School Lunch Program Could Control Snacking Habits and Decreased Energy and Lipid Intakes of 11-year-old Students in Jakarta

There is currently no school lunch program implemented in Indonesian publicschools. Under current conditions, children are likely to be susceptible to lifestyle-relateddiseases as indicated by the increasing prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity year byyear due to uncontrollable dietary habit. The purpose of this study was to evaluate theimplementation of a school lunch program in a Jakarta public school and its effect on students’nutrition and food intake and habitual patterns. A total of 50 students, 11-year-old 5th gradersfrom two classes, participated in this study. In a crossover study design, the intervention was aschool lunch program providing a school lunch meal for one week (5 days), termed School LunchWeek. The control was one week of five regular days (Regular Week). Outcome parameters were the nutrition intake and changes in habits during Regular Week and School Lunch Weekfor all the children. The results showed a significant decrease in energy and lipid intakes(p<0.05)and snacking frequency/day (p<0.001) during School Lunch Week. The energy contributionfrom snack was decreased by 192 kcal/day (p<0.001) during School Lunch Week. Theimplementation of a school meal program could control snacking habits and decrease energy andlipid intakes in schoolchildren. In conclusion, the establishment of a school meal program shouldbe considered in order to foster beneficial dietary habits in Indonesians.