Kids Eat Whole Grains When They’re Provided

The new school lunch regulations represent large changes to the food environment of children, so it’s important to study how kids respond to food that’s provided to them. In an effort to see how changing the food environment affects the eating habits of kids, researchers assigned 83 middle schoolers to either a whole grain or refined grain group for six weeks. Participants and their families were given weekly grains (like pasta or cereal) based on their assigned group, and participants also got grain snacks at school. By providing children and their families with whole grain foods,researchers observed that the whole grain group was able to increase their whole grain intake from 1 to 4 servings per day. These results suggest that changing the food environment of children is a successful way to get them to eat more healthy foods, like whole grains.
Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2014 Sep;114(9):1417-23. (Radford A et al.)