The School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study: summary and discussion

This paper summarizes the key findings of the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study and discusses the implications for policy and practice in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). Reducing total fat offered in NSLP lunches to the amount set in the Dietary Guidelines, as called for in the proposed regulations published by the US Department of Agriculture in June 1994, would be facilitated by changing the legislative requirement to serve whole milk. In addition, the following menu choices and meal preparation methods would reduce considerably the amounts of fat in NSLP lunches: reducing the average meat serving from 2 to 1.5 oz; eliminating high-fat meats, high-fat cheese, nuts, and nut butters; eliminating high-fat desserts and milk-based desserts; and reducing sharply the use of added fats in food preparation.