Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” equals better test scores

Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” is happening right now in the city of Huntington in West Virginia, but it really started back in the schools of Greenwich in London, England. A new study found that offering healthier school lunch choices had an added benefit of raising the test scores of students in Greenwich.

Before 2004, Greenwich schools fed students pre-packaged and processed food to their kids much like Huntington. Burgers, fries, fish sticks, turkey bites, and common British fare like sausage rolls were often on the menu. After Oliver’s campaign for fresh food, the schools adopted a menu to match his plan. They served lighter and healthier items like vegetarian chow mein, salads, chicken and mushroom casserole, and Mexican bean wraps.

The study was led by Oxford and Essex Universities and looked at the eighty schools in Greenwich to see if Oliver’s menu had any extra benefits such as increased academic performance. Nearby schools that didn’t have similar menus were used as a control group.

Researchers targeted eleven year old kids between 2002 and 2007 that were taking their age mandated SATs, an educational assessment test based on stages of development. They skipped the school year of 2004-2005 when Oliver’s new program started in Greenwich.

Eleven year old pupils are supposed to be at a benchmark commonly known as level four. According to the study, Greenwich students that made the mark in English rose 4.5%. They even saw an increase in students outperforming their peers by a 6% jump in children reaching level 5 in science. “Authorized absences” or days that students were out sick was cut by 15%. Oliver noted, “we could see the benefits to children's health and teachers. We could see that asthmatic kids weren't having to use the school inhalers so often, for example.”

These aren’t huge numbers by any means but they are still improvements over a two year period. The study noted that these are positive signs because, “One could have expected that changing diet habits is a long and difficult process, which would possibly only have effects after a long time.”

It’s not surprising that children are performing better academically by eating a proper meal like vegetarian chow mein instead of packaged fish sticks loaded with additives and sodium. Maybe adults in the workplace should get onboard with Oliver’s “Food Revolution” and take a look at their very own lunch habits.