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ARS Home » Plains Area » Houston, Texas » Children's Nutrition Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #214457
Title: Achieving fruit, juice, and vegetable recipe preparation goals influences consumption by 4th grade students

Author
item Cullen, Karen
item Watson, Kathleen
item Zakeri, Issa
item Baranowski, Thomas
item Baranowski, Janice

Submitted to: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/29/2007
Publication Date: 6/29/2007
Citation: Cullen, K.W., Watson, K.B., Zakeri, I., Baranowski, T., Baranowski, J.H. 2007. Achieving fruit, juice, and vegetable recipe preparation goals influences consumption by 4th grade students. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 4:28.

Interpretive Summary: Having children help prepare foods has been recommended as a way to encourage children’s consumption, but has not been evaluated. This study examined whether setting goals to prepare fruit-juice or vegetable recipes influenced the fruit and vegetable consumption of 4th grade children. Students selected a fruit-juice or vegetable recipe to prepare and parents reported if their child achieved their goal. Consumption at the beginning and end of the study was assessed. In general, girls and Hispanic students achieved the most recipe preparation goals. Fruit and juice consumption at the end of the study was higher by about 1.0 serving for students who ate the most servings of fruit-juice at the beginning of the study and who completed 2 or 3 fruit-juice recipe preparation goals. Vegetable consumption at the end of the study was highest for students who had the highest vegetable consumption at the beginning of the study and who completed 2 or 3 vegetable recipe preparation goals. This is one of the first reports showing that home recipe preparation may be a helpful way to encourage better diets among children.

Technical Abstract: Including children in food preparation activities has long been recommended as a method to encourage children's consumption, but has not been evaluated. Goal setting is also a common component of behavior change programs. This study assessed the impact of attaining goals to prepare fruit-juice or vegetable recipes on student fruit and vegetable consumption as part of a 10-week fruit and vegetable intervention for fourth grade students. At six of the 10 sessions, students (n = 671) selected a fruit-juice or vegetable recipe to prepare at home before the next session. Students returned parent-signed notes reporting their child's goal attainment. Baseline and post consumption were assessed with up to four days of dietary recalls. Analyses included regression models predicting post consumption from the number of fruit-juice or vegetable recipe preparation goals attained, controlling for baseline consumption. In general, girls and Hispanic students achieved the most recipe preparation goals. For students with highest baseline fruit-juice consumption, post fruit-juice consumption was higher by about 1.0 serving for those achieving 2 or 3 fruit-juice recipe preparation goals. Post vegetable consumption was highest for students reporting the highest baseline vegetable consumption and who achieved two or three vegetable recipe preparation goals. In general, recipe goal setting was a useful procedure primarily for those with high baseline consumption. This is one of the first reports demonstrating that home recipe preparation was correlated with dietary change among children.