There are healthy things inside’
Children's thoughts about, experiences with and approaches to vegetable and fruit consumption
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11356499 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hannah Helgegren (0009-0004-6711-8780, University of Gothenburg, corresponding author), Anna Winkvist (0000-0001-9122-7240, University of Gothenburg), Margret Lepp (0000-0003-3303-5245, University of Gothenburg), Christel Larsson (0000-0002-5785-0271, University of Gothenburg) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 206 |
| Pages | 107819 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Appetite (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0195-6663 • E-ISSN: 1095-8304 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.appet.2024.107819 |
| PMID | 39667597 |
| OpenAlex | W4405235498 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 37 |
Children's vegetable and fruit (V&F) consumption is generally lower than dietary recommendations. Thus, this study explored 15 Swedish children's thoughts, experiences and approaches to V&F consumption. Individual interviews were conducted with 10- to 12-year-old children (eight girls and seven boys) of diverse cultural backgrounds. The interviews were thematically analysed, and a final step adopted a phenomenographic approach. The results reveal that the children thought of V&F as healthy, but their knowledge of V&F's health effects was fragmented and lacked context. They named both adults and their peers as important in encouraging or discouraging them from consuming V&F. Many of them also described creative and playful uses of V&F. From the children's thoughts and experiences, the following elements were identified as influencing their V&F consumption: (1) the V&F's taste and serving style, (2) the impact of others, (3) beliefs about V&F's healthiness and (4) their conscious habits and choices. The researchers categorised the children's different ways of relating to the elements as the following approaches to children's V&F consumption: 'The food determines what I eat', 'Other people determine what I eat', 'My knowledge determines what I eat' and 'My conscious habits determine what I eat'. We suggest that future efforts to promote children's V&F consumption consider these approaches, for example by supporting peer norms, sensory play and training and more comprehensive age-appropriate explanations of V&F's health effects as well as educational tools that empower children to self-monitor habits that facilitate their adequate consumption of V&F
Aesthetics · Art · Architecture, Design, and Social History · Diverse Educational Innovations Studies · Education Systems and Policy · Psychology
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Phenomenography
Explaining school children's fruit and vegetable consumption
Parental strategies for influencing the diet of their children – A qualitative study from disadvantaged areas
Influence of choice on vegetable intake in children
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Play with your food! Sensory play is associated with tasting of fruits and vegetables in preschool children
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VeggieSense
Exploring the senses of taste with young children
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Human agency in social cognitive theory
Phenomenography ? Describing conceptions of the world around us
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |