Nursery World - Study points way to children's five-a-day

New research shows that while school gardening initiatives do little to improve children’s fruit and vegetable intake, eating meals together as a family can significantly boost current levels of consumption.

Dr Meaghan Christian conducted the study for the Institute for Health and Wellbeing ay Leeds Beckett University (formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University) to discover whether school gardens had any effect on the pupils’ nutritional knowledge and intake.

With the average UK child eating 2.8 portions of fruit and vegetables per day, Dr Christian highlighted that children are far from reaching the recommended five portions.

The study concluded that gardening initiatives alone do not increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables. The researcher explained that ‘for school gardening to improve children’s fruit and vegetable intake… it needs to be successfully integrated into the school curriculum and environment.’

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