“Miffy eats the rainbow!” – A colorful modeling- and reward-based intervention to increase willingness to taste fruit and vegetables in 3–7-year-old children
{"title":"“Miffy eats the rainbow!” – A colorful modeling- and reward-based intervention to increase willingness to taste fruit and vegetables in 3–7-year-old children","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.appet.2024.107654","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Diets rich in fruit and vegetables (F&Vs) improve cognitive functioning and reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases in children. Nevertheless, 59% of Dutch children do not meet recommended intake levels. Given the importance of color in children's food choices, the concept of “eat the rainbow” presents a promising approach. This project aimed to evaluate the effects of a modeling- and reward-based intervention to stimulate the consumption of colorful foods to increase willingness to taste different F&Vs among children aged 3–7 years. 164 children from Dutch elementary schools participated in a nested cluster randomized multi-arm parallel design study. During two morning school breaks, children were invited to choose from ten F&Vs in five different colors. Their willingness to taste and ad libitum intake were recorded. The first session served as a baseline with no intervention, while the second session involved either the Miffy intervention (modeling- and reward-based), a reward-only intervention (reward-based), or a control session. In the Miffy intervention, children listened to a story about Miffy eating the rainbow before tasting F&Vs and they received colored stickers (e.g., red sticker for tomatoes, green sticker for celery) upon tasting them. In the reward-only intervention, children received a sticker upon tasting a food. The Miffy group showed a higher probability (<em>P</em>(tasted) = 0.39) of tasting a food product compared to the control group (<em>P</em>(tasted) = 0.29; OR = 0.63, <em>p</em> = .04). No significant differences were observed between the Miffy and reward-only groups or between the reward-only and control groups. Both interventions did not significantly impact intake or liking of the foods. The Miffy-themed intervention demonstrates potential to enhance children's willingness to taste F&Vs, primarily due to the use of non-food incentives.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":242,"journal":{"name":"Appetite","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666324004574/pdfft?md5=d825293d6e7339aaa0306aa528089bb8&pid=1-s2.0-S0195666324004574-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Appetite","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666324004574","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Diets rich in fruit and vegetables (F&Vs) improve cognitive functioning and reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases in children. Nevertheless, 59% of Dutch children do not meet recommended intake levels. Given the importance of color in children's food choices, the concept of “eat the rainbow” presents a promising approach. This project aimed to evaluate the effects of a modeling- and reward-based intervention to stimulate the consumption of colorful foods to increase willingness to taste different F&Vs among children aged 3–7 years. 164 children from Dutch elementary schools participated in a nested cluster randomized multi-arm parallel design study. During two morning school breaks, children were invited to choose from ten F&Vs in five different colors. Their willingness to taste and ad libitum intake were recorded. The first session served as a baseline with no intervention, while the second session involved either the Miffy intervention (modeling- and reward-based), a reward-only intervention (reward-based), or a control session. In the Miffy intervention, children listened to a story about Miffy eating the rainbow before tasting F&Vs and they received colored stickers (e.g., red sticker for tomatoes, green sticker for celery) upon tasting them. In the reward-only intervention, children received a sticker upon tasting a food. The Miffy group showed a higher probability (P(tasted) = 0.39) of tasting a food product compared to the control group (P(tasted) = 0.29; OR = 0.63, p = .04). No significant differences were observed between the Miffy and reward-only groups or between the reward-only and control groups. Both interventions did not significantly impact intake or liking of the foods. The Miffy-themed intervention demonstrates potential to enhance children's willingness to taste F&Vs, primarily due to the use of non-food incentives.
期刊介绍:
Appetite is an international research journal specializing in cultural, social, psychological, sensory and physiological influences on the selection and intake of foods and drinks. It covers normal and disordered eating and drinking and welcomes studies of both human and non-human animal behaviour toward food. Appetite publishes research reports, reviews and commentaries. Thematic special issues appear regularly. From time to time the journal carries abstracts from professional meetings. Submissions to Appetite are expected to be based primarily on observations directly related to the selection and intake of foods and drinks; papers that are primarily focused on topics such as nutrition or obesity will not be considered unless they specifically make a novel scientific contribution to the understanding of appetite in line with the journal's aims and scope.