LEBANON - Nearly one in four students in Lebanon's public schools is overweight or obese, while more than half do not meet global dietary recommendations.
These findings, from the first national assessment of nutrition and food environments in public schools, highlight a challenge that goes beyond individual eating habits: the economic and environmental conditions shaping what children can access and afford.
Conducted by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education with the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF, the assessment reveals a striking difference between students attending morning and afternoon shifts.
Two Shifts, Two Realities
Lebanon's public schools operate on two shifts. Lebanese students typically attend in the morning, from 8am until midday, while the afternoon shift, from 1 pm to 5 pm, mainly serves non-Lebanese students and extends up to Grade 9.
Afternoon-shift families face greater economic hardship. 78% depend on unstable informal work, compared with 48% of morning-shift families.
Their households are also larger, with an average of 4.3 children against 3.2. Caregiver illiteracy is higher (9% compared with 3%), as are absenteeism rates (38% against 25%). One in five afternoon-shift students attend school without a snack or money to buy one.
The Numbers Tell a More Complex Story
Despite these disadvantages, afternoon-shift students report lower rates of overweight and obesity. 14% are overweight and 9% obese, compared with 20% and 11% respectively , among the morning shift. They drink fewer soft drinks (9% against 20%) and eat half as many sweets (23% against 47%). And 55% meet at least half of global dietary recommendations, compared with 37% of their morning-shift peers.
Why is This the Case?
Not healthier choices, in fact, fewer options. Daily allowances are small and unequal: roughly $0.80 for morning-shift students and $0.33 for those in the afternoon. Among students who received one, half of morning-shift students reported eating sweets, against 27% in the afternoon.
What a school kiosk sells explains the rest. The most common purchases are chocolate and sweets (36%), juice (33%), croissants (26%) and chips (25%). Nuts were bought by just over 1% of students, and carrots by a mere 0.1%.
What Influences Students' Eating Habits
Beyond money, taste dominates. Over 60% of students said taste guided their decisions, and 94% said they liked foods primarily because of taste. Availability at home or school came second at 17%, followed by health or nutritional benefits at 12%. Students ranked the influence of advertising, peers and family below 2%.
How Marketing Shapes Dietary Decisions
That self-assessment sits awkwardly beside what surveyors observed. Schools reported no advertising on their own grounds, yet in Beirut every surveyed school had a junk-food billboard visible from its entrance, and in Mount Lebanon three in four had soda advertising near the gates. Just over half of students report exposure through social media, rising to 68% among Grades 10–12. More than 95% of parents support banning the marketing and sale of unhealthy food in schools.
What Students Know About Food
Nutrition knowledge averages 59 out of 100 and it improves with age even as diet quality falls. Among Grades 3–6, only 28% could identify calcium-rich foods and 34% a protein source. Among Grades 7–9, 80% wrongly named fruit as a source of protein, and only 6% knew how much fruit and vegetables they should eat each day. Children's scores tracked their caregivers' education, making knowledge itself a product of household circumstances.
Conclusion
Lebanon's school obesity figures are not a measure of indulgence. They track what children can reach: a dollar of pocket money, a kiosk stocked with sugar, a billboard at the school gate, and nutrition lessons that arrive late and unevenly. Read through a socioeconomic lens, they point policymakers in the wrong direction.The report's own recommendations enforcing kiosk rules, restricting marketing around schools and expanding school meals treat the environment rather than the child.
