Want kids to learn well? Feed them well | Sam Kass

What can we expect our kids to learn if they're hungry or eating diets full of sugar and empty of nutrients? Former White House Chef and food policymaker Sam Kass discusses the role schools can play in nourishing students' bodies in addition to their minds.

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[Msfinable]

I've been reading these comments and they amaze me.. in a very negative way.

Okay so I'm from Finland. As you might know, according to PISA (and probably some other researches as well) Finnish kids do very well in their education, on a global level. Of course there are many factors involved in this, but one definitely is food. We have free school lunches and cheap snack hours (snacks are fruit, toasts, fresh juices, yoghurt etc.) from the age of seven 'till sixteen. And free lunch for the next three years of upper secondary education. And everyone eats! The food they serve is healthy and, for the little money used, quite okay tasting as well. Fresh vegetables and salads with warm dishes, nothing deep fried.

Of course there isn't a thing called 'free lunch', it's all paid by the tax payers, but the greatest thing, in my opinion, is that every. single. kid. in this country gets free lunches at school, no matter what their parents earn, and that that food is healthy, energizing and improves our ability to learn.

[TheCaribSpice]

It makes perfect sense. I am a teacher (high-school chemistry) and I am never my best if I do not eat well on mornings I teach. I do not expect this to differ with my students. Thus the reason I do not give detentions or deprive my students from breaks and lunch. As a matter of fact I keep snacks in my classroom year round. The snacks are for my kids.

[TimmacTR]

Which is why homeschooling and mother taking care of the children could literally save our civilization and liberate everyone..

[Xxpr]

Sugar tax and reduced tax on vegetables/meats. It would solve a lot of problems. Sugar is more addictive than cocaine and it's ridiculous that it has become the social norm when it has only really been in our diets for the last 100years. It's a treat item, yet companies keep banging it into "health foods" because it's a cheap ingredient, increase the tax on sugar and they may think twice about adding it to their products.

[PlantBasedPrimary]

We need to have a real conversation about the QUALITY of school meals. Often, the “food” we are feeding them is hazardous to their health. My school district regularly serves corn dogs, chicken nuggets, and chocolate milk. These products have been correlated with higher cancer, diabetes, and heart disease rates. 🏥

[Anguss]

Unfortunately, this also probably correlates to good parenting... Taking a starving child and giving him/her food is a good thing, but a good parent wouldn't let that happen. Your comparing statistics from good parenting to bad parenting and blaming the outcome on a correlating statistic of nutrition. This is just one factor among many... Wish it was that easy.

[dahalofreeek]

In my country despite 20 something percent of kids growing up in poverty the government, and depressingly public opinion is opposed to providing kids food in schools. My thing is that we are willing to spend quite a lot educating a child but when children are hungry they can't learn. All that effort and money goes to waste. Kids don't have an equal opportunity to get educated and I think food is one of the root causes of intergenerational poverty and the apparent inability of the majority of those who grow up in poverty to be elevated.

On top of that, we are getting more and more obese all the time. School would be the perfect opportunity to teach kids some good nutrition and cooking skills. It might get a lot of them interested in biochemistry and science in general as well. Levelling the playing field for education, I think is all that a society needs for equality once prejudice is conquered. Workplace quotas are bad but if every single kid finishes school in a similar position we will have a much fairer society with a more skilled workforce.

[kds]

Perhaps if the SNAP benefits weren't so damned stingy they might not go hungry. We need to enhance the SNAP program.

[CoacolaPVP]

Hey, we dont even have breakfast or lunch here. We have to buy stuff from the little shop thingy (most of the time dried even expired milk does make it through) . Talking from Cyprus

[goldentrout]

This is excellent! He presented it well.

[itspricila]

agree the more nutritious and good meals kids receive the better they will do.

[baderalrashed]

This is the type of content I love TED for

[amirpalamar]

I eat worse than most people around me yet I always get honor role and I don't study, nutrition isn't really all that important towards being intelligent. I also skip breakfast on school days and function perfectly fine. Yes it's important for kids who don't have meals at home to eat well at school but if kids have a meal in general at home then nutrition isn't going to solve their intellectual problems, learning how they mentally work is the answer. This video in general is talking about hungry kids for the most part though so I still agree with the point somewhat.

[KnowArt]

Someone wanna do some research on extreme vegan diets for kids? I could imagine that these don't have good impact either.

[DrinkmoWater.]

Water is the most natural component ..drink it. I respect veggies more often now the more I grow

[ivanandreevich]

Just educate their parents IMO. In the US, you could get decent nutrition values for a few dollars per day. A minimum wage worker working for half an hour could make enough to get that.

[yennhu]

Well, I think that parents should teach and help their children to have healthy diets. My parents just keep on yelling at me whenever they find out that I skiped any of my meals. Since then, I treat my stomach better.

[zappy]

Its staggering to know that in a so called 1st world country, there are children that are starving...

BTW the comments section is really bad...consider disabling.

[EveryoneBreaks]

Maslow's hierarchy of needs
There's a PBS documentary about hungry kids in America, kids who live below the poverty line and its really eye opening to the struggles that some families face, worth a watch!

[Eyeslayer]

Amazing speech but it will never work in America not untile they make some very hefty changes to the industry. first, put a cost cap not increase wages but a cap on how much the food, medical and goods can cost then you can begin fixing the damage industry has done.