Parents, take note: The lunches you pack for your children may not be as nutritious as you think.
Dr. Sarah Misyak, a postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise at Virginia Tech, explained to HuffPost Live's Nancy Redd the results of a study conducted at three rural elementary schools in Virginia that compared the nutritional value in home-packed lunches versus those offered in schools.
"Even though there were some very good packed lunches out there, we saw on average in our study that packed lunches were of a poorer nutritional quality than school lunches, which was really surprising to us," Misyak said.
According to Reuters, home-packed lunches had nearly 100 more calories, 8 more grams of fat and 10 more grams of sugar than the lunches schools offered.
Kristina Erskine, a college freshman who's been working to bring healthier lunches to New York's public schools, also joined the conversation and she wasn't surprised by the results considering that in high school, she often saw her peers either unable to afford lunch or eating something quick from the nearby corner store.
Watch the clip above for more information on school lunches and click here to watch the full segment on the ripple effect of school lunches here.
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