Chef Helps Kids Love Their Fruits And Veggies At School

Just so turns out, when you add a chef to a school cafeteria, you might get some students to actually eat their fruits and veggies.

New research conducted by officials at Harvard University found that school-based interventions like these are extremely successful in getting kids to want to eat healthy goodies during lunch times. As it stands, over 30 million students are depending on their school meals to get food for up to half of their daily calories.

"The results highlight the importance of focusing on the palatability of school meals. Partnerships with chefs can lead to substantial improvements in the quality of school meals and can be an economically feasible option for schools," said lead author Juliana Cohen, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan, in a news release. "Additionally, this study shows that schools should not abandon healthier foods if they are initially met with resistance by students."

For the study, researchers conducted a randomized trial to look at the effects of both short- and long-term exposure to meals made by a chef that were also put in attractive containers, with vegetables and white milk in the lunch line was also placed in front of sugar-sweetened chocolate milk.

Researchers collected and analyzed data from 14 elementary and middle schools in two urban low-income schools to find that from 2,639 students via grades three through eight, little modifications like these helped make a change throughout a seven-month period as part of a smart cafe intervention when applied daily for four months.

At first, students didn't seem to feel too differently regarding the selection. At three months, fruits and vegetables, regardless of their presentation or in what recipe, were just not that appealing to these youngsters. However, by seven months, more students were selecting fruit when compared to those in other schools without the help of the chefs' selection.

Furthermore, the percentage of vegetables consumed increased by 30.8 percent in chef schools and 24.5 percent in chef plus smart cafe schools when compared to control environments.

However, little to no changes were seen in the selection or consumption of white or sugar-sweetened chocolate milk in the smart cafe schools.

"Efforts to improve the taste of school foods through chef-enhanced meals should remain a priority because this was the only method that increased consumption. This was observed only after students were repeatedly exposed to the new foods for seven months. Therefore, schools should not abandon healthier options if they are initially met with resistance," the study concluded.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via JAMA.