Napoleon Bona­parte famously said that “an army marches on its stom­ach.” That’s prob­a­bly true, which is why war has become such an expen­sive busi­ness. It’s not just the state-​​of-​​the-​​art weaponry that costs so much…it’s pro­vi­sion­ing the troops to keep them in top fight­ing shape. And if nour­ish­ing food is needed to keep fight­ing men and women in the best pos­si­ble shape, think how vital proper nour­ish­ment is to the devel­op­ing minds and bod­ies of chil­dren, and their abil­ity to learn and retain information.

With that in mind, take a look at these school lunches from around the world. Exam­ine care­fully the vit­a­min and fiber com­po­nents of the var­i­ous meals, bal­anced by their fat, sodium and car­bo­hy­drate con­tent, and then stop to think which chil­dren are most likely, after eat­ing lunch at school, to be at their sharpest both men­tally and phys­i­cally. When you look at it that way, it’s easy to see why Asian stu­dents are blow­ing ours out of the water, aca­d­e­m­i­cally speaking.

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