Children Eat More Fruit and Vegetables After Food Preparation Activities

Encouraging food preparation activities and personal goal setting has been recommended as a way to increase children’s consumption of healthy food. Dr. Karen Cullen and her colleagues at the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center evaluated the impact of combining both food preparation and goal setting with 4th grade students.

Fruit and vegetable intake of 671 4th grade students were determined before, during and after participation in a 10 week computerized intervention. In six sessions, children had a chance to set a personal goal related to pre-paring a fruit and/or vegetable recipe at home. Fifteen recipes were provided. Five recipes were chosen and prepared at home by over 30% of the youth:

• Razzle Dazzle (fruit juice mix)
• Royal Slush (fruit slushy)
• Wizard’s Magic Pocket (pita pocket)
• Great Shake (fruit smoothie treat)
• Golden Knight Burrito (veggie burrito)

Analysis of the results demon-strated:

• An average increase of one serving of fruit, 100% fruit juice, or vegetable from the beginning of the study.
• Girls and Hispanic students achieved the most food preparation goals.
• Youth were more successful in achieving fruit preparation goals than vegetable preparation goals.
• Higher parental education was associated with vegetable preparation while lower parental education was association with fruit juice preparation.

Dr Cullen concludes, “Although the relationships among goal setting, recipe preparation and dietary intake may be more complex than previously thought, the increase in dietary fruit, 100% fruit juice and vegetables is encouraging.” Dr. Cullen’s article appeared in the June 2007 issue of the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. (www.ijbnpa.org/content/4/1/28).