by A new study published in Nutrients shows how potatoes can play a beneficial role in encouraging school-age children to eat more vegetables. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans currently recommend that children 3-18 eat between 2.5-3 cups of vegetables per day to meet their total vegetable goals. However, the average school-age child only eats about 1 cup a day. “That’s why we wanted to learn more about how school meal offers could influence children’s eating behavior and perhaps encourage them to eat more vegetables,” explains the lead investigator. Gene Ahlborn, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Science, Brigham Young University. .
The study found that children ate more whole vegetables when peas and carrots were used in combination with potato-shaped smiley faces, suggesting that more whole vegetable consumption can be ones by adding child-friendly forms of potato to other vegetables. Potato shaped faces in the shape of happy faces is a potato product, made with mashed potatoes and sunflower oil to create a slightly crunchy exterior and a soft interior.
“Getting kids to eat their vegetables is always a challenge,” says Ahlborn. “Not only do potatoes directly add nutrients, such as potassium, to the plate, but they can help encourage children to explore other vegetables served and thereby help them get closer to meeting their nutritional needs whole.”
Through controlled mealtime observation, the research team assessed the impact of different presentation and preparation styles of potatoes on the amount of vegetables eaten by school-age children in a cafeteria setting. Although seasoned potatoes were not as attractive to the participants 7-13 years old, and the faces shaped potatoes served separately the peas and carrots did not stimulate more total vegetable consumption, and meals in which potato-shaped faces were served with the peas and carrots in the same bowl resulted in a measurable increase in total vegetable consumption.
Ahlborn and his colleagues also found that serving potato-shaped faces in a cafeteria setting reduced vegetable plate waste compared to the control meal. “This highlights the widespread impact of school menus. We need vegetables on school lunch trays to encourage children’s bodies – not fill the bin,” says Ahlborn.
Taken together, these results suggest that serving child-friendly potato preparations with other vegetables may have cumulative benefits not only for students’ dietary patterns, but for food waste reduction efforts the school cafeteria.
These results are in line with other research findings showing that teenagers who eat potatoes are more likely to have higher diet quality, nutrient intake and adequacy; therefore, encouraging potato consumption could be a sound strategy to improve nutritional status.1
Study Details
Design Studies
Dr. Ahlborn studied children’s feeding behavior and consumption patterns during a series of mealtimes that occurred within a simulated controlled environment designed to mimic a school cafeteria. During each session, the children were given a basic meal consisting of 2% milk, chicken nuggets, ketchup and applesauce, along with the experimental meal component (which featured different presentations and preparations of mixed peas and carrots). Researchers weighed the food before and after a meal to estimate plate waste and also analyzed total vegetable consumption.
The experimental meal component came in five varieties of mixed peas and carrots (MPACs), including:
- MPACs and whole wheat bread roll served separately (control condition)
- MPACs and potato shaped faces are served in separate bowls
- MPACs and diced seasoned potatoes are served in separate bowls
- Serve MPACs and seasoned diced potatoes in the same bowl
- Serve MPACs and potato shaped faces in the same bowl
Results
These small changes in presentation and preparation style had a measurable impact on participants’ vegetable consumption and were reflected in the study results; when there were potatoes on trays, the children ate more peas and carrots than when they were served alongside a separate bread roll.
Participants ate the most vegetables and calories when peas/carrots and potato wedges were served in the same bowl (452 calories in total, and 8.77g more vegetables than when peas and carrots were combined with russet potatoes in the same bowl). This was a small difference compared to the control meal, with only 21 extra calories and 5 extra grams of fat (all of which were unsaturated).
Strengths and Limitations
Strengths of the study included removing parents from the immediate study environment to minimize potential bias during mealtime consumption, and measuring food intake and plate waste in real time, compared to less accurate dietary recall methods. Although researchers took steps to create a controlled environment that would mimic a school cafeteria, the experiment was conducted in a food lab that did not take into account meal length, lunch time before or after a break, nutrition education, or other behavioral factors. eating mealtimes. at school.
Full details can be found in the published article, “Effect of potato presentation on vegetable intake in school-age children” in Nutrients (https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15214496). Funding was provided by the Alliance for Potato Research & Education; the funders had no role in the design, data collection, analysis or interpretation of this research.
References
- Agarwal S, Fulgoni VL. Potato Intake Is Associated with Higher Diet Quality, and Improved Nutrient Intake and Adequacy among US Adolescents: NHANES Analysis 2001–2018. Nutrients 2021, Volume 13, Page 2614. 2021;13(8):2614. doi:10.3390/NU13082614
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