WASHINGTON — Schools participating in the National School Lunch Program are required to serve fruit and veggies with each meal. But just because something is on the tray doesn’t mean the kids will eat it.
A lot of those green beans and peaches — too many, according to nutritionists — ends up in the trash.
Now, researchers say they have found a simple but highly effective way to get students to eat all the good-for-you-stuff. They say it’s all about timing — of recess. A new study suggests that children who play before they eat are more likely to down their fruits and vegetables.
Researchers at Brigham Young and Cornell universities followed kids at seven elementary schools in Utah. Three agreed to have recess before lunch; the rest waited until after the meal.
The kids who had recess first were hungrier and ate 54 percent more of the good-for-you stuff, which means far less went into the trash.
The researchers did more than just watch what the students ate; they also checked out the garbage and found recess before lunch brought waste down by about 40 percent.
Study co-author David Just, a professor at Cornell, says in a university video, “It’s a very simple solution and it doesn’t cost all that much.”
The study was published in the medical journal Preventive Medicine.
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