Too Much or Not Enough? Rethinking School Breakfast Programs

Widely touted as the most important meal of the day, breakfast has been of great interest to educators and policymakers concerned about child nutrition. On a federal level, programs like the School Breakfast Program have been adopted in response to research suggesting that consistently eating breakfast improves children’s academic and behavioral outcomes in school.

A recent study raises several important questions about the current breakfast habits of children at schools that offer free breakfast programs. The claim that eating breakfast is better than not eating breakfast has been demonstrated through prior studies, but questions about the quality and size of breakfast consumption have been given less attention. This updated look at what and how much food kids consume before school challenges whether free school breakfast programs provide effective access to nutritional morning meals.

In the study by Lawman et al., 600 students from three middle schools in Philadelphia were surveyed about their breakfast patterns. All of the schools have populations where the majority of the students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, and they serve free breakfast to students before school hours. Consistent with prior studies, “breakfast” is defined by the researchers as any caloric food or beverage consumed before lunchtime. The study reveals that slightly less than half of all students surveyed consumed one breakfast, while over a quarter of students consumed two breakfasts, and about a tenth of students consumed three. Over 12 percent of students in the study did not eat breakfast at all.

Students who consumed multiple breakfasts ate, on average, three to four food items at each location, totaling more than one breakfast’s worth of food. Among a third of these students reported eating items purchased from a corner store, where items most frequently purchased included chips, candy, and soda. The prevalence of multiple breakfasts, many comprised of sugary and highly caloric items, raises the concern that provision of breakfast at school to all students, some of whom have already consumed a substantial breakfast, may undermine efforts to combat childhood obesity.

To explore the possible impacts of consuming more or less than one breakfast, Lawman et al. used student heights and weights to calculate body mass indices (BMI). When they examined the relationship between BMI and the number of breakfasts consumed, the authors found higher BMI percentiles observed among children who either did not consume breakfast or, conversely, ate three or more breakfasts. Because breakfast size and quality vary widely, both over-consumption and under-consumption may be contributing to obesity. While these respective trends may seem to be competing dilemmas, they mutually contribute to the complexity of food insecurity, a condition affecting about 14 percent of Americans each year, and defined as lacking the access to enough food to lead a healthy and active life. Obesity is often a product of food insecurity, which could cause both policymakers and the public to rethink stereotypical ideas about who the nation’s hungry are, what malnourishment really looks like, and which interventions best address hunger.

This research also exposes the possibility that parents are not aware that their children are eating multiple breakfasts. Children in this study are, on average, ten years old, so it is likely that money spent at the corner store was provided by a parent or guardian, suggesting that they may not be aware of the free school breakfasts.

While the findings in this study do not in any way advocate the abolishment of school breakfast programs, they do present an opportunity for policymakers to think about how the success of these programs is measured. Although there is substantive research suggesting that eating breakfast is beneficial, consuming multiple breakfasts comprised of an array of unhealthy foods can detrimentally affect students’ physical well-being and academic performance. If this study is representative of urban low-income schools, then the 12 percent of students who are not eating breakfast is troubling. The most common self-reported reason in this study for not eating breakfast was a lack of time: If this finding can be supported by further research, solutions like serving breakfast in the classroom may be an option. If further studies continue to support a link between nutrition and the ability to function both physically and cognitively, effective implementation of school food programs is vital.

Article Source: Lawman et al., Breakfast patterns among low-income ethnically-diverse 4th-6th grade children in an urban area, BMC Public Health, 2014, 14:604.

Feature Photo: cc/(USDAgov)