Strong nutrition standards for school meals, consistent with evidence-based recommendations, position children for optimal health and wellbeing. Strong science supports the link between lowering sodium intake and better health. This new issue brief from Healthy Eating Research examines the recent history of sodium standards for school meals. It highlights current sodium intake among America’s children and School Nutrition Meal Cost Study (SNMCS) findings about sodium content of school meals. The SNMCS examined sodium levels in school meals based on data from nationally representative samples of public school food authorities, schools, and students in school year 2014-2015. Findings indicate that there has been major progress in reducing the sodium content of school meals, but more progress is needed and attempts to weaken sodium standards compromise the health of children across the country.
Published: September 2020
Publisher: Healthy Eating Research
Authors: Callahan E
Age Groups: Adolescents (grades 9 to 12), Elementary-age children (grades K to 5), Young adolescents (grades 6 to 8)
Focus Areas: Diet Quality & Healthy Weight, School & After School
State: National
Resource Type: Research Brief
Keyword: School meal programs
Related Research
February 2025
More States and Sponsors Are Providing Grab-and-Go Meals to Children during Summer
In 2023, to respond to increased rates of child food insecurity during the summer Congress authorized states to opt in to allowing noncongregate, or “grab-and-go,” summer meal services for students in rural areas. In the summer of 2023, 46 states and DC opted in, and in the summer of 2024 all 50 states and DC MoreNovember 2024
School-based nutrition education programs alone are not cost effective for preventing childhood obesity: a microsimulation study
Although interventions to change nutrition policies, systems, and environments (PSE) for children are generally cost effective for preventing childhood obesity, existing evidence suggests that nutrition education curricula, without accompanying PSE changes, are more commonly implemented. This study aimed to estimate the societal costs and potential for cost-effectiveness of 3 nutrition education curricula frequently implemented in MoreJanuary 2024