Healthy Cafeteria Food Exists, But Children In Schools Don’t Want To Eat It : Food World News

Nov 20, 2014 12:20 PM EST

Healthy Cafeteria Food Exists, But Children In Schools Don’t Want To Eat It

For a long time, it has been a major concern for schools that they can provide healthy cafeteria food for the children studying in the premises - but a new study has shown that children aren't interesting in eating well at school.

It seems that the fact that healthy cafeteria food is available is by no means an assurance that children in schools are interested in eating it. According to Medical News Today, a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has presented the theory that children are just not interested in eating well at school, even when the option is presented to them.

The new theory regarding healthy cafeteria food was put forward after researchers went through an observation period with 274 children, from kindergarten to second grade. The children studied were scattered around 10 public schools in New York City, and the investigation observed what kinds of meals they chose when it was time for lunch at school.

The discoveries showed that healthy cafeteria food was not attractive for the kids, according to Eureka Alert. In the study, one of the offerings of the lunch period menu was an entrée with chicken and vegetables, plus a wide array of other fruits and vegetables they could choose from.

The results studying the healthy cafeteria food in schools showed that many of the children had no interest in eating fruits and vegetables. Although 75 percent of the children did choose the entrée with chicken and vegetables, only 58 percent of the kids also took some fruits and 59 percent chose a vegetable.

Now, with those kids that featured the healthiest cafeteria food in their trays - which is to say, a more varied diet -, 75 percent tried the protein, but only 24 percent took even one bite from the vegetables on their plates.

In the investigation regarding healthy cafeteria food it was also discovered that the environment of the cafeteria had a lot to do on whether the children ate their lunches. So it might be time to change up the way these places look to get children to eat better, as suggested by Western Journalism.