Dietary effects of the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program

Abstract

In this paper we use 24-h dietary recall data to assess the dietary effects of participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). After adjustment for differences in characteristics between NSLP participants and nonparticipants, NSLP participation is associated with higher lunch intakes of vitamin A, calcium, and magnesium, and a lower intake of vitamin C. Although mean intakes of other key dietary components such as food energy, iron, cholesterol, and sodium are higher for NSLP participants than for nonparticipants, these differences appear to be due to underlying differences in unobserved characteristics (eg, food preferences, appetites, or food energy needs) rather than to the NSLP. Both at lunch and over 24 h, NSLP participation is associated with consumption of a higher percentage of food energy from fat and saturated fat. SBP participation is associated with higher breakfast intakes of food energy, calcium, riboflavin, phosphorus, and magnesium, and with a higher percentage of breakfast food energy from fat and saturated fat, and a lower percentage of food energy from carbohydrate.