• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.1132-1141
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• 1996

To provide approprate nutrition informatios and guidelines for the healthy school lunch program(SLP) menus, the nutritional quality of the SLP and the nutrients that affect the food cost of SLP were evaluated after analysis of recipes and food price lists of 776 menus collected from 10 elementary SLP schools in Seoul and Kyunggi province in Korea in the year of 1995. Index of nutritional quality of SLP menus were good enough, showing over 1.0 in all nutrients except vitamin A(0.86) in kyunggi province. The percent of calories from carbohydrates, protein and fat was 52%, 16% and 32%, while the polyunsaturated fatty acid/monousaturate fatty acid/saturated fatty acid(P/M/S) ratio was 1.0/0.95/1.15. On the other hand, the nutrient-cost evaluation showed that the most expersive nutrient for the RDA(Recommended Dietary Allowance) standard of SLP was origined from the cost of energy and vitamin A. In Pertary correlation analyses, the cost of SLP meals was positively asociated with energy(r=0.244, p<0.001), protein(r=0.306, p<0.001) and carbohydrate(r=0.159, p<0.001) in diet, while the most important predictor of the cost of SLP meal provides sufficient nutrients with enough calories, but fat level is somewhat higher than the suggested value from Dietary Guidelines for Koreans. These data also suggest that meals which could offer enough vitamin A might be included in SLP menus and the cost of a SLP meal can be reduced when choosing the cheap protein source food.