I do believe growing up in Europe the system we had was a lot more beneficial to kids' healthy growth. Say our school day started at 8:00am, had a 20 minute "big break" for a snack from 9:40-10:00am (which was food kids brought from home, eating in the class ... 99% of the kids had some sort of a sandwich & fruit) and then the kids whose school ended around 12:00-1:00 (the youngest kids) went to lunch building right after school, where they used a prepaid ticket that got them soup (if they wanted one), main meal, drink (water or lightly sweetened mild tea), fruit and sometimes a tiny desert. The portions were just right and those "growing boys" could usually go get seconds if they wanted to but nobody was overfed or starving and since this was the end of the school day for the little ones, they could eat and socialize without rushing. And the bigger kids would have one full hour free period (between noon and 2pm depending on their schedules) when they would go eat their lunch in that same lunch building with the same lunch offered again and after their one free hour they would go back to finish with their classes. Again ... no rushing ... no frustration. Just healthy eating habits (and the main meals were basically homemade meals (on a budget) made in huge quantities by the lunch room full time cooks. The very few overweight kids I remember were those that had medical conditions. Everyone else was fine.
So, to me lunch was always about eating and socializing at once. I cannot imagine staying quiet during lunch time. It's enough having to be quiet during class! I'm still feel uneasy about the super rushed lunch time "lock down" I had to get used to when I came to the States as a Junior in high school.
