trong>Narrator : This is Science Today. Getting kids to cut back on junk food may be just be a matter of changing their options during lunchtime in school. University of California , San Diego pediatrician Howard Taras says that keeping only healthy snacks in school is good for health and will bring in the same amount of money.

Taras : Kids will eat oranges if that's all that's available. Rather than having coke. If there's both available, they'll chose coke. So I think that we can actually do just as well. We just have to change the environment. We actually can make the same amount of money or close to it by selling healthier things.

Narrator: According to Taras , keeping kids healthy is one of the most important steps in helping them do better in school.

Taras : If you go ask any school nurse or good school principal and you say to them, "Why do you have a school nurse, why do you, why are you involved with health?" They'll tell you, “Oh healthy children learn better.”

Narrator : Taras recently led a review of past studies looking into how health affects a child's performance in school. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.