(NEW YORK) — Home-schooled kids have certain advantages over children attending traditional school but there’s one benefit that even surprised University of Colorado researchers.
They discovered that children educated at home are generally in better shape than students who get their school lunches in public schools.
Michelle Cardel, Ph.D., looked into the phenomenon by studying 100 youngsters ages 7 to 12 with half home-schooled and the other half from traditional places of learning.
The results were that children at public schools ate more sugars and fats at lunch while consuming less fruits and vegetable than kids taught at home. Interestingly, both groups got about the same amount of physical activity.
Researchers fear that the disparity will grow wider over time since many schools are dropping healthier meals from the National School Lunch Program because students just don’t want to eat the food.
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