HOW CHANGES IN THE VARIETY OF VEGETABLES AFFECT VEGETABLE INTAKE AND ENERGY INTAKE IN A MEAL
Open Access
- Author:
- Scott, Samuel Pew
- Area of Honors:
- Nutritional Sciences
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Barbara Jean Rolls, Thesis Supervisor
Barbara Jean Rolls, Thesis Supervisor
Gary J Fosmire, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- variety
vegetable
intake - Abstract:
- Background: Only 1 in 10 Americans meet the MyPyramid recommendations for daily vegetable intake; thus, effective techniques to increase vegetable intake are required. Increasing the variety of food served at a meal has been shown to increase intake. This is the first study to examine the effect of increasing the variety of vegetables offered simultaneously at a meal. Objectives: To determine whether increasing the variety of vegetables served simultaneously at a meal 1) increases vegetable consumption and 2) decreases meal energy intake, without affecting levels of hunger. Subjects: 66 men and women between the ages of 20-45 years from a university population. Intervention: Individuals ate breakfast and lunch in a laboratory setting once a week for 4 weeks. Each week at lunch, they were served one of four conditions in a counterbalanced order. Each condition had an equal portion of the main dish and varied in the vegetable served. In three of the conditions, an individual vegetable was served; in the remaining condition, the three vegetables were served side-by-side. Statistical Analyses: Data were analyzed using a mixed linear model with repeated measures. Results: Vegetable intake increased when offering a variety of vegetables without resulting in a greater meal energy intake and without affecting ratings of hunger. Serving a variety of vegetables attenuated the decrease in ratings of pleasantness of the vegetables. Conclusion: These findings suggest that increasing the variety of vegetables served simultaneously at a meal is an effective method to increase vegetable intake without differentially influencing ratings of hunger.