Peer-reviewed article
Growing appetites: the impact of vegetable-rich school meals on child nutrition, cognition, and well-being
Ilse van Lier, Edgar van Mil, Remco C. Havermans ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study tested whether providing vegetable-rich school meals to Dutch children aged 7–13 would improve their nutrition, thinking skills, and well-being. Six schools participated: three provided lunch three days a week, while three acted as comparison schools. The programme did not lead to measurable improvements in any of the target outcomes, mainly because children did not eat enough of the meals due to low acceptance and unfamiliarity with warm school lunches. The researchers recommend future programmes should help children gradually adjust to new meal formats before expecting benefits.
Key points
- Dutch children consume only around 8 g of vegetables at lunch, far below dietary guidelines
- The intervention showed no significant differences between intervention and control groups for cognition, well-being, food neophobia, food literacy, or skin carotenoid status
- Food neophobia (fear of new foods) decreased in the control group over time but not in the intervention group
- Low meal acceptance driven by social dynamics, cultural unfamiliarity with warm school lunches, and insufficient consumption was the main barrier to effectiveness
- Exploratory analyses found positive associations between carotenoid status and well-being, and between meal liking and carotenoid status
Limitations
The study cannot determine whether vegetable-rich meals would work if children actually consumed adequate amounts, since poor meal acceptance was the primary barrier. The design and timeframe are not fully detailed, making it unclear how long the intervention ran or how precisely intake was measured.
Abstract
Typical lunch meals consumed by Dutch children fall short of national dietary guidelines. The average vegetable intake during lunch is around 8 g, contributing to inadequate overall vegetable consumption in over half of children under 12. A school-based lunch programme offering vegetable-rich meals may improve vegetable intake and potentially lead to other benefits. In the current controlled quasi-experimental study, such programme was assessed. Children aged 7-13 years at three primary schools received lunch on 3 school days per week, while three other schools served as controls. Pre- and post-intervention assessments measured cognition, well-being, food neophobia, food literacy, and skin carotenoid status using the Veggie Meter (VM). Post intervention, meal liking was assessed. 2 x 2 mixed ANOVAs were run (group x time). No significant differences were observed between groups and over time for any of the variables, but a decrease in food neophobia over time in the control group, but not in the intervention group, was observed. Exploratory analyses revealed positive associations between VM score and well-being, and between meal liking and VM score, while meal liking was negatively associated with food neophobia. Insufficient meal consumption, driven by low meal acceptance, social dynamics, and cultural unfamiliarity with warm lunches at school, is the most plausible explanation for the absence of effects. Future school meal programmes in the Netherlands should focus on gradual familiarisation with new meal formats before meaningful effects on dietary intake, cognition, and well-being can be expected.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- School-based lunch programme offering vegetable-rich meals provided to children on 3 school days per week
- Population
- Children aged 7–13 years at primary schools in the Netherlands; intervention group at 3 schools, control group at 3 schools
Key finding
No significant differences observed between intervention and control groups for cognition, well-being, food neophobia, food literacy, or carotenoid status