ABSTRACT

There is little agreement among governments, institutions, scientists and food activists as to how to best tackle the challenging issues of health and sustainability in the food sector. This essay discusses the potential of school meals as a platform to promote healthy and sustainable food behavior. School meal programs are of particular interest for improving public diet because they reach children at a population scale across socio-economic classes and for over a decade of their lives, and because food habits of children are more malleable than those of adults. Current research on the history and health implications of school meal programs is reviewed in a cross-national comparative framework, and arguments explored that speak for the need of a new developmental phase of school meals as an integrative learning platform for healthy and sustainable food behavior. Nutritional, social, practical, educational, economical, political, and cultural perspectives and challenges linked to the implementation of healthy and sustainable school meals are discussed. Finally, the need for long-term interventions and evaluations is highlighted and new research directions are proposed.

摘要

在政府，机构，科学家和食品激进主义者之间，关于如何最好地解决食品部门健康和可持续发展方面的挑战性问题，几乎没有共识。本文讨论了学校膳食作为促进健康和可持续食品行为的平台的潜力。学校进餐计划对于改善公共饮食尤为重要，因为它们可以覆盖整个社会经济阶层的人口规模的儿童，并为他们提供了十多年的生活，而且儿童的饮食习惯比成年人的饮食习惯更具延展性。在跨国比较框架中回顾了当前有关学校就餐计划的历史和健康影响的研究，讨论的论点表明，需要有一个新的发展阶段的学校供餐，以作为健康和可持续食品行为的综合学习平台。讨论了营养，社会，实践，教育，经济，政治和文化的观点以及与实施健康和可持续的学校膳食有关的挑战。最后，强调了长期干预和评估的需求，并提出了新的研究方向。