An Environmental Intervention to Reduce Dietary Fat in School Lunches

Recommendations for dietary fat were met simply by the environmental intervention of increasing the availability of low-fat foods.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether making a low-fat entree available as one of two choices in an elementary school lunch program would reduce the fat content of meals selected by children. DESIGN: In this before-after trial, students had a daily choice between two entrees, one of which was sometimes low-fat. For 93% of school days during 14 consecutive school months, daily entree choices were recorded for 619,976 student meals. The fat content of entrees was assessed with a computerized nutrient database supplemented by food manufacturer's data. SETTING: Sixteen elementary schools in the Bellevue (Washington) School District. PARTICIPANTS: The number of students eating school lunch averaged 2440 per day, of whom 25% were less than 185% of poverty. INTERVENTION: After a baseline period of 6 months, the intervention increased the number of days per month when one of the two entrees had 30% or fewer calories from fat. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Data for the entire district were combined to estimate for each month the percent of students who selected low-fat entrees and the percent of calories from fat in the average meal selected by students. RESULTS: During the 6 months before the intervention, a low-fat entree was available on 23% of days; it was selected by 39% of students; and the average meal selected by students had 36% of calories from fat. By the end of the 8-month intervention, a low-fat option was available on 71% of days; it was selected by 29% of students; and the fat content of the average meal dropped from 36% to 30% of calories from fat (P = .02). CONCLUSIONS: In this school district, many students, given the choice, selected low-fat entrees. Recommendations for dietary fat were met simply by the environmental intervention of increasing the availability of low-fat foods.