Children's fruit and vegetable intakes: appropriate school lunches may make parents' jobs easier

Most children across Europe and beyond eat fewer fruits and vegetables than recommended by health authorities. Promoting fruit and vegetable consumption among schoolchildren is part of health promotion policy in most countries. In a paper published this week in e-pub ahead of print in the journal Public Health Nutrition, we present a collaborative study between Folkhälsan Research Center in Helsinki and the EMGO Institute for Health & Care Research at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. In this study we explored the importance of parenting practices regarding schoolchildren's fruit and vegetable intakes and the importance of school lunches. More precisely, we compared four countries, i.e. Finland, Sweden, and Germany and the Netherlands. The first two countries do provide free school lunches and these lunches are required to fit dietary recommendations, including fruit and vegetables. In the other two countries no school lunches are generally provided. Our study indicated that in countries where no school lunches were provided, parenting practices are of greater importance for children's fruit and vegetable intake; or in other words: if school lunches that include fruits and vegetables are provided, parents may have a bit of an easier job where their children's fruit and vegetables are concerned. The study was conducted as part of the European Commission funded ProGreens project.