For generations parents have struggled to get their kids to eat the proper amount of fruits and vegetables. Both kids and adults are supposed to get 5 servings of fruits or vegetables each day to get the needed nutrients, which lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of developing cancer.¹ However, all too often parents find that their kids protest eating fruits and vegetables. Sometimes it seems like kids only want to eat chicken nuggets and mac ‘n cheese. Luckily, recent research shows a solution to help kids eat more fruits and vegetables.² It might be as simple as having longer meals and cutting up their food into more bite sized chunks.  

In the study the researchers gave free meals to 50 families with children for 2 nights. For one meal the family had dinner as usual, in the other meal the family extended the meal time by about 10 minutes. The meals contained servings of meat, bread, fruits, vegetables, and dessert. In both meals, the researchers counted how many pieces of each type of food the children in each family ate. The goal was to see if extending the length of the meal made children eat more or less food.  

The researchers found that children ate more fruits and vegetables in the longer meals than in the regular length meals. On average, children ate 7 more pieces of fruits and/or vegetable in the extended meal than in the regular meal. 7 more pieces is approximately equivalent to an extra serving of fruits and vegetables per meal. Interestingly, the children did not eat more of the other types of foods during extended meals. The researchers suggest that this may be because the fruits and vegetables were cut up into bite sized chunks. While this was an unintended finding, it is yet another piece of useful information to help kids eat more fruits and vegetables.  

All in all, getting your kids to eat healthier could be as simple as staying at the table for 10 extra minutes and cutting up their fruits and veggies into bite sized chunks. This will have tremendous benefits for growing children. Hopefully, it will aid parents in the struggle to get their kids to eat their veggies and make their meals less stressful.  

1. Wang, D. D., Li, Y., Bhupathiraju, S. N., Rosner, B. A., Sun, Q., Giovannucci, E. L., ... & Hu, F. B. (2021). Fruit and vegetable intake and mortality: results from 2 prospective cohort studies of US men and women and a meta-analysis of 26 cohort studies. Circulation, 143(17), 1642-1654. 
2. Dallacker, M., Knobl, V., Hertwig, R., & Mata, J. (2023). Effect of Longer Family Meals on Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Intake: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open, 6(4), e236331-e236331.