Food served during school lunch should now follow the NSNP but the frequency with which options are available varies according to the capacity and interest of the school to manage a lunch program. Notably, the SAHA HDAC clinical trial results of this study found that students were more likely to bring a lunch prepared from home and less likely to buy lunch at school following the implementation of the NSNP. The decrease in school lunch participation is an important area of investigation considering unintended negative consequences following nutrition policy implementation

that have been reported in other studies. For example, Cullen et al. (2006) reported that students might compensate for lack of access to ‘banned’ foods by buying other processed foods. Although unfounded in research (Wharton et al., 2008), schools often report difficult obstacles in creating healthier food options such as the fear that profits will be negatively

influenced. Free fruit and vegetable programs (Bere et al., 2007 and Coyle et al., 2009) and price reductions in healthy food options (Blum et al., 2008, Gonzalez et al., 2009, Johnson et al., 2009 and Jones et al., 2010) are school strategies that have also demonstrated improvements selleck inhibitor in children’s diet quality and provide an opportunity to support families and strengthen school policies related to nutrition. National surveys have suggested a leveling of childhood overweight and obesity rates. The 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey and the 2009–2011 Canadian Health Measures Survey suggest that rates of overweight (excluding obese) among children decreased from 18.1% in 2004 to 16.2% in 2010 whereas obesity remained the same at 8.2% in 2004 and 8.1% in 2010 (Shields, 2006b and Statistics Canada, 2012). Compared to the leveling of national results, this study reported no change in overweight (23.1% to 22.6%) but a slight increase in obesity (9.8% to 10.9%) along a similar time period. It is important to note mafosfamide that lifestyle and poor health are particular challenges to residents of NS (Government

of Nova Scotia, 2012); our results suggest that the current conditions that make it difficult for children to acquire nutritious foods and recommended levels of physical activity might have an influence on prevalence rates over time and these factors extend beyond the school gates. Although several studies have reported an impact of nutrition policy on body weight (Foster et al., 2008, Kubik et al., 2005 and Sanchez-Vaznaugh et al., 2010), the current study did not find similar effects. It is possible that the NSNP led to some potential positive effects on nutrition, including a reduction in percentage of energy from saturated fat and a decrease in SSB consumption. However, there was evidence of a negative trend in micronutrient and dietary fiber consumption.