Many Fourth-Graders
Skip Breakfast and Lunch
Excerpt By Emma Hitt, PhD, Reuters Health

ATLANTA (Reuters Health) - About a third of fourth-graders skip breakfast, lunch, or both at least three times per week, according to new study findings.

The students who skipped meals were slightly more likely to be overweight and were much more likely to exercise fewer than three times per week, although the reasons for this link were unclear.

Natalie Dewberry-Moore of Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues administered a questionnaire to 219 children, a cross-section of students from 36 schools in and around the city of Baltimore, to find out more about their eating habits.

The researchers presented the findings here at this week's 2001 American Public Health Association 129th Annual Meeting.

The investigators asked the students how many days per week they ate lunch and breakfast. Students were classified as skipping meals if they reported eating either breakfast or lunch less than three times per week.

Of the fourth-graders, 31% skipped meals at least three times per week, they found.

Thirty-two percent of the students were classified as overweight and 23% reported exercising fewer than four times per week. The majority of students were African American, and just over half were female.

``When we asked the children why they didn't eat in the cafeteria, some of the children said they didn't like the way the food looked,'' Dewberry-Moore told Reuters Health. She pointed out that for some of the schools, the food is cooked off-site and brought in, so there is not much of a selection, which may be one reason why the students skip meals.

Dewberry-Moore also noted that many schools did not have playgrounds or areas for the children to exercise safely, which could prevent children from being physically active, Dewberry-Moore suggested.

``We recommend that parents teach their children about selecting healthy foods and that schools implement more health or nutrition classes that teach about exercise and good eating habits,'' she said.

``In Maryland, and many other states, the kids are only required to have one credit hour of these subjects, so they are not really taught about good exercise and eating habits,'' she said.

Reference Source 89

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