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Effect of Nutrition on Academic Performance

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Effect of Nutrition on Academic Performance

RGS6035.E2 - Chapter 1

Kurt Cornett

Amberton University

Effect of Nutrition on Academic Performance

Every year millions of tax dollars are spent on school nutrition programs all over the United States. Legislators across the nation lobby for coordinated school health programs and place increasing emphasis on student nutrition. Television commercials remind kids to eat a balanced diet and food products aimed at students are everywhere. In recent years a sudden increase of new breakfast related foods has flooded the market and never has there been so much information about the vitamins and minerals children’s foods contain than now.

For years …show more content…

The federally assisted meal program was created to safeguard the health and well-being of the nation’s children and to encourage the consumption of American-grown commodities. The federal government would reimburse schools for student who qualified for free or reduced meals. Students who didn’t qualify were able to purchase lunch, and their money was used to off-set the costs of building new facilities for the expanding program. The program started to expand because of the increasing number of women working outside the home during the war (Winchell, 2009).

Since 1946 the National School Lunch Act’s laws and regulations have been amended twenty-two times. Today’s program has over 100 years of testing, evaluating, and constant research to make sure the program provides the best in nutrition, nutrition education, and foodservice for millions of students. The school lunch program has become so accepted that most Americans don’t think of it as welfare (Winchell, 2009). The USDA still maintains control over the program, but there are still funding issues with more than half of school lunches free or reduced. According to the National Nutrition Standards, which are published by the School Nutrition Association, in order for schools to receive federal subsidies for free or reduced lunch meals they must follow Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).

With all of these programs and importance on nutrition, how

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