Junk Food vs. School Meals

How an Award-Winning Teacher Settled the Debate Once and For All

Want to really impress kids about the perils of food with poor nutritional value and the importance of eating healthy school meals? Buy some rats.

At Bammel Middle School in the Spring Independent School District, rats have been more effective at changing student behavior than textbooks or parental guidance.

In a health class experiment that earned teacher Daniel Malone the Nutrition Education Award from the Texas Association of School Nutrition, students compared four young male rats on two separate diets.

Two rats ate food from a school lunch meal, which included carrots, broccoli, chicken nuggets, chicken-fried steak, salad and apples. The other two rats ate high calorie, low nutrient foods, which included cookies, chips, cream-filled pastries and candy.

Students in the class observed the growth and behavior of the rats for three weeks. Then all four rats were put on a school meal diet and observed for another three weeks.

After just three weeks, the "junk-food" rats lagged far behind their "school meal-food" brothers in size. Their fur was thinner, their nails were duller and the ends of their whiskers were frayed. During the day, when rats are supposed to sleep, they were hyperactive. At night, their activity level was well below the rats on the good school meal diet.

When put on the school meal diet, the appearance of the former "junk-food" rats improved rapidly.

The changes in the rats were so dramatic that students in the class brought their friends by to check it out. Eventually, everybody in the 1,500-student school was aware of the experiment and the results.

"The exciting part," said Malone, "is that the kids really understand nutrition and food groups much better."

In fact, since the first experiment was conducted last year, the cafeteria manager has had to increase her order of fresh produce because there has been a noticeable increase in demand, according to Malone.

The reason the experiment makes such an impression on kids is simple.

"Even though they don't notice the effect of ‘junk' food on their own bodies, they can see the changes in the rats very quickly," said Malone. "It does change a lot of thinking."

For articles on other school health heroes, go here.