The present paper explores the relative importance of liking and taste preferences as correlates of fruit and vegetable (FV) intakes among schoolchildren in Europe. The paper first provides an overview of potential determinants of food choice among children and subsequently summarizes the results of two recent observational studies on determinants of FV intakes among school-aged children. It is proposed that taste preferences and liking are important for children's food choices as part of a broader spectrum of nutrition behaviour determinants. Taste preferences and liking are important for motivation to eat certain foods, but social-cultural and physical environmental factors that determine availability and accessibility of foods, as well as nutrition knowledge and abilities should also be considered.Study 1 shows that children with a positive liking for FV have a greater likelihood to eat fruits (odds ratio (OR) ¼ 1·97) or vegetables (OR ¼ 1·60) every day, while ability and opportunity related factors such as knowledge, self-efficacy, parental influences and accessibility of FV were also associated with likelihood of daily intakes (ORs between 1·16 and 2·75). These results were consistent across different countries in Europe. Study 2 shows that taste prerences were the stongest mediator of gender differences in FV intakes among children; the fact that girls eat more could for a large extend be explained by there stronger taste preferences. Fruit and vegetables: Taste preferences: Determinants of food choiceDiet and nutrition clearly play a critical role during childhood and adolescent development. First of all, children and adolescents need to cover not only their nutrient and energy needs for maintenance metabolism and physical activities, but also for growth (1) . Furthermore, eating habits may be less established in childhood and adolescence, and may therefore be better modifiable (2) , and food preferences and habits adopted in childhood and adolescence may track to a certain extend into adulthood (3 -5) .Nutritional habits are not in line with recommendations among children and adolescents. Many young people eat not enough fruits and vegetables, too much saturated fat, and more energy than they need (6) . In order to promote more healthful eating, we need to know why children and adolescents eat what they eat (7,8) .What, when and how much children eat is influenced by a complex, interrelated set of so-called behavioural 'determinants' and successful dietary behaviour change interventions are dependent on the identification of the most important and best changeable determinants, because intervention strategies, methods and materials need to be selected or developed that are tailored to the target populations and to the most important and best modifiable determinants of behaviour change.In this paper we will first give a brief overview of different important categories of determinants of food choice and dietary intake among children and adolescents. Secondly, we will present and discuss the results of two ...

No abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the long-term effects of the Schoolgruiten Project, a Dutch primary school-based intervention providing free fruit and vegetables (F&V). In addition, we assessed whether children's appreciation of the project mediated these intervention effects. Design and methods: Participating schoolchildren (mean age 9?9 years at baseline) and their parents completed parallel questionnaires at baseline, at 1-year and at 2-year follow-up, including questions on usual F&V intake of the child, potential behavioural determinants, their appreciation of the project and general demographics. Primary outcomes were usual F&V intakes as assessed by parent and child self-reported food frequency measures. Secondary outcome measures were taste preference, knowledge of daily recommendations, availability and accessibility for fruit intake. Multilevel linear regression analyses were used to assess differences at second follow-up adjusted for baseline values between control and intervention groups. Subjects: Reports were available for 346 intervention children (148 parents) and 425 control children (287 parents). Results: Both child and parent reports indicated that the intervention group had a significantly higher fruit intake at 2-year follow-up (difference, servings/d: 0?15; 95 % CI 0?004, 0?286 for child reports; 0?19; 95 % CI 0?030, 0?340 for parent reports). No significant effects on vegetable intake were observed. Significant positive intervention effects were also found for knowledge of fruit recommendations among boys. Some evidence was found for partial mediation analyses of the effects on fruit intake. Conclusion: The present study indicates that the Schoolgruiten scheme was effective in increasing children's fruit intake and that appreciation of the project partially mediated this effect.

The agreement between parent and child reports is weak to moderate and may depend on the age of the child. Fourth graders may overestimate their own intake of fruit and vegetables.

No abstract