Department of Nutrition and Public Health, Merrimack College, North Andover, Massachusetts; Center for Health Inclusion, Research, and Practice, Merrimack College, North Andover, Massachusetts.
Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
J Acad Nutr Diet. 2024 Mar;124(3):346-357.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2023.10.009. Epub 2023 Oct 17.
Despite federal regulations limiting saturated fat and sodium levels on a weekly average basis, daily nutrient content of school meals in the United States is not regulated, leading to potential large fluctuations and intake well in excess of dietary recommendations.
To assess the daily prevalence of potential public elementary school meal combinations that were high in saturated fat and sodium (using cutoffs based on the US Department of Agriculture weekly average reimbursable meal thresholds), and to identify saturated fat and sodium thresholds for entrées to limit full meals exceeding those cutoffs.
Cross-sectional.
Four weeks of publicly available public elementary school (kindergarten through grade five) breakfast and lunch menus with associated nutrition data were collected from a national stratified random sample of 128 school districts during fall 2019.
Percent of meal combinations exceeding the saturated fat and Target 1 sodium thresholds were calculated, as well as thresholds for saturated fat and sodium levels in breakfast and lunch entrées.
Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to examine the odds of alignment with sodium and saturated fat US Department of Agriculture thresholds.
The prevalence of elementary breakfast and lunch meal combinations that were high in sodium was on average 11% and 12.4%, respectively, and for saturated fat was 10.6% and 34%, respectively. Entrées above certain thresholds (≥400 and ≥1,000 mg sodium and ≥4.5 and ≥6 g saturated fat for breakfast and lunch, respectively) had a higher odds of producing a reimbursable meal that was high in sodium and saturated fat.
There is widespread availability of high-saturated fat and sodium elementary school meal combinations on a daily basis. Daily thresholds, in addition to weekly nutrient thresholds, as well as limits on sodium and saturated fat for entrées, may therefore be needed to prevent daily excess intake of saturated fat and sodium among elementary students.
尽管联邦法规限制了饱和脂肪和钠的每周平均水平，但美国学校餐的每日营养含量并未受到监管，这导致潜在的大量波动和摄入量远远超过膳食建议。
评估潜在的美国公立小学餐组合中每日饱和脂肪和钠含量高的情况（使用基于美国农业部每周平均可报销餐阈值的截止值），并确定限制超过这些截止值的全餐的主菜中饱和脂肪和钠的阈值。
横断面研究。
在 2019 年秋季，从全国分层随机抽取的 128 个学区中收集了四周公开提供的公立小学（幼儿园至五年级）早餐和午餐菜单以及相关营养数据。
计算超过饱和脂肪和目标 1 钠阈值的餐组合百分比，以及早餐和午餐主菜中饱和脂肪和钠水平的阈值。
使用描述性统计和逻辑回归来检查与美国农业部钠和饱和脂肪阈值一致的可能性。
高钠的小学早餐和午餐餐组合的流行率分别平均为 11%和 12.4%，而饱和脂肪的流行率分别为 10.6%和 34%。超过某些阈值（早餐和午餐分别为≥400 和≥1,000mg 钠和≥4.5 和≥6g 饱和脂肪）的主菜更有可能产生高钠和高饱和脂肪的可报销餐。
每天都有大量高饱和脂肪和高钠的小学餐组合可供选择。因此，除了每周的营养阈值外，可能还需要每日的阈值以及主菜中钠和饱和脂肪的限制，以防止小学生每日摄入过多的饱和脂肪和钠。
