A new study published in Nutrients illustrates how potatoes can play a beneficial role in encouraging school-age children to eat more vegetables. The Dietary Guidelines for American currently recommends that children ages 3 to 18 consume between 2.5 and 3 cups of vegetables per day to meet their total vegetable goals. Yet the average school-age child only eats about 1 cup per day. “We therefore wanted to learn more about how school meal offerings can influence children’s eating behaviors and potentially encourage greater vegetable consumption,” explains lead researcher Gene Ahlborn, PhD, associate professor, Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences, Brigham Young University. .
The study found that children ate more vegetables when peas and carrots were served in combination with potato-shaped smiley faces, suggesting that combining kid-friendly shapes of potatoes with other vegetables may promote greater overall vegetable consumption. Potato Shaped Faces is a potato product shaped like happy faces, made with mashed potatoes and sunflower oil to create a slightly crispy outside and soft inside.
“Getting kids to eat their vegetables is always a challenge,” says Ahlborn. “Not only do potatoes add nutrients, like potassium, directly to the plate, but they can also help children explore other vegetables they eat alongside each other, helping them get closer to their overall nutritional needs.”
Through controlled meal observation, the research team evaluated how different potato presentations and preparation styles affected the amount of vegetables that school-aged children consumed in a cafeteria setting. While spiced potatoes appeared to be less attractive to the 7-13 year old participants, and the potato-shaped faces served individual of peas and carrots did not lead to greater total vegetable consumption; meals where potato-shaped faces were served with the peas and carrots in the same bowl led to a measurable increase in the total number of vegetables eaten.
Ahlborn and colleagues also found that serving potato-shaped faces in a cafeteria led to less vegetable plate waste compared to the control meal. “This underlines the far-reaching impact of school menus. We want vegetables on school meals to fuel children’s bodies, not fill the garbage bin,” Ahlborn added.
Taken together, these findings suggest that serving kid-friendly potato preparations with other vegetables could lead to cumulative benefits not only for students’ diets, but also for school cafeterias’ efforts to reduce food waste.
These results are consistent with other research findings showing that adolescents who consume potatoes are more likely to have higher diet quality, higher nutrient intake, and higher nutritional value; therefore, encouraging potato consumption may be a good strategy to improve nutritional status.1
Study details
Study design
Dr. Ahlborn studied children’s dietary behavior and consumption patterns during a series of meals that took place in a controlled, simulated environment designed to mimic a school cafeteria. During each session, children received a basic meal consisting of 2% milk, chicken nuggets, ketchup, and apple sauce, along with the experimental meal component (which reflected different presentations and preparations of mixed peas and carrots). Researchers weighed food before and after meals to assess plate waste and also analyzed total vegetable consumption.
The experimental meal component consisted of five variations of mixed peas and carrots (MPACs), including:
- MPACs and a whole wheat bun served separately (control condition)
- MPACs and potato-shaped faces served in separate bowls
- MPACs and seasoned potato cubes served in separate bowls
- MPACs and seasoned potato cubes served in the same bowl
- MPACs and potato-shaped faces served in the same bowl
Results
These small changes in presentation and preparation style had a measurable impact on participants’ vegetable consumption and were illustrated in the study results; When potatoes were on the trays, children ate more peas and carrots than when they were served on a separate roll.
Participants consumed the most vegetables and calories when peas/carrots and potato slices were served in the same bowl (452 total calories and 8.77 g more vegetables than when peas and carrots were paired with rosemary 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 was unsaturated).
Strengths and limitations
Strengths of the study included removing parents from the immediate study environment to minimize potential bias during meal consumption, and food intake and plate waste were measured in real time, compared to less accurate dietary recall methods. While researchers took steps to create a controlled environment similar to a school cafeteria, the experiment took place in a food laboratory that did not take into account the duration of meals, the timing of lunch before or after recess, nutrition education or other factors related to eating behavior during meals. at school.
Full details can be found in the published article ‘The effects 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 study.
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, Vol 13, Page 2614. 2021;13(8):2614. doi:10.3390/NU13082614
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