Study points way to children's five-a-day

Dr Meaghan Christian conducted the study for the Institute for Health and Wellbeing ay Leeds Beckett University (formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University) to discover whether school gardens had any effect on the pupils’ nutritional knowledge and intake.

With the average UK child eating 2.8 portions of fruit and vegetables per day, Dr Christian highlighted that children are far from reaching the recommended five portions.

The study concluded that gardening initiatives alone do not increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables. The researcher explained that ‘for school gardening to improve children’s fruit and vegetable intake… it needs to be successfully integrated into the school curriculum and environment.’

Dr Christian continued to advise that schools should incorporation nutrition education and cooking into the curriculum. This, combined with parental involvement, would help to increase children’s knowledge on the subject, which could consequently facilitate higher consumption levels.

Further suggestions were provided on how parents can become more involved with the initiative. These included making children prepare their own fruit and vegetables, having parents model the desired fruit and vegetable intake and also eating meals together as a family.

Prior research by Dr Christian has demonstrated that having family meals, even only two days per week, can boost children’s daily fruit and vegetable intake to near the recommended five a day.

The research study used two randomised controlled trials of primary school children aged between eight and eleven from eight London boroughs.

Data was collected using a modified form of the Child and Diet Evaluation Tool, with a 24 hour food diary that displayed information about the children’s dietary intake. Questionnaires were also used to measure children’s knowledge and attitudes towards fruit and vegetables.