Sustained Effects of an Intervention to Improve Willingness to Try New Foods on Preschoolers' Liking Ratings of a Target Vegetable

Abstract

BackgroundFood neophobia, or the tendency to avoid or reject unknown foods, reaches a peak during early childhood and is associated with poor dietary outcomes, such as lower consumption and liking of vegetables. Children's positive hedonic ratings for vegetables are associated with greater vegetable consumption. Thus, in order to increase young children's consumption of vegetables, a necessary first step may be to increase children's liking for vegetables. The Colorado LEAP study aimed to improve food acceptance patterns in preschoolers via repeated exposure to new foods.ObjectiveTo examine the effect of The Food Friends (FF), a 12‐week program designed to increase preschoolers' willingness to try new foods, on children's liking for jicama, the target vegetable repeatedly offered during the program and promoted to children through various activities led by Jose Jicama.MethodsPreschool children and their families were recruited from four Head Start programs in rural Colorado. At baseline during the fall of preschool (T1), children completed a preference assessment in which jicama and 8 other foods were rated for liking. After tasting each food, children were asked to place the food into one of 3 categories depicted with a corresponding face: yummy, just ok, or yucky. The FF intervention was subsequently delivered to children in the intervention group. Post‐intervention liking assessments were repeated in the spring of preschool (T2), kindergarten (T3), and first grade (T4) for all children. To assess liking for the target food, the ratings were collapsed into a dichotomous variable (“yummy” vs. other ratings) at each assessment. To examine intervention effects on jicama liking ratings (“yummy”) across intervention and control groups, over time, a logistic mixed model was conducted, assuming an unstructured covariance structure and categorical time.ResultsThere was a significant interaction effect between study group and time on liking ratings (F(7, 230) = 5.16, p < .0001). Children in the intervention group had significantly higher odds of rating the jicama as “yummy” (OR= 2.22, 95% CI: 1.28–3.83) at post‐intervention (T2) compared to baseline (T1) and at 2‐years post‐intervention (T4) (OR=2.66, 95% CI:1.51–4.68), indicating sustained effects of the intervention on liking ratings over time. Conversely, for children in the control group, the odds of rating the jicama as “yummy” did not significantly increase at T2, T3, or T4 compared to baseline.ConclusionsThe study replicates previous positive outcomes for the impact of FF intervention on children's liking of a target vegetable through repeated exposure during a preschool‐based curriculum. In addition, longitudinal findings from the LEAP study indicate a sustained effect on children's acceptance of the target food up to 2 years later. Through repeated and fun experiences with novel foods, children can learn to like them and this has the potential to positively influence later dietary consumption.Support or Funding InformationSupported by the USDA NIFA AFRI grant 2010‐85215‐20648