Nutritional research activity in food dudes project : preliminary results

Fruit & Vegetables provide a significant part of human nutrition, as they are important sources of nutritive and non-nutritive food constituents. There are convincing evidences that increasing the consumption of vegetables and fruit by the general public can reduce the risk of several chronic diseases, including stroke, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. In the last Italian National Food Consumption Survey, the overall individual consumption of F&V was 208 g/d and 210 g/d respectively. This amount meets the minimum population goal for F&V consumption but it is inadequate to prevent chronic diseases. Despite the numerous nutritional educational program, children and adolescents have a high intake of unhealthy snacks and a low intake of F&V, too. Recently, the peer modelling and rewards-based intervention was shown to be effective in bringing about substantial increases in children’s consumption of fruit and vegetables in Anglo-Saxon countries. Since September 2011 in three public urban primary schools in Milan, Italy, we started the Food & Fan Projects aimed to increase the F&V consumption in children six to ten years old. Five hundred ninetyfive children six to ten years old were enrolled in this study. Of them 413 were exposed to the program whereas 182 simply were offered fruit and vegetables at the morning snack. The project is ongoing but the preliminary results offer unique data on the nutritional status with particular reference to indicators of visceral and subcutaneous fat distribution in this class of age.