Fourth-Grade Children's Consumption of Fruit and Vegetable Items Available as Part of School Lunches Is Closely Related to Preferences

Abstract

Objective To use data from observations and interviews to document fourth-graders' preferences for, and consumption of, fruits compared to vegetables available as part of school lunches. Design Observations and interviews were conducted for studies regarding the impact of time interval between eating and reporting on the accuracy of children's school lunch recalls. Subjects Children were recruited from up to 4 schools in one district during 3 school years; 63% agreed to participate. Randomly selected children (n = 237) were each observed eating school lunch once and were interviewed (regarding items eaten and preferences for items eaten) within 1½ hours or the next morning. Main Outcome Measures Observed consumption of servings of items available as part of school lunch was recorded as none, taste, little bit, half, most, and all. Response options for preferences for items available as part of school lunch were liked not at all, a little, and a lot. Statistical Analyses Performed Mixed-model analysis of variance. Results Preferences were higher for fruits than vegetables. As preferences increased, consumption increased ( P < .0001). Consumption of fruits compared to vegetables was similar after adjusting for preferences. Implications Research is needed to understand how to increase children's preferences for vegetables as a means of increasing consumption.