‘School canteens will offer a healthier and more sustainable diet’. This is one of the premises of the future regulation that the Ministry of Consumption is preparing to promote healthier school menus. The objective? Guarantee access to quality food and nutrition. And it is that obesity is a serious problem among the Spanish child population. According to the 2019 Study of Food, Physical Activity, Child Development and Obesity in Spain (ALADINO), 17.3% of boys and girls aged 6 to 9 are obese, and 4.2% of schoolchildren are severely obese and 40.6% are overweight. Thus, among the criteria contemplated in the proposal (which offers a few days of public hearing for those interested to make their contributions and present proposals for improvement) is to include, at least, 45% vegetables that are in season, prioritize healthier culinary techniques such as steaming, boiling or grilling, reducing the consumption of meat and that schools have their own kitchen.
Promote the Mediterranean diet
Applicable in all educational centers (from nursery schools, schools, institutes and Special Education centers), the offer of food and beverages must be oriented towards fresh, seasonal and local foods, characteristic of the Mediterranean diet such as vegetables, legumes, cereals (preferably whole grains), fruits, nuts and olive oil, with at least 5% of the total food offered being organically produced. To meet these requirements, the menus proposed in the draft royal decree include the following guidelines: Rice or pasta (wholemeal if possible), once a week, while legumes and vegetables must be part of the menu once or twice a week. week. Processed meat would be limited to two servings per month, while dishes that provide plant-based protein can be offered every day of the week. For its part, when eating fish (from one to three servings per week), species of fish that have a high mercury content, such as swordfish, bluefin tuna, shark or pike, should be avoided. As for desserts, fresh fruit is encouraged (between 4 and 5 servings per week) and water as the only drink for the entire meal. The future norm does not forget the obligation to adapt the menus for those students who suffer intolerances, allergies or require special menus for cultural, ethical or religious reasons. Neither of the reduction of waste and food waste.
However, this proposal is not new. There are many initiatives that promote a healthy dining room in educational centers, taking into account parameters very similar to those offered by the future standard. One of them, and one of the best known, is the ‘Harvard Plate’, which illustrates the amount that should be included in a plate of healthy food around vegetables (half a plate), whole grain cereals (a quarter) and foods protein of animal or vegetable origin such as legumes (another quarter), in addition to fruits, dairy products and water as the main drink.
The relationship between school cafeteria and nutritional education
Thus, and taking into account these indications, is it enough for students to provide a healthy diet in school cafeterias or do we have to go a step further with nutritional education? María Kindelán is a nutritionist and she told us in an interview on our website that it is still a pending issue in the educational system and that it is essential to instill healthy habits from childhood since “students must be able to understand the effect of different foods to become aware ( from experimentation or with real and close examples) about the impact that their way of eating has on their quality of life”.
Or what is the same: without a firm nutritional education it is difficult to have healthy eating habits for the future. “Students often don’t eat what they really need to get active, relax, concentrate or have greater endurance in their sports activities, because they are not taught,” he explained. On the other hand, for Julio Basulto, nutritional education is based on the idea of educating from the rejection of unhealthy products. “I am in favor of educating them, above all, in being aware of the foods that they should reject, and not so much in those that should be promoted”, he highlighted in an interview published in number 46 of our printed magazine. Either way, school canteens can be considered the cornerstone of nutrition education and the educators present in the canteens play a fundamental role in this. As the ‘Guide to school canteens’ (previously defined as the Ministry of Health and Consumption) points out, the initiatives to promote healthy eating in these spaces are very diverse and go beyond the food itself. In this way, the document proposes a series of actions with which to promote healthy eating based on a schedule, with an objective, a certain time, some tools or resources and even a form of evaluation. Depending on the age, different types of games are proposed (board games, patio games, quizzes…), as well as group dynamics or workshops with which to go one step further in promoting good nutrition among minors.