A new study found that switching recess time with lunchtime makes kids more likely to eat healthier foods such as fruits and vegetables.
Researchers at Brigham Young University and Cornell University involved seven Utah schools from grades one to six. Three of the schools agreed to move their recess time ahead of lunchtime while the rest kept their original schedules.
The team observed the number of fruits and vegetables that the kids ate for four days in spring and another nine days in the fall. They also took note of the servings of fruits and vegetables consumed by the students.
After the study period, the researchers compared the data gathered from the schools that participated in the research. The findings showed that students, who went to schools that switched their recess time with lunchtime, ate 54 percent more fruits and vegetables and increased their servings by 45 percent compared to the schools that kept their schedules.
"Recess is a pretty big deal for most kids. If you have kids chose between playing and eating their veggies, the time spent playing is going to win most of the time," Joe Price, study lead author and an economics professor at Brigham Young University, said in a press release. "You just don't want to set the opportunity cost of good behaviors too high."
The researchers recommend that schools move recess time before lunch time to promote healthy eating and to make the school lunch program more successful without additional costs.
"It's not always what's on the tray that matters," David Just, study co-author and a behavioral economist at Cornell, told USA Today. "Sometimes it's what you were doing before or after lunch that makes the difference."
The study was published in the Jan. 13 issue of Preventive Medicine.
