Practical School Nutrition Program May Reduce Food Neophobia

Abstract

The study’s purpose was to evaluate an intervention to reduce fruit and vegetable food neophobia and influence attitudes and behaviors among children using a four-month, non-experimental, before-and-after intervention. Participants were children aged 5–11 years in an intervention school (IS) and a control school (CS). Children were offered fruit or vegetable samples weekly utilizing school-specific psychosocial and educational practices to encourage participation. The outcomes of interest included attitudes measured using a written survey-based food neophobia scale (FNS), behavioral observations, and an oral survey. The post-intervention IS FNS score was significantly lower compared to pre-intervention (p = 0.04). Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a statistically significant overall effect of time (p = 0.006). School type-time interaction was not significant (p = 0.57). Pre-intervention observational data showed the proportions finishing and taking another fruit and vegetable sample were higher in the CS (p < 0.001 for both). Post-intervention, the proportions taking the vegetable (p = 0.007) and the fruit (p < 0.001) were higher in the IS. The percentage tasting the vegetable was higher in the CS (p = 0.009). Offering samples of produce in school lunchrooms may reduce food neophobia. This intervention is an inexpensive program that volunteers can quickly implement.

Effect of multimedia interventions on children’s fruit and vegetable consumption in a real-life setting

“…Results indicate that multimedia featuring F&V positively affected children's consumption of fruit during lunchtime while it did not change their vegetable consumption. The observed pattern of results is consistent with other studies showing that multimedia usage affects fruit but not vegetable consumption (Blanchette and Brug, 2005; Labyak et al , 2021; Laureati et al , 2014). One reason for this different consumption effect might be that fruit is generally sweeter or tend to have sweeter notes, while vegetables have bitter notes.…”

A PRECEDE‐PROCEED model‐based educational intervention to promote healthy eating habits in middle school girls

“…These results suggested that quality of life of participants in both groups was analogously poor and hence, PRECEDE phase three and four needed to be applied for further planning of intervention (i.e., NEP). Similar studies were conducted previously on adult community with different heath issues needed education intervention (Franceschi et al, 2021;Labyak et al, 2021) reinforcing factors. For the students, the predisposing factor was knowledge and food intake.…”