Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 23, 1994                   TAG: 9401210101
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-13   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

MANY HOMES SET NO EXAMPLE FOR HEALTHY EATING

"That model has sure gone out the window," Forrest Thye says.

Food scientists, such as Thye, a Virginia Tech professor of nutrition, invite those skeptical about the impact of the fast-food generation to attend any school lunchroom.

There, they say, you'll see children consistently put the wrong food in their mouths and the right food in the waste can.

Thye and a team of researchers don't want these misguided young appetites to grow up as unhealthy adults.

With a $52,580 state grant, they're studying students' tastes for school meals - why they either accept or turn up their noses at what may be their best meal of the day.

"A lot of things impinge on whether or not a child eats healthy - lifestyle, family, media. Maybe they've never seen broccoli," Thye said.

By meeting with elementary, middle and high school students across Virginia over the next few months, Thye's project seeks information that will improve participation in school breakfast and lunch programs.

There's widespread recognition that children need to eat healthier and that local school systems are struggling financially to satisfy their student customers, Thye said.

"It's an effort on the part of the state to help," he said. "They've got a heck of a problem to deal with."

Preliminary findings show no single reason why students are attracted or repelled by school food.

Economic factors, peer pressure, food quality and time constraints all play a role, said Anne Alexander, a research associate.

School lunches, like other institutional meals, also bear a negative stigma - regardless of how well the food is prepared, she said.

"Some students may say if it's a school lunch, it has to be bad."

Yet school years are the best opportunity to instill healthy appetites and eating habits, Alexander said.

Youthful eating disorders such as obesity or anorexia and long-term effects such as heart disease or cancer can be mitigated by actively teaching good nutrition, she said.

Yet Alexander attended a December public hearing in Washington to tell congressional leaders and Department of Agriculture representatives that classroom nutritional education is underemphasized.

"We need a grass-roots effort, with parents, students and teachers involved. It's going to take a long time and a lot of effort to make these changes," she said.