High quality diets tend to contain large amounts of vegetables and vegetable products. The Mediterranean diet for example, contains high amounts of green leafy vegetables, and is associated with a reduced risk for metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Vegetables are beneficial to health possibly because they contain phytonutrients such as polyphenols, that have known health benefits. In addition, they can lower energy intakes and their high fibre content is known to reduces the glycaemic effect of foods. The health benefits associated with vegetable consumption however, can only be attained if intake is sufficient. Children tend to have sensitive senses of taste and smell, and this is perhaps one reason that vegetables consumption can often be limited in this group. A solution to this is to covertly add vegetable purée to foods, thus disguising their taste and texture and thereby increasing their consumption.
For example, researchers1 used a crossover design study in 3 to 5 year old children to assess the effects of puréed vegetables on energy intake and vegetable consumption. Covertly hidden vegetables were administered to the children 1 day per week for 3 weeks and foods contained either no puréed vegetables, or enough puréed vegetables to reduce the energy density of the food by 15 or 25%. Vegetables included broccoli, cauliflower, squash and zucchini, as well as tomatoes (a fruit), and were added in such a way as to not affect the texture or taste of the original foods. Along with the entrées, side dishes contained non-manipulated foods and children were allowed to eat ad libitum. The results showed that daily vegetable consumption significantly increased by 52 and 73g in the 15 and 20% reduced energy food, respectively. These results suggest that covertly adding vegetables to foods is an effective way to increase consumption in children.
There was no change in the consumption of the side dishes and the total weight of the manipulated food consumed remained constant compared to the control. Because of this energy consumption was reduced by 142kcal (12%) in the 25% energy reduced food. There was no significant difference between the 15% reduced energy food and the control, although there was a trend to a reduction. Incorporation of covertly hidden vegetables could therefore be an effective strategy to combat rising levels of childhood obesity. Although the energy decrease persisted over the course of the study despite the children having opportunity to compensate, the long-term effectiveness of this strategy on weight loss is not known. It is also worth considering that many foods associated with childhood obesity (soft drinks and confectionary) would not be able to effectively contain puréed vegetables.
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