and if there's enough time left you might go towards the other parts. But if there's not enough time, fruit and vegetables are likely to suffer," Prescott explains.
"Our findings support policies that require at least 20 minutes of seated lunch time at school," she states. School lunch time policies can be decided at the district level, with some room for individual schools to set their own standards; for example, schools can institute a longer lunch time than the district mandates (授权).
Prescott notes that longer lunch time can also have beneficial effects for children beyond healthy eating. "The amount of seated time children have is also a really valuable time for them to connect with their friends; they might have limited opportunities to do so throughout the school day. We found significantly fewer social interactions during the 10-minute lunch time. That indicates other positive outcomes may come from longer lunch breaks as well," she concludes.