Your daily adult tube feed all in one place!
Report: States serving YOUR kids the least healthy school lunches revealed - after junk food like Lunchables had been linked to cancer spike in kids
Junk food is a staple across America's school canteens - but a new map has laid bare which states serve up the least nutritious lunches.
Louisiana has the worst in the country, based on several factors including how many fruits and vegetables students consume, from kindergarten through high school.
The state is followed by Idaho, where the most popular lunch is a pizza cheeseburger, and Wyoming, where students prefer chicken nuggets.
On the other end, Massachusetts has the healthiest lunches, thanks in part to schools incorporating fresh, local foods into its meals.
Massachusetts has the healthiest school lunches in the country, according to data from ProCare Therapy, followed by Maine and Hawaii. Louisiana has the unhealthiest, followed by Idaho and Wyoming
This is followed by Maine takes the the second healthiest spot, followed by Hawaii, according to a report by ProCare Therapy, a school-based health company.
The report comes as America seeks to overhaul its school lunches because many of the meals offered to students have been deemed unhealthy and full of junk ingredients, some of which have been associated with cancers.
ProCare determined its rankings based on factors such as students' consumption of fruits, vegetable's and sugary drinks, the number of National School Lunch Program lunches served per 10,000 children and a state's participation in the Farm to School program, which sees schools buy and use locally produced fresh ingredients.
The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program providing nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to kids.
ProCare used data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Farm to School (F2S) census and the Health Resources and Service Administration’s (HRSA) and National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH).
These factors were combined to create a school lunch index score out of 100 possible points, with higher scores representing healthier school lunches.
Findings revealed Hawaii has the largest Farm to School program participation, with 11 percent of the state's school district engaging in a program.
Louisiana, Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico and Alaska were the bottom five states, scoring less than 42 points each.
Louisiana's lack of participation in the Farm to School program and lower percentage of NSLP meals served contributed to its poor scores.
Schoolchildren in Louisiana were also given fewer fruits and vegetables than students in other states.
Poor lunch nutrition could be a contributing factor to Louisiana's high childhood obesity rate. The state has the third highest rate of obesity in kids 10 to 17 years old in the US, according to Statista data from 2021.
In addition to nutrition, the analysis also found the most popular school lunch item in each state using Google search data.
For Massachusetts, deemed the state with the healthiest school lunches, the most popular item was pizza. In Louisiana, it was fried chicken.
The report comes as a campaign was launched to ban the popular lunchtime product Lunchables from free school meals after watchdog group Consumer Reports found they contained high levels of sodium.
'Lunchables are not a healthy option for kids and shouldn't be allowed on the menu as part of the National School Lunch Program,' Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said.
A cafeteria worker prepares Lunchables for lunch at a school in Pembroke, North Carolina
ProCare determined its ranking based on factors such as meals served in adherence to federal nutrition guidelines and the rate of Farm to School program participation, which is a program through which schools buy and feature locally produced, farm-fresh foods on their menus
He added: 'The Lunchables and similar lunch kits we tested contain concerning levels of sodium and harmful chemicals that can lead to serious health problems over time.
'The USDA should remove Lunchables from the National School Lunch Program and ensure that kids in schools have healthier options.'
Lunchables created two new versions of its kit especially for school lunch programs across the US last year, but the new report found they contain even more salt than the Lunchables kits customers can get in grocery stores.
The school cafeteria version of the Lunchables was found to contain between 460 to 740 milligrams per serving, which is 'nearly a quarter to half of a child’s daily recommended limit for sodium' - no more than 1,500 mg per day for four- to eight-year-olds.
Consumer Reports found the turkey and cheddar school variety of Lunchables contained 930 mg of sodium, while the store-bought version contained 740 mg.
Rising cancer rates in young people have also been linked to increasing prevalence of ultra processed food.
An analysis of CDC data recently found that colorectal cancers have risen by up to six-fold in children aged 10-14 since 2000.
In 2020, only 0.6 children ages 10 to 14 per 100,000 population were diagnosed with colorectal cancer compared to 0.1 per 100,000 in 1999 - a 500 percent increase.