School lunch healthier than packed lunch: Study

Despite the bad reputation that school meals often get from health experts, a new study has found that children are eating healthier food at school than they are at home. 

Researchers found that for kids in one Texas school district, bag lunches typically had more salt and fewer fruits, vegetables and whole grains, compared with standards set for school cafeterias.

The new study involved 12 elementary and middle schools in one Houston-area school district. Over two months, the researchers observed more than 300 students who brought their lunch from home -- noting what they ate and what they threw away.

Children who buy school lunch only select a fruit or vegetable about half the time, and even then, the majority of them don't eat even a single bite, according to research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

What's more, nearly all of those home lunches contained desserts, sugary drinks or snack chips -- foods not allowed in school lunches, according to the researchers.

"Parents often pack lunches based on their children's preferences," said the study's senior researcher, Karen Cullen, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Plus, she added, some other recent studies have found a similar pattern.

School meals at U.S. schools have been required to meet certain nutrition standards in order to win federal reimbursements since 2012.

"The school lunch guidelines are based on the national dietary recommendations for all Americans," Cullen said.

"About 90 percent of home lunches contained sweetened beverages, chips, and desserts, none of which are allowable in the federally reimbursed school lunch program and are not allowed to be sold in the cafeteria or on campus," said Virginia A. Stallings, MD, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Not surprisingly, home-brought sweetened beverages, chips, and desserts were fully consumed when provided."