Promoting fruit and vegetable consumption among school children through nutrition intervention programme.

Abstract

The over arching goals of this study was to promote the fruit and vegetable consumption among school children through nutrition intervention programme. Recent literature shows that the consumption of fruits and vegetables among school children are inadequate and the trend of junk food eating habit is increasing alarmingly. A wealth of anecdotal evidence reveals that nutrition intervention programmes with gardening effect multiple domains in the lives of the subjects. The objective of the present study is to promote the fruit and vegetable consumption among the school children through nutrition intervention programme. It also investigates the impact of the nutrition intervention on the knowledge, preference and consumption towards fruits and vegetables. Tools were constructed to ascertain the demographic information’s, food consumption pattern, assessment of general health status, preference towards fruits and vegetables, knowledge towards fruits and vegetables and fruits and vegetable consumption pattern. The tools were subjected to reliability and validity tests before the study. The present study was carried out in three sessions, the first session was pre test, done, before the intervention, the second session was during the intervention and third session was the post test after the intervention. All the subjects in the present study were reported to be habitual non vegetarians. Data shows that even low cost and locally available leafy vegetable like amaranth, drumstick leave and cabbage were not consumed daily by the majority of the subjects. Consumption of roots and tubers, as well as other vegetables were also reported to be less by majority of the subjects. Frequency of fruit consumption of the subjects was also found to be low. Banana was the only fruit that was daily consumed by the subjects. . The results of the present study reveals that subjects showed preference to food rich in sugar and fat compared to that of fruits and vegetables. Majority of the subjects did not show high preference towards leafy vegetables, other vegetables as well as roots and tubers. The nutrition intervention was designed including nutrition education using multimedia tools, gardening, providing hands on activities through the actual growing and harvesting of fruits and vegetables followed by nutrition games. The frequency use of fruits and vegetables of the subjects who participated in the nutrition intervention programme significantly increased. The intervention programme had significant effect on the gain in knowledge as well as change in preference score for fruits and vegetables of the subjects who participated in the nutrition intervention. Positive associations of participation index of the subjects with knowledge score are also found. Hence it can be concluded that nutrition intervention with nutrition education, gardening and games can promote the fruit and vegetable consumption, preference and knowledge of the pre adolescent.