At my huge public middle school, overcrowding was addressed by serving school lunch in 25-minute rotating shifts. The earliest group, A Lunch, had to shovel down their chicken fingers and green beans at 10:30 a.m. By 3 p.m. everyone was starving again, just in time for the school to turn on the vending machines full of Coke and Butterfingers. Not exactly your model of healthy, mindful eating.
Now, some people are advocating higher-quality, less-rushed school lunches as a key to lifelong good health habits. In the New York Time's Well column, health writer Tara Parker-Pope talks with Dr. Arthur Agatston, a cardiologist and creator of the South Beach Diet, about promoting better childhood eating habits through better school lunches. "I think having the kids sit at a family table and get used to it at schools - and then bring the parents in to encourage that at home - that would be huge," he says.
What were your school lunch experiences like? How do you think they affected your current eating habits?
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