Effectiveness of the food experience program on promoting vegetable and fruit consumption among kindergarten children

Abstract

Vegetables and fruits are emphasized as important foods for health or as protective food but vegetable and fruit consumption is lower than what health officers recommend. Additionally, positive behaviors are more easily set and negative habits prevented during childhood than adulthood. The preschool child is at the beginning age to form definite responses to various types of food. Thus, childhood represents an ideal time to intervene to improve dietary behaviors and encourage positive vegetable and fruit-eating habits. The purpose of this research was to study the effectiveness of the food experience program on promoting vegetable and fruit consumption among kindergarten children. This study was the quasi-experimental research of one group. Kindergarten students studying at K1 level in Sukhothai School, Bangkok metropolitan area, were purposively selected as the subject of this study. The study was conducted from July until September, 2003. This study applied concept of the food experience along with the Social Learning Theory as guidelines for the program. The intervention consisted of 11 activities during 8 consecutive weeks. Data collection for evaluation of this study was conducted by direct lunch observation at school. The results revealed that the kindergarten children's vegetable consumption was significantly increased in all of the different kinds, in the amounts of vegetable intake, and in the scores of vegetable eating behavior (p-value < 0.05). For fruit consumption, their fruit intake was significantly increased in the amounts of fruit intake (p-value < 0.05) and in the scores of fruit eating behavior (p-value < 0.05) but the kinds of fruit intake was not significantly increased after the intervention. These results have shown that the food experience program can promote vegetable and fruit consumption behavior among kindergarten children. Therefore, it is recommended that this program should be applied and extended to other similar socio-demographic groups.