UNIVERISTY PARK, Pa., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Pennsylvania State University researchers say early lunch, soft drink incentives and parents bringing fast-food to school foil healthy eating by children.
The researchers, led by Dr. Claudia Probart, surveyed school food service directors at half of Pennsylvania's public high schools and found 25 percent reported lunch periods were scheduled before 10:30 a.m.
The researchers found that an early lunch start predicted higher a la carte sales, which are primarily unregulated and may be of lower nutritional value, said Probart.
The existence of soft drink vending machines owned by soft drink companies, for which the school or district received a percentage of sales, predicted a higher number of machines per student, which tended to result in less participation in the hot lunch program, Probart said.
Another factor affecting the school nutrition environment was parents or students bringing fast-food into the cafeteria.
The findings are published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
