Schools furnish by far the most nutritious meals served to Americans eating away from home, according to a new study from Tufts University.
The study tracked the diets of tens of thousands of adults and children for 15 years ending in 2018. It determined that only 24% of the meals served by schools to students were of poor nutritional quality. By contrast, 65% of restaurant meals prepared for adults were of poor quality, as were 80% of restaurant meals for children.
The study attributed the good showing of school meals to the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which mandates stricter nutritional standards.
It also said that nutrition is getting better in grocery stores and workplaces, but not quickly. Meals with foods lacking in positive nutrients went down from 56% to 51% in workplaces and from 40% to 33% in grocery stores.
The study’s author says it shows that “schools are now the single healthiest place Americans are eating.” This has implications for the decisions to reopen them, since they are the No. 1 source for nutritious meals for many American schoolchildren.
