Ep.45 School Lunch and Weight Gain in Teens

Are school lunches helping  your teen's health journey?

 Join me as I discuss more the  impact of a la carte menus and vending machines on adolescent eating habits. 

The Association of the School Food Environment With Dietary Behaviors of Young Adolescents, American Journal of Public Health | July 2003, Vol 93, No. 7

I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach.
After helping hundreds of teens struggling with their weight and hormones, I’ve created a whole new path by doing what most programs miss: balance puberty hormones naturally and create habits that actually last.

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✅ No more food fights between parents and teens.
✅ No weight obsession—just healthy habits
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✅ A safe, supportive approach that prevents eating disorders

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
This is the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens
podcast.
If you're a mom and want tohelp your child who is
struggling to lose weight, youare in the right place.
If you are looking for healthylifestyle tips, dr Gorgery is
here to help you understand thescience around safe weight loss
in teens and children, becausewhat works for adult weight loss
is not always the best forchildren.

(00:29):
This podcast is for educationalpurposes only.
Dr Gorgory does not providemedical, psychological or
nutrition therapy advice.
You should not use thisinformation to diagnose or treat
any health problems withoutconsulting your own medical
practitioner and now your host,dr Jenny Gorgary.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hello, hello, welcome to another episode of the
Lifestyle and Weight Loss forTeens podcast.
This is Dr Jenny Gorgary, andon today's episode I decided to
talk about school lunches, and Ihad another teenager the other
day telling me when I asked them, what do you eat for lunch

(01:14):
throughout the week?
And the options were pizza,burgers, mac and cheese, chicken
tenders and things like that.
So and that's not an exceptionthat is actually a common story
I get when I talk with teenagersand try to get an idea about
what is their eating habitsduring the week.

(01:36):
So teenagers spend a goodamount of their time at school
like almost a third of theirlife so it is important to get a
better idea of how do theyspend the time during the school
, what are the options availableand what can we do, if anything
, to improve the environmentwhere they spend all this time.

(01:57):
So there was a great studywhich was published a few years
ago, and the title of thismanuscript is the association of
the school food environmentwith dietary behaviors of young
adolescents.
It was published in the journalof research and practice by dr

(02:18):
cubic and her team, and whatthey did in this study is that
they actually asked grade seventeenagers they were almost 600
students that they wereattending the school, of the

(02:46):
foods that they were eating,what they were getting from
school and if there was likewhat we call a la carte menus,
meaning that they can buywhatever they want from what was
offered in the school.
And then they looked at thedifferent options, what the
teenagers chose to eat, and thenwhat were their eating habits.
So what they found was thatwhen the schools had these

(03:12):
programs where there was a lacarte availability meaning the
kids could select and buy whatthey wanted to eat they found
that the kids tended to eatsignificantly less fruits and
vegetables and there was atendency for the kids to have

(03:33):
more food, that they were mainlyfatty food.
Also, another thing they foundis that the vending machines
that are available at schoolwell, in those schools that they
were available, when they wereavailable they also were
associated with less fruitconsumption, which makes sense,

(03:59):
right?
Because the kids are morelikely to buy unhealthy snacks
from the vending machines andless likely to have fruit.
And so what does that tell us?
That tells us that there is alot of area for improvement in

(04:21):
the school environment andeverybody of us teenagers, all
the same as adults we have acertain power and willpower and
conscious choice to get one foodversus the other.
But the environment where welive is very important and we

(04:43):
can make our environment be morehelpful for us so we can make
the environment easier.
So one of the environments thatcan help teenagers
significantly is the schoolenvironment.
So when you make the schoolshealthier, when you offer
healthier options at school,when you remove sugary drinks

(05:06):
from the school, when you removethe venting vaccines that have
the unhealthy snacks, when youoffer snacks, when you offer
options that have a specificamount of fruits and vegetables,
so that makes it easier forteenagers that want to get into
a healthy way and teenagers thatwant to build healthy habits.

(05:28):
It makes it easier for them.
So the same way we need to makethe environment at home easier,
the same way we need to makethe environment at school easier
if we want to help ourteenagers get into healthy
habits and get into healthyeating patterns.
So as parents, as adults, asactive members of our community,

(05:52):
I think we ought to reach outto our schools community.
I think we ought to reach outto our schools.
We need to have thoseconversations and start to have
those conversations with theschool environment on what is
the menu, how can we make iteasier, how can we make the
environment healthier for ourstudents?
And I know that oftentimes wesay that it is better for the

(06:17):
children to have and pack theirlunch from home.
Of course, that will be alwaysmy first recommendation.
However, I know that this maynot always be possible or it may
not be possible every day.
So it may be possible like afew days per week, which is
still fine, but then that thereare kids that don't have the

(06:41):
ability to have lunch from homeevery day and they rely heavily
on the ability of the school toprovide lunch and sometimes to
provide breakfast too.
So for those teenagers which area lot of teenagers, fall into
this category it is importantfor us to make that environment

(07:04):
healthier and have thediscussions with the school to
provide that options to help ourkids live healthier lives and
make it easier for them tochoose water, to choose over
sugary drinks over sodas, tochoose fruits and vegetables
over sugary juices, to choosefruits and vegetables over

(07:29):
unhealthy, fattier snacks.
So that's all I had to sharewith you today.
I hope this was helpful and Ihope this was a starting point
that you can have with yourteenagers, you can have with
your school districts on what isthe lunch that is served, what

(07:51):
are the snacks that areavailable at school, how can we
make it more easily accessiblefruits and vegetables and
healthier snacks to the kidsthat are in school?
Take care and I will talk toyou again next week and again,
if you're not on my newsletter,I encourage you to go to

(08:13):
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Take care.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I
invite you to come check out theprogram.
It's Dr Gorgeri's 12-weekcoaching program for teens and
their moms, where we take allthis information, we apply it to
your daily life and we worktogether so your teenager learns
how to create a healthylifestyle so they can feel
happier, more confident, lessstressed and love their body

(08:48):
again.
Visit the website atlifestyleforteenscom and click
on the work with me and freeresources to learn more about
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.
Thanks for tuning in and we'llcatch you in the next episode of
Lifestyle and Weight Loss forTeens.