I distinctly remember getting scolded by my mom when I woke up early one morning in Junior High and made what I thought was the most brilliant breakfast food ever: toast with mayonnaise and bacon on top. Sounds delicious, right? You bet your sweet cherry pie it was delicious and it was worth every look of disappointment that I got that morning in the kitchen. It wasn’t until my mom said that I’d “feel” a lot better throughout the day if I had eaten oatmeal with bananas in it that I realized she had a point. Healthy eating starts with knowledge, and high school kids can’t necessarily be grouped into the category of complete apathy in regards to what they eat.
As proof that teenagers aren’t apathetic to nutrition, take a study done by the Journal of Child Nutrition & Management called “High School Students are More Satisfied Customers When Nutritional Information is Posted.” Three PhD’s took the challenge of testing high school eating apathy and found that they actually DO care!
I’m going to do you a favor and sumamrize this study, because unlike me you probably don’t have the time or willingness to digest this in-depth study. Let me tell you: PhD’s love to write! Man! My eyes hurt. But what they did in this study should influence food service companies and more importantly the SCHOOL DISTRICTS THAT PAY THEM everywhere to start posting nutrtional facts. The results are win-win: the food service companies get more satisfied customers (i.e. more business), and students are armed with info to make better healthy eating choices.
The study tested the satisfaction of hundreds of high-schoolers and their cafeteria options (without nutritional info displayed). Then every item had nutrition facts displayed at the Point-of-Sale for 6 weeks, during which satisfaction was measured again. The result? Big surprise: an informed consumer is a happy consumer. Mean satisfaction ratings were up in all categories!
The moral of the story? CONVINCE your school district to REQUIRE nutritional info. The options may not be extremely healthy but allow your kids to choose between the lesser of two evils and if you raised ‘em like my mom raised me (with disapproving glances at my mayonnaise/bacon concoctions) then you can trust they’ll do the right thing.
About Patrick Sanders