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Healthy Food Takes Backseat At Many Schools

August 3, 2005
If schools in Pennsylvania are typical, today’s high school students are surrounded by junk food. A survey of 228 Pennsylvania high school food service directors shows that 94 percent of high schools have vending machines offering soft drinks and high-calorie snacks.

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Researchers at Pennsylvania State University, whose findings are published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, say they wanted to learn exactly what kinds of foods were being sold in schools today. While more healthy offerings like bottled water and fruit juice have made inroads, they say, most offerings are less than healthy.

In the lunch room, for example, the top selling food items are burgers, pizza, and sandwiches. That’s not so bad, perhaps, but high school students are also loading their trays with high-fat baked goods, like cookies, crackers, cakes and pastries. French fries and other salty snacks are also favorites, according to researchers.

The study authors conclude the less nutritious choices are much more plentiful than the healthy ones. Though 72 percent of school vending machines now offer bottled water as an option and nearly as many offer fruit juice, the most commonly reported foods in vending machines are chips, cookies and candy bars. Among the top ten most popular vending machine items, only three are remotely healthy – water, juice and pretzels.

Sixty-seven of the 228 schools have school stores where students can buy snacks. The most popular items are candy, cookies, chips, pretzels, popcorn and soda.

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