Success Story

Seeing is Believing...Tasting is Believing

Concerns:

Only 17.2% of adult Iowans eat the minimum recommendation of 3 vegetable and 2 fruits servings each day (now 2 cups fruit, 2 1/2 cups vegetable). (Source: 2003 IA Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System)
Iowa has a high percentage of the population overweight or obese - as do counties in Northwest Iowa. Across 8 Northwest Iowa counties obesity prevalence ranges from 21.5% to 23.4% (with the state average at 22.5), and overweight prevalence ranges from 36% to 38.3% (with the state average at 37.3%). (Source: Family and Community Information Tracking System, Iowa Department of Public Health)
What we see in adults - we see in children - in regards to eating habits and the prevalence for overweight or obesity.

We know:

A diet rich in fruits and vegetables could provide beneficial substances that slow or stop processes in the body that can lead to cancers or cardiovascular disease. Fruits and vegetables may play a protective role in the prevention of stroke, and potentially, cataracts, diverticulosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and hypertension.
Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables by individuals over age 2 is a practical and important means for optimizing nutrition to reduce disease risk and maximize good health.

Response:

A variety of responses have been undertaken to encourage people of all ages to consume more vegetables and fruits each day, fresh as often as possible. Interventions included interactive displays at health fairs (community, business/industry, community school), face-to-face programs with youth and adults, programs/tours at ISU Demonstration Gardens, newsletter and newspaper articles, and radio programs.

Approximately 970 people were reached through face-to-face programs, garden tours, and health fairs (events held in Cherokee, Dickinson, Lyon, O'Brien, Plymouth and Sioux counties).

Interactive displays and face-to-face programs include educational information, discussion, fruit and/or vegetable identification activity, and product sampling. (If seeing and hearing information about the benefits of fruits and vegetables doesn't make believers and eaters, then surely tasting does.)

Results:

Children and adults are intrigued by what some fruits and vegetables look like and taste like. They seem particularly intrigued and surprised by flavor combinations that result when mixing fruits and vegetables - as with salsas that are used for sampling (fruit combinations, vegetable combinations, and fruit-vegetable combination).
Children surprise parents by sampling and liking various fruits, vegetables and salsas...while the parent may not sample.
I am surprised by the number of children who want to take a recipe home - "It's good; we need to make this at home."
Children like to see how fruits and vegetables grow - what the plants look like, how the fruit or vegetable develops, etc. They like to harvest a vegetable, wash it, cut it up and really look at it, and taste it.
A comment heard at a recent event may "say it all." At an interactive display, participants were to "look at, taste and identify" samples of fruits and a vegetable. One elementary age child thought a sample of fruit was "really good!" - but didn't know what it was (a red plum). Mother said, "Well, I don't think you've ever had plums before." And the child said, "But I like it!"

There is still work to be done in the area of teaching about, and encouraging healthy food choices/healthy eating habits. A goal is to increase the number of servings of fruits and vegetables people eat each day, making them a regular part of meals and snacks - one person, one household at a time. Interactive displays at health fairs, face-to-face programs, programs/tours at Demonstration Gardens - those are just some of the activities that will continue.

Contact:
Denise Wyland
Nutrition and Health Field Specialist
ISU Extension
710 North 2nd Ave. East, Suite 103; PO Box 348
Rock Rapids, IA 51246-0348
Phone 712-472-2576; Fax 712-472-2578
E-mail dwyland@iastate.edu