School-based fruit and vegetable promotion may have beneficial effects on unhealthy snacking

A study recently published in the Journal of Human Nutrition & Dietetics suggests that a Dutch school-based program to promote fruits and vegetable intakes among primary schoolchildren may have beneficial effects on top of an increased intake of fruits and vegetables.

Ample fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake has been associated with a decreased risk of chronic disease. If  increased F&V consumption would also lead to a lower intake of unhealthy, high calorie snacks, the positive effects of F&V promotion would even be better. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether a primary school-based intervention (the Dutch Schoolgruiten Project) that promoted F&V intake could additionally reduce the intake of unhealthy, high calorie snacks during school breaks.

The study applied a longitudinal design with baseline and two follow-up measurements. Children were aged 9–10 years; 705 children participated in the study. The main strategy to promote F&V's was a 'school fruit scheme, i.e. free provision of FYV in the school classes to improve the availability, accessibility and exposure to F&V at school. The effects of the intervention on F&V intakes was reported in an earlier publication in Public Health Nutrition. The children in the intervention schools brought F&V from home to school at follow-up significantly more often than children in comparison schools where no F&V scheme was implemented. The kids in the intervention schools also brought fewer unhealthy snacks to school for conusmption during school breaks. This study provides therefore some evidence that the Schoolgruiten intervention effect on F&V intake also reduced unhealthy snacking during school breaks.