Universal free school breakfast has benefits and drawbacks

NEW YORK, Nov 8 (Reuters) Research suggests that providing all elementary school children with free breakfast at school, regardless of family income, increases the likelihood that children will eat a nutritionally sound breakfast, which may help them with their school work.

It does not, however, reduce breakfast skipping nor does it change the overall quality of children's diets. Moreover, students in schools offering free breakfast may also be more likely to eat two breakfasts, boosting their calorie intake for the day.

Mary Kay Crepinsek at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and colleagues, evaluated the effects of offering universal free breakfast at school, regardless of income level, on students' breakfast consumption and their total food and nutrient intake. Students from schools in US government's school breakfast program that provides free or reduced-priced breakfast for children from poor families served as controls.

A total of 4,358 children between second and sixth grader from 153 elementary schools in six school districts participated in the study which spanned three consecutive school years (2000-2001, 2001-2002, and 2002-2003).

The study found that the likelihood of students eating a healthy breakfast was ''somewhat higher'' among students with universal free breakfast access (80 per cent) compared with their control counterparts (76 per cent).

Universal free school breakfast, Crepinsek told Reuters Health, ''did not change the rate of skipping breakfast altogether, but shifted the source of breakfast from home to school -- for a small percentage of students this meant eating breakfast at both home and school.'' ''Given that the average calorie intake of elementary school students in this study exceeded their energy requirements and the current epidemic of childhood obesity, this is one potential drawback of making universal free school breakfast available in elementary schools,'' Crepinsek said.

Universal free school breakfast ''slightly improved students' intake of milk and calcium at breakfast, but did not improve the overall quality of their diets,'' Crepinsek noted.

The positive nutritional and cognitive benefits of eating breakfast are ''well documented,'' Crepinsek's group notes in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. ''Students who cannot eat breakfast at home should have the opportunity to eat it at school.'' REUTERS PB HS0926