Looks like chef Jamie Oliver knew what he was talking about. The Daily Telegraph reports that Oliver's school dinners (he did a whole Food Network series on his attempts to get English lunch ladies to cook better meals for students) has had a real impact: "... an independent study showed the performance of 11-year-old pupils eating Oliver's meals improved in science and English, while absenteeism due to ill-health fell by 15 per cent."
The findings, from a report by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Essex University, focused on schools in Greenwich, southeast London, where Oliver launched his healthy eating campaign with Channel 4 in 2004.
Pupils who sat exams in 2006-7 were on the new diet for at least 12 months, and researchers found the number of pupils reaching levels four or five had risen by up to 8 per cent in science, and 6 per cent in English. There was also a slight improvement in maths results.
Oliver's menus banned processed items like "Turkey Twizzlers and introduced iron-rich foods such as red meat, pulses and green vegetables."
Meanwhile, in America we get food poisoned by Chinese crooks and salmonella in our peanut butter from US companies who sent their products to schools knowing that they might sicken people.
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