What’s the Secret to Getting Kids to Eat Veggies? Let Them Play First!
by The Daily Eye Team January 23 2015, 2:25 pm Estimated Reading Time: 0 mins, 54 secsLeft to their own devices, most kids will choose to gobble down ice cream or chocolate rather than broccoli or brussels sprouts. So, at school lunch, they’ll likely eat the yummiest items first and then drop the rest in the trash. But a new study finds that kids eat more fruits and vegetables when school recess takes place before lunch, rather than after. “Recess is a pretty big deal to kids,” said lead researcher Joe Price, an associate professor in the Department of Economics at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. “If you’re going to make a kid choose between going to recess and eating their veggies, recess is going to win.” The study, led by Price and David Just, director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, looked at seven elementary schools in a Utah school district. Three of the schools switched recess to before lunch, while four schools continued to hold recess after lunch.