Study: Recess Before Lunch Policy May Increase Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

Share On Social!

Thanks to the enactment of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act nutrition standards in schools are changing. Students are now required to take at least one serving of fruit or vegetables. Yet often with such changes comes the challenge of implementation.

Although students are provided with more fruits and veggies as part of their school lunch, they don’t always eat them.

According to a study recently published in the Journal of Preventative Medicine, students who had lunch after recess were more likely to eat their fruits and veggies. The study which was conducted at seven Utah elementary schools, with students in grades 1st-6th, found that lunch after recess increased fruit and vegetable consumption by up to 54%.

To learn more about the fruit and vegetable consumption patterns of students researchers, studied schools over the course of 13 days. The racial/ethnic demographic make up of the schools was primarily white (68%) with 25% of the students classified as Latino.

Similar studies have found that students who ate after lunch were also likely to:

• Waste less food;
• Behave better; and
• Consume more nutritious foods

Access the study here.