Friday, September 24, 2010

Mixed Results from Edible Schoolyard

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook


















  1. My 3 oldest siblings and I were raised on a very healthy diet based on mostly plants and lean meats, no sugar/sodas/junk food. However all of us in middle school rebelled at some point or another- gorging on junk food at friend's houses, sneaking snacks out of vending machines. But by mid-late high school we all reverted back to what we knew- healthy eating habits. And as adults we are all very conscious about what we eat (and our children in turn). My youngest sibling however was not raised on the healthy food that my older brothers and sisters ate. Instead our parents got lazy and relied on fast food, sodas, microwave dinners and the like. By high school he was very overweight (and no one else in our family is, so he is not genetically predisposed to being heavier). And now in his mid-20s he very much struggles with healthy eating habits and weight issues. So even within the same family, siblings raised with different eating habits each carried those habits into adulthood- even if there was a brief respite in adolescence. I know we are just one example, but I don't think its purely coincidence.

  2. Ed, Did they look at any literacy or math differences for kids who participated versus those that did not?

  3. The authors said the parameters of the study were insufficient to try and draw any valid conclusions about scholastic achievement.

  4. I haven't had time to read the study yet, but I did search for the term "control group," and didn't find it!

    Without knowing what the average middle schooler is thinking with regard to food it's kind of impossible to say what the success of the edible schoolyard movement is.