Study: Salad bars in the lunch line encourage produce consumption

It’s all about location when it comes to getting students to eat more healthy foods, a new study suggests.

Researchers at Arizona State University followed 533 students at six Phoenix-area middle schools, half of which put their salad bars in the actual lunch line and half of which put salad bars in other parts of the cafeteria.

Key findings of the study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics revealed that 98 percent of students at schools with salad bars in the lunch line self-served more fruits and vegetables, while only 23 percent of students did so when the salad bar was placed elsewhere, Reuters reports.

The study also found that students who had salad bars in their lunch lines ate four times the amount of fruit and vegetables than their peers who did not.

The research team concluded that if schools have the space available to place salad bars in the lunch line before students’ point of purchase, they should.

“Once students exit the serving line, most will not seek out additional opportunities to take fruits and vegetables because it might mean breaking away from friends or navigating busy cafeterias with short lunch periods,” Marc A. Adams of ASU and lead author of the study, told Reuters Health by email.  “Only highly motivated students will seek out salad bars,”

Read the full story via Reuters.