School Lunch

More and more students in primary and middle schools in big cities are provided lunches either made by the school canteen or catering¹ companies. School lunches save the parents a great deal of effort, but are they nutritious²? Do students like them?

Our reporter Yajie has the story.

 
The first seminar on "Nutrition Intervention³ and Management in Schools" was held recently in Liaoning province. Based on research reports, many experts have noticed that the kids in big cities are going into two different directions: 30 per cent of the children are suffering from obesity⁴, while some are as thin as a bean sprout⁵. Experts say that unbalanced eating habits are the main causes, and school lunches in primary and middle schools has plenty of room for improvement.

Hao Qingtang, a nutrition expert, says most of the primary and middle schools lack nutrition awareness⁶ when they prepare lunches for the students.

"There is a national nutrition index for school lunches indicating the proportions of vegetables and meat. But only 50 per cent of primary and middle schools in Liaoning province meet the national nutrition requirements. Most of the schools provide lunches according to a menu rather than nutrition requirements."

Experts say a balanced lunch should provide 40 per cent of the energy a person needs for one day. And It's extremely important for primary and middle school students who are still growing and have a heavy study burden.

Hao Qingtang says about 80 per cent of the parents lack nutrition knowledge.

"The big problem is that some of the parents don't know about nutrition. They don't know what and how much they should give their child to eat. They think it's good for the kids to eat as much as possible, and they believe meat is another name for nutrition. They make dishes according to their preference rather than the nutrition they need."

Actually children have the basic knowledge about what a balanced meal should have.

"A nutritious meal should have meat and vegetables. If you want to keep healthy, you have to eat less meat and more vegetables."

"A balanced meal should have a lot of things."

But knowing is one thing, doing is another thing. Kids still prefer tasty snacks made by the stalls rather than a school lunch. Some of them even make an exercise out of being fussy⁷ about food.

In some western countries, school lunches are designed by professional nutritionists and given to the students for free. Take Japan for example, it laid down a law on nutrition and nutritionists in 1947 and 1952 respectively. All the Japanese students have to attend nutrition class at a young age. Yang Yi, a nutritionist says most of the Japanese students know what nutritious food is and what is good for their health.

"that's the reason why when we compare the Chinese kids with their Japanese peers today, the Japanese kids are much taller and have better physical states."

Although it's important for the parents, it's important for children as well as schools to improve nutrition awareness, it's difficult to put it into practice.

It needs financial support from the government as well as the program reform in primary and middle schools. But given that the issue is related to kids' health, it's certainly worth making an effort to change the way our children eat both at home and school.

For CRI, I'm Yajie.

1 catering   

n. 给养

参考例句：

• Most of our work now involves catering for weddings. 我们现在的工作多半是承办婚宴。
• Who did the catering for your son's wedding? 你儿子的婚宴是由谁承办的？

2 nutritious   

adj.有营养的，营养价值高的

参考例句：

• Fresh vegetables are very nutritious.新鲜蔬菜富于营养。
• Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。

3 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

4 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

5 sprout   

n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条

参考例句：

• When do deer first sprout horns?鹿在多大的时候开始长出角？
• It takes about a week for the seeds to sprout.这些种子大约要一周后才会发芽。

6 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

7 fussy   

adj.为琐事担忧的，过分装饰的，爱挑剔的

参考例句：

• He is fussy about the way his food's cooked.他过分计较食物的烹调。
• The little girl dislikes her fussy parents.小女孩讨厌她那过分操心的父母。