More Kids Are Eating Vegitables and Fruits: Study

Can you believe it? Kids are actually eating their vegetables without their right to desert being threatened.

According to research out from the Harvard School of Public Health, consumption of fruits and vegetables among children has raised by about 20 percent overall after new school cafeteria guidelines were established.

The "healthy eating guidelines," established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2012, required schools to provide a variety of fruits and vegetable, and asked that schools enforce a policy that made public school students take at least one fruit and one vegetable with their cafeteria lunch each day.

Even if it was encouraged by teachers, the children, of course, could not be forced to eat the food they took, often throwing it out the vegetables and fruit instead. Critics of the new guidelines soon began to complain about how much food (and money) the guidelines were wasting.

However, the latest study out from the Harvard School of Public Health shows that while food waste after the guidelines were implemented remain high, they remain equally high, compared to waste number before the guidelines. This implies that even with children now being forced to pick a veggie for their platter, they often end up eating it.

The research also analyzed the food waste of more than 1000 students, finding that approximately 60 percent of students were still throwing away their vegetables, and 40 percent of students were still throwing away their fruit. Researcher write that this may simply reflect the poor quality of the fruit and vegetables provided, but another explanation may simply be child preference or meal size. A child who is picky of full is likely to not even try a vegetable before throwing it out.

Still, researchers behind the study write that this data is very encouraging, especially when one considers the nutritional benefits associated with more children at least being made to try their vegetables and fruits.

The study results we released by the Harvard School of Public Health on March 4.