Powdered alcohol might initially seem like a ludicrous idea, but it is a genuinely real product that could potentially end up in stores by the end of the year. The tidal wave of controversy surrounding powered alcohol didn’t stop it from being approved for sale by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) on March 10 of this year. The specific product in question, known as Palcohol, is essentially freeze-dried alcohol that comes in a small, portable pouch. The powder is available as vodka or rum, but ready-made cocktail options are also available, including Cosmopolitans, Lemon Drops and “Powderitas.” Simply adding six ounces of water (or a mixer such as Coca-Cola or orange juice) to the powder can create a standard mixed drink. Technically speaking, approval from the TTB is a green light for Palcohol to begin distribution, but there’s still plenty of pushback.

The Case Against Powdered Alcohol

So if the end result of purchasing Palcohol is the creation of a perfectly legal drink that you could get anywhere in America, what’s the big deal? Well, as concerned parent groups and lawmakers are pointing out, alcohol in powdered form presents unique dangers. When used as directed, Palcohol is no more dangerous than buying alcohol from a liquor store or bar. But in powdered form, the product could be eaten, snorted or sprinkled on food, which could lead to dangerously fast intake and seriously accelerated inebriation. Not to mention, a powder is much more easily concealed than a bottle or flask, making it possible for people to consume Palcohol just about anywhere. Spiking food or drinks might also be easier. These problems are obviously exacerbated when considering the fact that it could easily fall into the hands of minors.

Due to these concerns, Governor Cuomo of New York has become the latest lawmaker to ban powdered alcohol. Other states that have banned the product include:

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Connecticut
• Georgia
• Kansas
• Indiana
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oregon
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington

Maryland and Minnesota currently have temporary bans on Palcohol as well.

Why Would Anybody Want Powdered Alcohol Anyway?

The makers of Palcohol argue that it’s more than just a novelty concept. Powdered alcohol allows for ease of transport – rather than having to carry around cumbersome bottles, a small amount of powder is ideal for performing physical activity such as hiking or camping and enjoying a drink at your destination. The Palcohol site also vigorously defends the product against the accusations, claiming that all potential dangers are speculations being made by people who don’t truly understand what the product is. They also state that powdered alcohol is not concentrated and is no more dangerous than liquid alcohol, and that banning it could actually make it easier for minors to obtain.

Powdered Alcohol: The Bottom Line

Whether or not you agree that powdered alcohol should be banned, there’s no question that it’s just as dangerous as regular alcohol and could just as easily be abused. If it does end up on the shelves in your state, education and personal responsibility will be necessary to protect your loved ones from its dangers – just like with regular alcohol. Parents should be sure to stay abreast of where powdered alcohol will be allowed. If they live in a state where it’s permitted – or if their children are traveling to one – parents should be sure to inform their kids of the potential dangers.

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When it comes to the health of children in America, it seems as though there hasn’t been much good news lately. According to the CDC, around 12.7 million children aged 2 to 19 were obese in 2012. Research from last year indicates that overweight children as young as preschool age may already exhibit risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar. As recently as this week, it was reported that the vast majority of parents don’t recognize when their child is overweight or obese. Although that study occurred in the UK, it’s likely that similar trends could be occuring in America.

It’s common knowledge that low-quality food, especially pizza, plays a role in childhood obesity. Luckily, a new study provides a break from the bad news: kids are eating less fast food.

Calories Consumed Trends Downward

The new research, appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, used data collected in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to assess the fast food eating habits of children in the U.S. Overall, it was found that the average amount of fast food calories consumed by children aged 4 to 19 fell by 110 between 2003 and 2010. The percentage of children who eat at a fast food restaurant on any given day dropped from 39 percent to 33 percent during the same timeframe. Calories consumed from chicken, pizza and burger fast food restaurants were down, while sandwich and Mexican fast food places saw a steady amount of consumption.

Researchers state that the findings echo similar eating trends that have been observed in adults. However, it’s unclear at this time whether the downturn is due to consumers making more informed choices or to fast food restaurants cutting calories and offering smaller portion sizes. Researchers did find that people have generally been eating less during each sitting, which means that fast food menu changes could be having more of an effect than previously thought.

Good News With Some Caveats

Of course, just because kids are eating less fast food doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re any healthier. The study did not acknowledge the quality of the calories that were eaten, meaning that children could still end up suffering plenty of negative health effects from fast food despite eating less of it overall. Indeed, researchers pointed out that a decrease in calorie consumption would not be cause for celebration if kids were still getting high levels of sodium, refined grains and added sugar. If kids are replacing the lost fast food calories with even unhealthier snacks, they might actually end up worse off.

Children and Fast Food: The Bottom Line

Decreasing the amount of fast food your child eats is essential for allowing them to maintain a healthy weight. Also, too much fast food has been linked to poorer grades. While the decrease seen over the past few years is good news, parents must make sure that children aren’t replacing those calories with foods that are just as bad.

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It’s not uncommon for any generation to think that younger people are more selfish or entitled. Nearly 40 years ago, respected author Tom Wolfe famously declared the 1970s to be the “Me” Decade. But it seems as if there’s an especially high amount of concern about narcissistic children and young adults now. In 2013, Time Magazine declared millennials to be the Me Me Me Generation, calling them lazy, entitled, selfish, shallow and narcissistic (to be fair, it also said millennials will “save us all”). Articles such as these point to studies like this one from 2008, which claimed narcissism in college students has skyrocketed since the 1970s. This study, also from 2008, says that 9.4 percent of people aged 20 to 29 are extreme narcissists, while only 3.2 percent of people older than 65 exhibit narcissism. The continued prominence of social media doesn’t help either. Selfies and Facebook only seem to fuel the fire for a narcissistic generation.

Rather than just complain, however, adults might want to consider the findings of the newest study on narcissistic children to see how their own actions could be causing these trends. We already know that helicopter parenting can be damaging, but what about parenting that over-encourages a child to believe they are intrinsically superior to other people?

Two Potential Theories

The new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, states that Western countries have higher rates of narcissistic children – and the amount of them is increasing. More importantly, however, it examines why children end up exhibiting narcissistic behavior. One theory, known as “social learning,” suggests that children learn narcissistic behavior when parents treat them as if they are fundamentally more deserving and special than others. Alternatively, the “psychoanalytic theory” suggests that children end up putting themselves on pedestals because their parents withhold attention and warmth. While the social learning theory might seem obvious, it’s actually the psychoanalytic theory that has most commonly been thought to explain narcissistic behavior.

Researchers were careful to point out that narcissism is different from self-esteem. Put simply, children with high self esteem believe they are just as valuable as other people. However, narcissistic children believe they are better than others.

“Overvaluing” Leads to Narcissism

For a period of one year and six months, researchers analyzed children in the Netherlands whose ages ranged from 7 to 11. The children’s parents were also studied. Every six months, both the children and parents would fill out a questionnaire. The children would be asked to agree or disagree with statements such as, “Kids like me deserve something extra,” which would indicate narcissistic behavior. Agreeing with a statement like “Kids like me are happy with themselves as a person” would indicate high-self esteem but not necessarily narcissism.

Parents would agree or disagree with statements like “My child is a great example for other children to follow” or “I let my child know I love him/her,” indicating overvaluation and self-esteem boosting, respectively. Over time, it was found that parents who overvalued and over-praised their children were more likely to have narcissistic children. Interestingly, overvaluation did not typically lead to high self-esteem.

Narcissistic Children: The Bottom Line

It may seem obvious, but it hasn’t actually been widely proven until now that treating children as if they are far more special than everyone else can lead to narcissistic behavior. It’s debatable whether or not the current generation of young people is any more narcissistic than children of any other generation. Besides being learned, narcissistic behavior is also partly genetic. However, if parents want to prevent having a narcissistic child, this study suggests that they must first take a serious look at their parenting style.

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The number of people who suffer from allergies has skyrocketed in the last couple decades. Food allergies in particular now affect around 15 million Americans, and the number of children with food allergies increased by a whopping 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. Also, anybody who suffers from a food allergy knows that they’re much more than a simple annoyance. Food allergies lead to over 200,000 emergency room visits every year, and they can cause a potentially deadly reaction known as anaphylaxis.

The vast majority of food allergies are caused by wheat, shellfish, eggs, milk, soy, tree nuts, fish and, of course, peanuts. The number of people with a peanut allergy more than tripled between 1997 and 2010. While the typical prevention strategy for children has long been to simply avoid peanuts, a new study is saying just the opposite.

Early Consumption, Not Avoidance, May Be the Key

The new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that exposing children to peanut products – not avoiding them – could lead to much more successful prevention. Researchers were initially interested in investigating this strategy after observing that Israeli children who began eating peanuts early in their life were 10 times less likely to end up with a peanut allergy than children in England were.

Babies ranging in age from 4 to 11 months were examined at the beginning of the study. Skin prick tests were used to determine each baby’s level of allergic reaction to peanuts. Babies found to have a strong reaction were not used in the study for safety reasons. Others were found to have a mild reaction or no reaction. The 628 babies deemed safe for study were randomly assigned into groups that either avoided peanuts completely or consumed the equivalent of 24 peanuts a week through a snack known as Bamba or simple peanut butter.

Children were given another peanut allergy test five years later. Among the mild peanut reaction group, 35 percent of children developed full-blown allergies if they avoided peanuts altogether. However, the children who did eat peanuts had an allergy rate of only 11 percent. This means that children in this group who ate peanuts were 70 percent less likely to develop a peanut allergy. Among children who originally had no reaction to peanuts, 14 percent developed peanut allergies if they avoided them. Only 2 percent became allergic if they were consistently exposed to peanuts. That’s a risk reduction of 86 percent.

Are We Too Clean?

This study seems to support the theory that allergies are increasing because our immune systems are being exposed to less and less germs early in life. It’s known as the hygiene hypothesis, and it simply states that as human society has become more “developed” and cleanly over the years, it’s caused our immune systems to miss out on building up protections against allergens. For example, a child that has very little exposure to pollen early in life could be more likely to develop an allergy to it. It’s only a hypothesis, but it does make sense considering how our immune systems work.

Peanut Allergy Prevention: The Bottom Line

According to this research, parents should give their kids peanuts in order to prevent a dangerous peanut allergy, instead of avoiding peanuts as is commonly recommended. Of course, it’s incredibly important to consult a pediatrician before giving kids peanut products. Doctors may be able to use a skin prick test similar to the ones used in the study in order to determine if the child will have a bad reaction.

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Between all the dieting and exercise, people who are trying to get healthy may be overlooking one crucial lifestyle element: sleep. Most people know that sleep is essential for concentration, memory, productivity and overall brain function. However, some might not know that insufficient sleep can raise the risk of serious conditions such as diabetes, obesity, depression, hypertension and even cancer. And it’s not just health-conscious people who should be concerned. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a full 30 percent of civilian employed adults in the U.S. get less than six hours of sleep each night. This means that almost one-third of Americans are getting less than the recommended amount of sleep. Typical sleep recommendations state that eight hours a night is best, but new research from the National Sleep Foundation has changed the guidelines a bit.

Recommended Hours Have Changed Slightly

The new sleep recommendations are a slight departure from older sleep guidelines. According to the official press release, the National Sleep Foundation worked with experts in the field of sleep, pediatrics, neurology, anatomy and physiology, gynecology and gerontology to come to a consensus about each age group’s sleep recommendations. According to one researcher from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, this is the first time that a professional organization has conducted a rigorous, systematic review of the available sleep literature to form healthy guidelines based on age. The new sleep recommendations are as follows:

• Newborns (0-3 months): 14-17 hours (previous guideline: 12-18 hours)
• Infants (4-11 months): 12-15 hours (previous guideline: 14-15 hours)
• Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours (previous guideline: 12-14 hours)
• Preschoolers (3-5 years): 10-13 hours (previous guideline: 11-13 hours)
• School-age children (6-13 years): 9-11 hours (previous guideline: 10-11 hours)
• Teens (14-17 years): 8-10 hours (previous guideline: 8.5-9.5 hours)
• Young adults (18-25 years): 7-9 hours (new age category)
• Adults (26-64 years): 7-9 hours (no change from previous guideline)
• Older adults (65+ years): 7-8 hours (new age category)

The new sleep recommendations also contain a category labeled “may be appropriate,” which expands the guidelines to include the sleep habits of some healthy individuals who have atypical sleep patterns. For example, the “may be appropriate” category for adults states that 6 hours and 10 hours each night might indeed be healthy for some people. Nevertheless, getting less than six hours is “not recommended” for any adult.

Getting Better Sleep

Again, all your exercise and dieting efforts could be in vain if you’re not getting enough sleep. Try some of these tips to help you get the quality of sleep you need:

1. Keep a regular schedule – Set a regular bedtime every night and stick with it. Then, wake up at the same time every day – even on weekends. Setting these times can help put your body into a rhythm that allows you to fall asleep easily and get high-quality rest.
2. Be smart about naps – Experts are divided on whether or not napping is good for you. In general, a short nap during the day could be incredibly beneficial for making up some lost sleep and improving cognitive function. However, napping to the point where it’s hard to fall asleep at night is doing you more harm than good.
3. Regulate light exposure – If possible, get some sunlight during the day by keeping curtains open and spending some time outside. At night, turn off your TV or computer well before going to bed.
4. Watch your diet – It’s common sense to avoid caffeine before bed. However, many people might not know that alcohol and big meals should also be avoided. Alcohol can cause you to fall asleep faster, but it will reduce your quality of sleep throughout the night. Also, big meals and alcohol can necessitate waking up and using the bathroom several times.
5. Work on relaxation techniques – Simple techniques like deep breathing, reading a book and meditating can allow you to slip into a restful sleep.

If you simply don’t have time to get more than six hours of sleep, it may come down to time management. Adjusting your schedule to get a couple more hours of sleep each night can make a huge difference in your health and quality of life.

New Sleep Recommendations: The Bottom Line

The new recommendations don’t really present anything too far outside of common sense. If you feel like you aren’t getting enough sleep, you’re probably right. Just don’t allow sleep deprivation to trump all your hard work – get that eight hours if at all possible.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity rates have doubled for children and quadrupled for adolescents in the last 30 years. As of 2012, over one-third of both adolescents and children were obese or overweight. It probably goes without saying that those who suffer from childhood obesity endure a plethora of other health risks such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, prediabetes, sleep apnea and joint problems. Physical activity and healthy eating are of course two of the most important factors for preventing childhood obesity, but many families and schools simply have difficulty developing overall lifestyle changes that prevent weight gain. But what if researchers could narrow down the causes of childhood obesity to one or two actionable strategies? Well, a new study in the journal Pediatrics has done just that. Put simply, kids need to eat less pizza.

How Much Pizza Are Kids Actually Eating?

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago used National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data to determine the impact that pizza consumption has on American children. The analyzed data involved 7,443 children aged 2 to 11 and 6,447 adolescents aged 12 to 19. It was found that, on average, the younger group of children consumed 83 calories of pizza every day, making up 5 percent of their total daily caloric intake. The older group ate 143 calories per day on average, which accounts for seven percent of their daily calories. It was also found that 22 percent of children aged 6 to 19 eat pizza on any given day. Overall, 13 percent of Americans consume pizza daily.

The good news is that pizza consumption rates do appear to be decreasing. According to the researchers, the numbers for 2003 and 2004 were actually quite higher, with younger children eating 25 percent more and teenagers eating 16 percent more during that time.

Eating Pizza Makes You Eat More Throughout the Day

Researchers also discovered that children consume more calories overall on days in which they eat pizza. Teenagers eat an average of 230 extra calories on such days, and young children get an extra 84. Children consume more salt and saturated fats on these days as well. These extra calories were also seen on days in which children ate fast food.

Pizza And Childhood Obesity: The Bottom Line

Only one category of food – grain desserts such as cookies, doughnuts and cake – were found to be more popular for kids than pizza. Despite some efforts to categorize pizza as a vegetable, everybody knows that pizza is not a healthy choice. In order to curb the troubling childhood obesity rates, researchers argue that marketing pizza to children should be more controlled. They also assert that pizza manufacturers should do more to cut calories from the food, schools should offer it less frequently, and children should be more informed of the potential dangers of overconsumption.

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Everybody knows how important sleep is at any age. For adults, consistently getting a good night’s sleep can boost the immune system, improve mental health, and enhance brain function, as well as lower the risk of diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Many people also believe that sleep can promote memory. Although the actual science behind this claim is just emerging, many people believe strongly that performing tasks such as studying right before going to bed will greatly increase the chances of being able to recall information. Of course, newborns and infants have very different sleep schedules from adults. For the first few months, babies sleep anywhere from 14 to 18 hours per day including naps. So if the notion that sleep can improve memory and learning is true, could babies benefit from performing educational tasks right before taking a nap? A new study says yes.

Hand Puppets Used

The researchers who authored the new study, conducted in Germany and the UK, claim that surprisingly little is actually known about how sleep affects very young children. In order to test the impact of sleep on infant memory, researchers devised learning tasks involving hand puppets. The study involved 216 babies, aged between 6 and 12 months, who were taught three separate tasks involving the puppets. Half the babies ended up taking a nap within four hours of completing the tasks, and the other half either did not nap or slept for less than 30 minutes. When tested the following day, it was found that the babies who slept for a significant time after their learning sessions ended up retaining an average of 1.5 tasks. Babies who slept for 30 minutes or less could not repeat any tasks.

These findings challenge the belief that infant memory and learning is most effectively nurtured while the baby is wide awake. Whether a baby is on a fixed or flexible sleep schedule, it may be best for parents to encourage learning in close proximity to the baby’s next nap. Of course, the study did not determine whether or not a child will benefit from learning while sleepy or upset. Common sense would dictate that attempting to train a child while he or she is too sleepy or fussy would probably end up defeating the purpose.

High-Tech Toys May Not Be Best

So what tools can you use to promote infant memory and learning? Well, many toy companies claim that high-tech electronic toys and apps can be best for a child’s education because they’re specifically designed to make them smarter. However, many experts say that playing with physical objects such as blocks is still just as important for an infant’s developing mind. It’s likely best to balance out playtime between physical objects and electronic screens.

Infant Memory: The Bottom Line

If there was ever any proof needed that bedtime reading is effective, this study is it. Making sure that your baby gets some sleep soon after training could improve the rate at which they learn new tasks. However, deciding how your baby learns will be just as important as when they learn.

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Everybody knows that fast food is bad for your health. Eating too much of it can lead to all sorts of health conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol – all of which are serious risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. There is some hope on the horizon, though. Some studies show that calories are dropping in general among fast food items. Also, with calorie counts becoming mandatory in many restaurants, people might start making smarter choices when eating out. But while much has been discussed about the physical aspects of junk food, the link between fast food and brainpower isn’t widely known. Does fast food have any effect on your ability to think and learn? Unfortunately, a new study says yes. Even worse, it seems to affect kids – eating too much fast food at a young age could actually impact test scores.

Science, Reading and Math Scores Lower For Fast Food Eaters

The new study, published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics, examined the academic growth of 8,544 American fifth graders who comprised a nationally representative sample. The students were asked how often they consume a snack or full meal from fast food chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC and Pizza hut. Fifty-two percent of students claimed to have eaten fast food between one and three times in the last week. Ten percent said they ate fast food four to six times, and another ten percent said they ate something from a fast food restaurant every day. Twenty-nine percent indicated they never ate fast food. After assessing test scores, researchers found that students who ate fast food averaged a score of 79 in reading. Children who did not eat fast food averaged a score of 83. This disparity in scores was also found in math and reading. Researchers state that other potentially influential factors such as physical activity, TV watching and socioeconomic indicators were accounted for during the study.

So what causes the negative link between fast food and brainpower? Well, researchers have two theories. The first involves iron levels, which are notoriously low in fast food. It’s thought that a diet lacking in iron could cause certain brain processes to function more slowly. Also, researchers believe that fatty, sugary diets may simply just be a detriment to learning. Indeed, it seems that a healthy and active lifestyle has been shown to benefit brainpower in both adults and children.

Childhood Obesity

The negative link between fast food and brainpower gets worse when considering that fatty, sugary diets can cause serious health conditions in children as well. According to the CDC, 70 percent of obese children have at least one cardiovascular disease risk factor. Obesity can also cause teens to develop prediabetes, which involves high blood glucose levels and a serious risk of developing full-blown diabetes. Not to mention, obesity can cause children to suffer from sleep apnea, poor self esteem, stigmatization and joint problems. In 2012, 18 percent of people aged 6 to 11 were considered obese. Twenty-one percent of people aged 12 to 19 were also considered obese that year, and it’s only gotten worse.

Fast Food and Brainpower: The Bottom Line

This study represents just another reason why it’s so important for children to avoid fast food as much as possible. Eating out every day could cause poor school performance in addition to poor physical health and an empty wallet. While home cooking is time-consuming and not practical 100 percent of the time, cutting down on fast food could be essential for keeping children healthy and intelligent.

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With the Christmas season officially upon us and Black Friday being just days in the past, toy sales are no doubt experiencing a year-end surge. Of course, nobody would give a child a gift that’s obviously risky, but toy-related injuries do happen. Especially engaged parents can try keeping up with the latest product recalls to make sure the products and playthings their children use do not present a risk of injury. Toy recalls in particular certainly aren’t uncommon; for example, Toys”R”Us very recently issued a complete recall for the “Just Like Home” toy toaster set due to the possibility that the toy toast could break into small, sharp pieces that present laceration and choking hazards. Obviously, however, toys don’t necessarily have to be subject to a recall to present injury risks. Now, a one-of-a-kind study shows that toy-related injuries have gone up significantly over the past two decades.

Hospital Visits Skyrocket

The study, published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics, indicates that toy-related injuries have increased by a whopping 40 percent between 1990 and 2011. A total of 3,278,073 children (defined as people under the age of 18) had to visit emergency rooms during that time period due to a toy. That comes out to around 149,003 cases per year or one case every three minutes. Using data collected from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, it was found that injuries peaked in frequency around age two, and 80.3 percent of the injuries occurred at home. Also, 63.4 percent of toy-related injuries occurred in male patients.

The most dangerous toy by far was the foot-powered scooter. Researchers found that ride-on toys made up 34.9 percent of the injuries and caused 42.5 percent of the hospital admissions. Around the time of the scooters’ rise in popularity – the year 2000 or so – children began injuring themselves at a rate of about once every 11 minutes. However, scooters only seem to be the most dangerous for children ages 5 to 17. For children younger than five, toy-related injuries were much more often caused by swallowing or choking on small toy parts. These types of injuries occurred at a rate of almost 14 cases per day. Overall, falls and collisions were the two most common causes of injury for children of all ages.

Keeping Kids Safe

Toy safety is not difficult but it does take some time and effort. Here are some tips for making sure your child doesn’t sustain any toy-related injuries:

• Take your child’s age into account when getting a new toy. Be sure to read any warning labels, instructions and age limit suggestions.
• Provide protective gear such as helmets, kneepads and wristgaurds for ride-on toys such as scooters, skateboards or skates. Stay vigilant and ensure your child uses them.
• Beware of any small parts, especially in board games, that could present a choking hazard to small children.
• Store young children’s toys in a container from which the toys cannot be accessed after playtime is over. Be sure that the container or bin doesn’t have hinges or other dangerous aspects itself.
• Supervise children as much as possible. While it’s of course difficult to always have an eye on your kids, supervision can easily prevent choking in young children and overly risky behavior in older kids.

For more information on keeping your kids safe from preventable accidents, check out safekids.org.

Toy-Related Injuries: The Bottom Line

This study certainly doesn’t suggest that parents should stop getting toys for their kids. Staying informed about recalls and taking some precautionary measures can keep your children safe from toy-related injuries. At the very least, the study could be a talking point for consumers who want to see stricter safety standards for toy companies.

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School lunches have been a contentious topic for a few years now. As part of her Let’s Move! initiative, first lady Michelle Obama has played a large part in rallying support for changes that could decrease childhood obesity. Part of this initiative included the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which set new nutrition standards for school lunches and allocated funds for the implementation of those changes. However, not everybody is happy with this. According to the Washington Post, the backlash has ranged from students in Georgia being upset over the removal of fried chicken from their lunch menu to lobbyists and food companies pushing for legislation that would allow school districts to opt out of the new nutrition standards. New information from Virginia Tech researchers might help defend the Obama administration’s actions regarding school lunches, however.

Study Examined Pre-K and Kindergarten Lunches

The new study, published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, examined 1,314 different lunches brought by students to three elementary schools in rural Virginia. Most of the lunches – 57.2 percent – were provided by the school, while the remaining 42.8 percent were brought from home. Researchers used an observational checklist to record all of the food and drinks in the packed lunches over a period of five days. After all the data was collected, it was found that the packed lunches were significantly higher in saturated fat, sugar and carbohydrates. The school lunches were also found to be much higher in protein, fiber, vitamin A and calcium. The news wasn’t all bad though, as the packed lunches were found to be higher in vitamin C and iron, while the school lunches contained more sodium.

Researchers attribute much of the differences to the Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, which aim to increase children’s exposure to vegetables and fruits. Comparatively, the packed lunches were found to contain many more snack items, sugary beverages and dessert items. While it seems as though school lunches definitely contain healthier items, it’s important to note that researchers did not measure actual consumption, meaning that these study results don’t necessarily reflect the exact nutrition levels the kids actually received.

Packing a Healthy Lunch for Kids

Packing healthy lunches for kids doesn’t have to be difficult. Simply cutting down on desserts and snack items such as potato chips and cookies can play a huge part in reducing the saturated fat and sugar that kids consume. Instead, try using carrots, celery, trail mix, berries, grapes, snap peas or apple sauce. Slices of apple, orange, pear or peach can also serve as a healthy side that kids will enjoy. Also, don’t forget about sodium. If you must use a processed lunch meat, go for the one that has the least sodium content. As an alternative to sandwiches, you could try making larger amounts of home-cooked dinner so that kids could take the leftovers to school. You could even try planning home dinners around the school lunch schedule so that your kids have a lunch that is similar to their peers but more healthy. Simply talking to your kids about what they’d like in their lunch can provide some great ideas for things that are nutritious yet kid-friendly.

School Lunches: The Bottom Line

The eating habits that people develop during childhood affect their food choices throughout life. If you simply don’t feel comfortable or knowledgable enough to pack a healthy lunch, this study suggests that getting school lunches may be the best option. However, with a little time and effort, a packed lunch can be even healthier than school lunches that abide by the current standards.

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