Associations between usual school lunch attendance and eating habits and sedentary behaviour in French children and adolescents

Abstract

A country of glorious food, of superb restaurants and Sunday meals, France today is plunged into anguish and confusion.Must we, from now on, sacrifice the gentle principle of pleasure to the all powerful precautionary principle?Rumours grumble, worried in the markets and behind supermarket trolleys: what can we still eat? At the same time, the major diseases linked to malnutrition have fortunately almost disappeared, succeeded now by an explosion in unbalanced diets and illnesses linked to excess, which show a worrying 12% of children aged between 5 and 12 are obese.Faced with this situation the people of France have a right to expect transparency, initiative, continuity and coherence from all the actors concerned. It is the goal of this national healthy nutrition plan:• to develop information and education • urge the healthcare system to attach more importance to nutritional problems • open 'health democracy' to the nutritional challenges by involving consumers and food industry professions more widely • develop nutritional epidemiology • encourage research • implement public health actions Since this plan is opening so many necessary perspectives, it will extend over a period of five years.I hope that the plan will respond to the needs of the French people and enable each to find once again the route to a healthy, balanced diet which is a source of health, pleasure …and maybe even happiness.

Fast-food intake and perceived and objective measures of the local fast-food environment in adolescents

“…Study findings also show that the presence of a school canteen is especially important in predicting at least weekly fast-food intake in girls. We were surprised by this result, as one would expect that the presence of canteens may encourage healthier food habits ( 49 , 52 ) ; however, many schools worldwide still struggle to achieve healthier food and nutrient standards despite policy improvements ( 62 , 63 ) . It would be beneficial in the future to examine school canteen offerings to assess nutritional quality and acceptability, or whether girls are bringing in food purchased elsewhere.…”

“…We also considered behavioural correlates reflecting the school lunch context, such as the presence of a school canteen (48)(49)(50) , which may be associated with healthy eating (51,52) and minimize the likelihood of consuming lunch elsewhere. In Denmark, provision of school cafeterias is not considered the norm, necessitating that most children attending school bring lunch from home (53,54) .…”

Role of contextual and compositional characteristics of schools for health inequalities in childhood and adolescence: a scoping review

“…O'Hara found no impact regarding inequalities in eating habits, physical activity, sedentary behaviour or BMI and van Hook and Altman 77 found not effect inequalities in the change of BMI from fifth to eighth grade. Three studies (Demment et al, 58 Wills et al 80 and Dubuisson et al) 60 examined other aspects of the obesogenic environment. Demment et al 58 found that a better nutrition and physical activity environment of schools' increased the positive impact of high household income on BMI, though not the negative impact of low household income.…”

“…Wills et al 80 -the only qualitative study included in this review-reported that better eating habits of peers might mitigate the negative impact of low family socioeconomic position on adolescents eating habits. Finally, Dubuisson et al 60 examined the impact of school canteen attendance on inequalities in eating habits and sedentary behaviour in children as well as adolescents but found no moderation.…”

Robust statistical methods for point of sale designs, the example of healthcare snack and drink vending

“…In response to the problem, the UK and American Governments encourage healthier lifestyle choices with policy on vending. The French Government has taken stronger action and banned vending in places such as schools (Phillips et al , 2003; ten Have et al , 2010; Terry‐McElrath et al , 2014; Chauliac and Hercberg, 2012; Capacci et al , 2012; Dubuisson et al , 2012; Martin et al , 2011).…”