Want your kids to eat more vegetables? Make them taste good.

Want your kids to eat more vegetables? Make them taste good.

Last month, the Harvard  T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Project Bread published a study on the effects of “chef-enhanced” menus and choice architecture on students’ selection and consumption of healthy food options during school lunch. The findings, while predictable, furnish a strong case for school food reform. In my interactions with Mass. public and charter school students, there was a clear consensus that food from the cafeteria is not the tastiest fare around. In a society where vegetables are seen as a necessary evil parents must either fool or force their children into eating, it is not hard to imagine how often a side of veggies gets chosen over french fries at lunchtime. Part of it may be the high availability of sugary and salty processed foods that distort the perception of what food should taste like, but cooking method and seasonings (or lack thereof) may also contribute to vegetables’ bad rap.

The study found that schools whose menu was created by a professionally trained chef saw increased selection and consumption of vegetables by 8% after three months and 30% after seven months. Fruit selection and consumption increased by 20% over the same period.

Choice architecture, the practice of organizing displays to influence choices, improved vegetable selection by 17% over four months, but did nothing to increase consumption (students would choose more vegetables but not eat them upon tasting). Combining choice architecture with improved taste had a larger effect than either intervention alone.

Public school administrations have long avoided costly improvements to their food service programs, being chronically challenged for funding. But if making vegetables taste better leads to more kids receiving more important nutrients, the investment in a chef consultant or similar strategy is a sound one.

-Matt Stupak