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| ABSTRACT |
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Key Words: Food service school meals nutrient guidelines behavior change children fat intake food preparation obesity Pathways study American Indians
| INTRODUCTION |
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25 million students daily (2). The National School Lunch Program mandates that lunch provide students with at least one-third of the recommended dietary allowance (RDAs) (3) for energy and selected nutrients. In 1966 Congress authorized the School Breakfast Program, in which a morning meal is offered to low-income children who would otherwise not have breakfast (4, 5). The School Breakfast Program now serves nearly 5 million students daily (2). US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations require the school breakfast to provide at least one-fourth of the RDAs for energy and selected nutrients. To meet energy and nutrient requirements for breakfast and lunch, the USDA designates separate meal patterns that include servings of milk, meat or meat alternate, fruit or vegetables or both, and bread or grains (6). The serving sizes of these foods are adjusted for age. Before 1994 there were no regulations for total fat or saturated fat.
In 1994 the USDA specified new regulations based on the Healthy Meals for Healthy Americans Act (7) to begin in the 19961997 school year. The primary goal of the act was to require that all school meals meet the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans (8) and include
30% of total energy from fat,
10% of total energy from saturated fat, and at lunch one-third and at breakfast one-fourth of the RDAs for energy, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron (9). Fat and saturated fat regulations have now been added to the original school meal regulations (10).
Many studies have documented the existing nutrient content of school meals (11). The School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (SNDAS) was a national survey that showed that school lunches in 1992 contained 38% of energy as fat and 15% of energy as saturated fat while meeting or exceeding one-third of the RDAs for energy, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B-6, calcium, iron, and zinc (12, 13). Breakfast contained 31% of energy as fat and 14% of energy as saturated fat. Although energy and zinc contents of the breakfast were slightly lower than the recommendations, all other nutrients met or exceeded the target of one-fourth of the RDAs (14). Other studies, including the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) (15), Go for Health (16), and the LunchPower! Intervention Study (17), showed the fat content of the baseline school meals to be similar to or higher than that reported in the SNDAS. CATCH reported 38.7% of energy from fat, Go for Health reported 4650% of energy from fat, and LunchPower! reported 39.8% of energy from fat at baseline. CATCH found the other nutrients also met the RDAs (15). The fat content of the school lunches was significantly reduced in all of these studies as a result of the interventions (1517). Thus, interventions have been successful in reducing the fat in school meals.
The purpose of the Pathways food service intervention was to promote the consumption of food items considered to be healthy, to reduce fat intake, and to comply with current guidelines for school lunch and breakfast. For many children, these meals represent >50% of their total daily food intake. Thus, an intervention designed to reduce the fat content of school meals could be an effective strategy to lower total dietary fat intake. We describe the development and implementation of the 5 components of the Pathways food service intervention in the 4 pilot schools, discuss the results of initial process evaluation activities, and present a theoretical analysis of existing school menus on the reservations.
| FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT |
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| FOOD SERVICE INTERVENTION |
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Nutrient guidelines
The first component of the food service intervention was the Pathways nutrient guidelines for school meals (Table 1
). Lowering the fat content, while maintaining adequate energy for growth and development, was targeted as the primary nutrient objective in accordance with the Pathways feasibility study goal of promoting eating behaviors to prevent obesity in American Indian children. Secondary nutrients monitored to ensure adequate intakes were saturated fat, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron. The Pathways nutrient guidelines complied with the USDA school meal regulations (7) in both type and quantity of nutrients.
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30% of total energy from fat for 5 consecutive days. Pathways translated this to a guideline for grams of fat per meal, and then to grams of fat for each type of food used in the meals (Table 2
30% of energy from fat in their weekly meal planning. Energy guidelines were in accordance with the RDA for children aged 710 y (3). These were used to calculate the amount of energy from fat and to ensure adequate energy intake while reducing the total fat of the school meals.
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One of the most successful materials was the Pathways "chip jar," which served as a motivational incentive. At the end of the school work day, the food service staff reviewed the Pathways behavioral guidelines and placed a poker chip in the jar for each guideline they implemented that day. At the end of 3 mo, the kitchen received $0.05 for each chip, with a maximum of $25.00 accrued to purchase something special for the kitchen.
Training
A 2-h training session for food service personnel was held at each site in the fall and winter during the intervention. Each training session emphasized one or more of the behavioral guidelines. The primary focus of the training sessions was to help the food service personnel adopt the nutrient and behavioral guidelines; hands-on activities that allowed the food service personnel to understand and practice the behaviors were used. For the behavioral guideline "Use low-fat cheese," food service personnel portioned out the amount of grated cheese they usually used in a serving. This amount was then measured and the amount of fat calculated and compared with the amount of fat in a standard serving of cheese. In most cases, the food service personnel were surprised to learn they were serving more cheese, and therefore more fat, than needed. During each training session, food service personnel became more familiar with the nutrient and behavioral guidelines, successfully identified food preparation and serving skills to lower fat content, practiced at least one skill-building technique, and taste-tested at least one lower-fat food.
School kitchen visits
The Pathways nutrition staff visited each intervention school kitchen one day a month and worked side-by-side with the food service personnel to prepare and serve the school meal. This provided an opportunity for the Pathways nutrition staff and the food service personnel to work together on the implementation of specific behavioral guidelines. Visits were often scheduled by the type of foods served that day so that different behavioral guidelines could be implemented on each visit. During the visits, the Pathways nutrition staff reinforced the concepts taught in the training sessions and provided additional supportive materials and activities. Meetings were held for 1030 min to present and discuss posters and visual materials associated with the behavioral guideline that was the focus of that visit. The Pathways nutrition staff also observed the students during these meals to assess food acceptance.
Curriculum, family, and food service
The Pathways nutrition staff coordinated nutrition-related activities with the Pathways curriculum and family intervention components. For example, the school food service personnel prepared the foods for the classroom snacks that were part of take-home packets used in the curriculum component. Both food service personnel and the Pathways nutrition staff helped to develop menus and prepare and serve meals at events organized for the Pathways family intervention.
| METHODS |
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The results of these assessments showed good compliance overall, with 3 of the 4 schools implementing 6 of the 8 behavioral guidelines. All of the Pathways intervention schools either demonstrated or reported that pasta, rice, noodles, baked chicken or turkey, and vegetables were prepared without adding any fat. Three of the 4 schools demonstrated or reported that cooked ground meat was rinsed and drained, butter was not offered on the serving line, bread was not buttered, and nonfat gravy was served. Half of the schools were purchasing low-fat cheeses and one school offered a choice of fruit and vegetables. One school reported deep-fat frying; however, this was only for French-fried potatoes because students found baked fries to be unacceptable.
Emphasis was given to evaluating the behavioral guideline to offer lower-fat milk. Data were collected regarding the types and amounts of milk purchased before and after 18 mo of the Pathways feasibility study. One school switched from serving only whole milk to 1%-fat milk and another switched from equal amounts of whole and 2%-fat milk to equal amounts of 2%- and 1%-fat milk. The other 2 schools had made only minor changes but had just begun the process of changing milks. Compared with CATCH (15), the amount of food service change in only 18 mo was on target.
Theoretical menu analysis
To determine how well the nutrient guidelines could be achieved if the Pathways behavioral guidelines were implemented successfully, a theoretical analysis of the nutrient content of 1 wk of breakfast and lunch menus from 3 control schools in the Pathways feasibility study was conducted in April 1996 (Table 4
). Comparable data were collected on a fourth school; however, this was an intervention school and only control schools were used as a baseline for this theoretical analysis. The Pathways nutrition staff instructed the school food service personnel how to keep a written record of the actual menus, recipes, and labels of vendor products used for the school meals during the targeted 5-d period. The Pathways staff reviewed all the menu and recipe forms with the food service personnel at the end of the 5-d period for completeness. These menus were analyzed for energy and fat content by using the NUTRITION DATA SYSTEM (NDS) (nutrient database 11A, foods database 25, 93 version 2.8; Nutrition Coordinating Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis) (25).
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For the second analysis (referred to as "low fat potential"), the same foods from the breakfast and lunch menus were entered into the NDS by using the food preparation and serving methods given in the Pathways behavioral guidelines. For example, if ground meat was offered, it was entered as being rinsed. If whole, 2%-fat, and 1%-fat milk were available at the school, milk was entered as 1%-fat milk.
RESULTS
Results of the theoretical menu analyses are shown in Table 4
. When none of the Pathways behavioral guidelines were used (high fat potential), the schools' menus substantially exceeded the recommendation of
30% of energy from fat. At breakfast, 2 of the 3 sites averaged 34% and 40% of energy from fat and at lunch all 3 schools averaged 40% or 45% of energy from fat. In contrast, when all of the behavioral guidelines were implemented (low fat potential), menus were in greater compliance. All sites averaged
30% of energy from fat at breakfast and one site did so at lunch. The other 2 sites averaged 3233% of energy from fat at lunch, for an overall average of 31%.
The behavioral guidelines also affected energy intake. Without any of the behavioral guidelines in place, one site met the USDA regulation for providing
2092 kJ (
500 kcal) at breakfast and 2 sites met the regulation for providing
2782 kJ (
665 kcal) at lunch. When all of the guidelines were used, however, none of the sites met the energy intake criteria at either meal.
| DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION |
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A unique feature of Pathways is the development of a comprehensive model with an organized and interrelated set of intervention components. The nutrient and behavioral guidelines form the basis of this model. The materials, trainings, and kitchen visits were designed to help the food service personnel meet the nutrient and behavioral guidelines in their meal preparation. These components gave the food service personnel hands-on experience in behaviors specifically tailored to their food production systems. Pathways also provided at least one specific hands-on activity for each of the behavioral guidelines. Although objectives and protocols were established for each training session and kitchen visit, they were flexible enough to allow the Pathways nutrition staff to adapt them to best meet the needs of the food service personnel in each school. Social learning theory constructs such as social support and enhanced behavioral capability, as well as the incentive of the chip jar, were used to facilitate and sustain behavior change. These components all supported an intervention that was culturally appropriate and was tailored to local needs and issues to ensure involvement of the local food service personnel.
Process evaluation showed that after only 18 mo of this intervention, food service personnel were adopting many of the behavioral guidelines. Other studies have also shown behavioral changes among food service personnel (15, 17). The theoretical menu analysis showed the nutrient changes that could occur if all behavioral guidelines were adopted. According to results of the theoretical menu analysis, implementation of the Pathways behavioral guidelines would reduce the fat content of school breakfasts and lunches to less than or close to the USDA regulation of
30% of energy from total fat.
| LIMITATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS |
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The data presented here should be considered as preliminary because only 8 schools participated in the feasibility phase. Furthermore, the data on menu analysis are based on theoretical calculations, comparing full implementation of all behavioral guidelines with no implementation, rather than being analysis of actual meals served by these schools before and after the entire intervention. The full-scale study will last 5 y, which has been shown to be the amount of time needed to effect change in a food service intervention (15). Thus, significant progress was made in the pilot intervention in just 18 mo.
The Pathways study is now being implemented in the full-scale phase in 40 schools. The feasibility phase of the food service intervention identified areas in each component that need to be modified. For example, as new food products are introduced, new fat gram guidelines will be established. Because food service personnel responded positively to the materials and activities, this component will also be expanded.
The Pathways model is unique among food service interventions in that it suggests a systematic series of steps for translating overall nutrient goals into specific behaviors, with specific strategies, activities, and materials for the intervention tailored to the school. It acknowledges the need for continuing partnerships between the nutrition staff and the food service personnel and offers a theory-driven model for facilitating and supporting behavior changes. Although the Pathways food service model was developed for a particular cross-cultural project, its focus is on food service operations, making it applicable to a variety of other food service interventions.
| FOOTNOTES |
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2 Supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (U01-HL-50869, U01-HL-50867, U01-HL-50905, U01-HL-50885, and U01-HL-50907).
3 Address reprint requests to MP Snyder, University of Minnesota, Division of Epidemiology, 1300 South Second Street, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454-1015.
| REFERENCES |
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