Choice-offering as a strategy to stimulate vegetable intake in young children. An in-home study

Poor vegetable intake in children is a persistent problem, despite increased awareness of the importance of vegetable consumption in our obesogenic environment. Encouraging children's feeling of autonomy by offering a choice can stimulate children's vegetable intake, according to self-determination theory. The objective of this study was to investigate whether choice-offering is an effective strategy to increase children's vegetable intake. Children (Mage 3.7; SD 1; n¿=¿70) were randomly assigned to either the choice or the no-choice condition. Each child was exposed 12 times to six familiar target vegetables in both groups at home during the evening meal. In the choice group, two selected vegetables were offered each time, whereas in the no-choice group only one vegetable was offered. Vegetable intake was measured by weighing children's plates before and after dinnertime. A mixed linear model with age, gender, and baseline vegetable liking as covariates was used to compare intake between the choice and the no-choice group. Baseline vegetable liking predicted vegetable intake during the intervention (P