STUDY: Cafeteria lunch healthier for students than home-packed meals

SAN FRANCISCO -- A brand new study suggests that cafeteria lunches for children are actually better than lunches prepared at home.

The study finds on the whole that home lunches just don't measure up in nutrition, compared to cafeteria lunch.

Researchers found, as a whole, packed lunches have more calories, fat and sugar than school lunches.

In addition, meals brought from home generally had less protein, fiber and calcium.

This study examined the nutritional quality of packed lunches compared with school lunches for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children after the implementation of 2012-2013 National School Lunch Program standards.

The full study is published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.