Patterns in children's fruit and vegetable consumption by meal and day of the week

To assess differences in children's consumption of fruit and vegetables (F&V) by day of the week and meal of the day. Baseline data from two school based nutrition education studies were combined for analysis. 2984 third grade students from 48 participating elementary schools in three school districts in the metropolitan Atlanta area. The frequency of consumption of F&V abstracted by trained registered dietitians from prompted 7-day food records. STATISTICAL-ANALYSES PERFORMED: Mixed model analysis with meals and days as terms, controlling for the within school correlation, gender and ethnic group. F&V were most frequently consumed at weekday lunch, and second most frequently at dinner. Participation in school lunch accounted for a substantial proportion of F&Vs consumed at lunch. Few F&Vs were consumed at breakfast or snack. School lunch makes an important contribution to elementary school students' F&V consumption. Dietary change programs should target parents to increase F&V consumption at dinner, and target students for the meals over which they assert the most control: breakfast and snacks.