With lunch after recess, fruits and veggies consumption increases by 54 percent

School lunches are required by the federal government to include servings of fruits and vegetables for students. The problem is, it’s estimated that millions of dollars worth of those fruits and vegetables are thrown out each day. Getting students to choose these fruits and vegetables, however, may be as simple as making a simple switch in the school day schedule.

A new study published Monday in the journal Preventative Medicine claims that placing school lunch after recess — instead of before it like many schools do — results in a 54 percent increase of fruit and vegetable consumption in children.

“Recess is often held after lunch so children hurry to finish so that they can go play — this results in wasted fruits and vegetables,” David Just, co-author of the study, said. “However, we found that if recess is held before lunch, students come to lunch with healthy appetites and less urgency and are more likely to finish their fruits and vegetables.”

The study sampled seven schools containing grades 1 to 6 in a Utah school district. Three of the schools switched to putting recess before lunch, while the remaining four schools kept their original schedule of lunch before recess. In the schools that switch, the researchers observed — in addition to the 54 percent increase of fruit and vegetable consumption — a 45 percent increase in children eating at least one serving of the two. In the schools that didn’t switch, however, consumption of fruits and vegetables were observed to have decreased.