Most children do not meet the recommended intake of vegetables. Variety was identified as a potential factor to increase children's intake of these foods, as it was shown that variety was effective in improving meal composition in adults. Because younger children are suggested to be more responsive to internal satiation signals than to external food-related cues compared with adults, it is not clear whether variety is effective to improve meal composition in 7- to 10-year-old children.

Experiment.

Children were assigned one of three different fake food buffets containing pasta, chicken, and either one vegetable (carrots or beans) or two vegetables (carrots and beans). The children were asked to serve themselves a meal that they would like to eat for lunch from the given selection.

One hundred children (fifty-two boys; mean age 8·8 (sd 1·1) years).

Children given the two-vegetable choice served themselves significantly more energy from vegetables (mean 64 (sd 51) kJ, 10·9 (sd 9·4) %) compared with children who were offered only either carrots (mean 37 (sd 25) kJ, 5·9 (sd 6·5) %) or beans (mean 38 (sd 34) kJ, 5·6 (sd 6·3) %). The total energy of the meal was not increased, indicating that children chose a more balanced lunch when offered more vegetables.

School-aged children are responsive to food-related cues and variety is effective in increasing their vegetable choice. Serving an assortment of vegetables in school cafeterias might be a simple and effective strategy to improve children's nutrition.

Our physical environment influences our daily food choices unconsciously. Strategic changes in the food environment might therefore be potential measures to influence consumers’ food selection towards better nutrition, without affecting the consumers’ freedom of choice. The present study aimed to examine whether increased vegetable variety enhances healthy food choices and improves meal composition.

A randomised experiment.

Participants were instructed to serve themselves a lunch from a buffet of food replicas. Individuals were randomly assigned to one of three food combinations: condition A – cooked carrots, pasta and chicken; condition B – cooked green garden beans, pasta and chicken; condition AB – carrot sticks, green garden beans, pasta and chicken. Two one-vegetable conditions were compared with one two-vegetable condition. Data from Zurich, Switzerland, were analysed using one-way ANOVA.

Ninety-eight students (fifty-three men; mean age 22·8 (sd 2·2) years, minimum = 19 years, maximum = 29 years).

Participants who could choose from two vegetables derived significantly more energy (141 kJ) from vegetables compared with participants in the one-vegetable condition (104 and 84 kJ, respectively). Furthermore, in the two-vegetable condition, the relative energy of the meal derived from vegetables (10·9 %) increased significantly compared with the one-vegetable condition (8 % and 6·1 %, respectively). The total energy content of the meal (mean 1472 (sd 468) kJ) was not affected by the experimental manipulation.

Having a choice of vegetables increases a person's tendency to choose vegetables and leads to the selection of a more balanced meal. Serving an assortment of vegetables as side dishes might be a simple and effective strategy to improve food selection.