Elsevier

Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

Volume 36, Issue 5, September–October 2004, Pages 245-249
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

Research Brief
Encouraging the Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables by Older Australians: An Experiential Study

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1499-4046(06)60387-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To explore perceptions of dietary recommendations for fruit and vegetables, and barriers and opportunities for increasing consumption.

Design

Qualitative study with an experiential component.

Setting

Older adults' households.

Participants

Six focus groups with 38 Australian adults aged 50 to 64 years who reported low vegetable consumption.

Intervention

Week 1: focus group including demonstration of recommended fruit and vegetable servings; week 2: delivery of a week's supply of fruit and vegetables and recipes; week 3: follow-up focus group.

Variables Measured

Perceptions of a healthful diet, fruit and vegetable recommendations, barriers to consumption, and reactions to the food delivery and recipes.

Analysis

Qualitative, thematic analysis.

Results

Participants were unfamiliar with serving recommendations. Barriers to consumption were as follows: perceptions that vegetables are eaten only with evening meals, preference for eating meat, believing that recommended quantities were too big, and a lack of preparation time. The delivery had a positive impact on some (especially low fruit consumers), for whom the availability of appealing fruit served as a prompt for consumption.

Conclusions and Implications

Possible strategies for enabling consumers to achieve adequate fruit and vegetable consumption are education about the recommended number and size of servings and distribution of fruit and vegetables relative to meat and carbohydrates, encouragement to spread fruit and vegetable consumption over the day, and promoting the appealing sensory attributes of fruit and vegetables.

REFERENCES (13)

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    Our study extends previous research and provides a more contemporary and comprehensive assessment of PA and dietary barriers. Some, but not all of the barriers to healthy dietary intake we observed were also identified by Dixon et al. [41], who explored perceptions of dietary recommendations for intake of vegetables and fruit as well as common barriers to increasing consumption among 38 older Australians. They found participants perceptions that vegetables are eaten only with evening meals, believing that recommended quantities were too large, and a lack of preparation time.

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  • Towards greater vegetable consumption: Change the product or change the person? Case studies of two vegetable commodities

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    Each commodity was tested for two specific eating occasions: to purchase for a main meal, and to purchase as a snack. The latter was included to increase the opportunity for eating occasions beyond main meals (Dixon, Mullins, Wakefield, & Hill, 2004). The following attributes and their levels (see Table 1) were varied on the commodities in the main meal context:

  • Promoting consumption of fruit and vegetables for better health. Have campaigns delivered on the goals?

    2014, Appetite
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    Also, baseline consumption figures are not always apparent or publicly available and therefore, it is unclear whether the gains are starting from a low base or from already reasonable existing levels of consumption. Research reports also highlight the lack of understanding among consumers about what constitutes a serve of fruit or vegetable (Dixon, Mullins, Wakefield, & Hill, 2004), leading to further confounding of results. Furthermore, the methodology applied to assess each of the individual campaigns is not always clearly stated in the published reports.

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This research was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia.

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