The standard school lunch for an American child often contains dishes brimming with preservatives and sodium. While some schools have completely overhauled their school menus to contain fresh vegetables and grains, others still struggle with meeting nutritional guidelines. But for students in France, it appears that school lunches are the least of their concerns.

Rebecca Plantier moved to a town near Annecy, France to research why French children aren’t as overweight as many American children are. The local city council offered Plantier a tour of her children’s cafeteria, orcantine as it’s known in France, and Plantier discovered early on that if America and France had a school lunch food fight, France would be the overwhelming victor.

In France, lunch menus are prepared two months in advance and sent away to a nutritionist who gives the menu final approval. The nutritionist can make adjustments to the meal, such as suggesting a dessert be swapped for fruit if ‘she thinks there’s too much sugar that week,” writes Plantier. Not only that, but lunches are prepared on site. There are no ‘ready made frozen” meals to speak […]