It’s back to school time! Do you remember how excited you were as a child to begin a new school year? It’s a time to start fresh, maybe take school a little more seriously than the year before. Focus, focus, focus. Pay attention in class. Listen and absorb all the knowledge from your teachers. Determine not to fall back to old, bad habits from the previous year of daydreaming, dozing off, and occasionally passing notes (now replaced by texting) in class. Did I say focus and pay attention?
I now know that my ability to focus and pay attention has a lot to do with my physical health. Diet plays a huge role. What I ate back in junior high and high school—it makes me queasy just to think about it.
Breakfast was a fast food sausage-egg-and-cheese sandwich. Lunch in the cafeteria was pepperoni pizza, fries, and a packaged snack cake. Dinner was spaghetti with meat sauce, chili with ground meat, hamburgers, ultra-processed macaroni and cheese that came in a blue box, pizza delivery with a buttery crust, ramen noodles, or a hot dog with melted processed cheese and a glass of Quik—that sugary powdered stuff you’d purposely not stir completely so you’d have a chocolate glob at the bottom of the glass to scoop out with your spoon. Dessert, right? Are you getting nauseated reading this?
My vegetables were typically the piece of lettuce on the hamburger or a side of corn or peas with the boxed mac and cheese. It’s no wonder I had difficulty staying focused and paying attention. I was fiber-deficient, consuming way too much animal protein and saturated fat, deficient in various micronutrients, mainlining salt and sugar, and seldom consuming any of the beneficial antioxidants and phytochemicals found only in whole plant foods. I’m confident I was developing atherosclerosis in my teens.
Comparing three 400 calorie school lunch meals
Let’s dissect a few foods commonly found on school lunch menus, and some reasons why you should be concerned. A standard 400-calorie child’s lunch—the typical chicken tenders meal or slice of pepperoni pizza—packs a generous amount of artery-clogging saturated fat, double the recommended amount of blood pressure-raising sodium, and nowhere near enough dietary fiber to keep your gut healthy and bowels moving properly.
If that child ate a salad with whole grain pasta, fresh veggies, beans, and a simple Italian dressing, there would be a fraction of the saturated fat, no cholesterol, and 13 grams of fiber.[1]
For those concerned about the Marasmic Kwashiorkor epidemic we have in the United States and other “Western” countries, this pasta salad meal contains 17 grams of protein (kidding: we don’t have a Marasmic Kwashiorkor epidemic in the US).
Setting kids up for success
One of the ways we can set kids up for success in school and in life is to instill lifestyle habits that promote health. A diet rich in whole plant-foods that is nutrient-dense and high in fiber has been shown to prevent and reverse the chronic disease epidemics we do have in the United States, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers. Also, healthy kids are better learners,[2] with better mental clarity and focus than kids who have early signs of chronic diseases.
What can you do? If you have children, you can help them pack a healthy, nutritious lunch avoiding the typical cafeteria fare. Regardless of whether you have children, you can reach out to the local schools in your community and request more health-promoting whole plant-foods to replace nutrient-poor, disease-promoting, animal-based, and ultra-processed foods on the school menu. If you need help with this, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me personally: gigi@mytrueself.com.
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[1] Fiber guidelines: Toddlers (1-3 years old) should get 19 grams of fiber each day. Kids 4-8 years old should get 25 grams a day. Older girls (9-13) and teen girls (14-18) should get 26 grams of fiber a day. Older boys (9-13) should get 31 grams and teen boys (14-18) should get 38 grams per day.
[2] Healthier Students Are Better Learners: A Missing Link in School Reforms to Close the Achievement Gap
Resources & Additional Information
Balanced: a 501(c)3 nonprofit public health and nutrition advocacy organization campaigning for healthier menus in schools, hospitals, and other critical institutions.
Childhood Obesity and Academic Performance: The Role of Working Memory
Study Suggests Childhood Obesity Linked to Poor School Performance and Coping Skills
About the Author
Gigi Carter, nutritionist, personal trainer and author, resides in Washington state. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from John Carroll University and a master’s in business administration from Cleveland State University. Over the last two decades, Carter’s career has been mostly with Fortune 500 companies in financial services and manufacturing. Carter made a career change in 2016 to pursue her master’s in nutrition sciences from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she graduated with honors, and launched the socially conscious nutrition and wellness practice, My True Self, PLLC. Carter is a licensed nutritionist in the State of Washington, and certified personal trainer and senior fitness specialist with the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is the author of The Plant-Based Workplace and co-author of The Spinach in My Teeth.