Using Spices and Herbs to Increase Vegetable Intake Among Urban High School Students

University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Poor Nutrition

Treatments: Other: Adding spices and herbs to school lunch vegetables

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02908854

HP-00066121

Details and patient eligibility

About

A two-phase, school-based intervention will be conducted at a high school in Baltimore to evaluate whether the addition of spices and herbs to vegetable dishes in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) can increase vegetable intake among students in an urban and predominantly African-American high school.

Full description

The proposed research will be conducted at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore, Maryland. In this two-phase intervention, the research team will work in Phase I with stakeholders throughout the high school community to identify the barriers to vegetable intake in the NSLP in this student population and to determine how spices and herbs might help overcome these barriers. The stakeholders with whom we will collaborate will include students, school administration, and cafeteria staff.

Phase II will focus on the direct measurement of vegetable intake among students both before and after spices and herbs are added to the vegetables in the NSLP. The spiced vegetable recipes that received the most favorable student rankings in the taste tests of Phase I will be offered.

The vegetable recipes flavored with spices and herbs will meet all NSLP requirements for fat, sugar, total calories, and all other guidelines.

Student vegetable intake will be assessed through two outcomes: 1.) plate waste, and 2.) production waste.

Enrollment: 29 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 12 to 21 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Enrolled student at Cristo Rey High School
• Able to read and write English (exclusive to Phase 1 participants)

Exclusion criteria

• Does not eat lunch in the Cristo Rey High School cafeteria
• Not willing to complete questionnaires (exclusive to Phase 1 participants)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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29 participants in 1 patient group

School Lunch Participants

Experimental group

Description:

School lunch participants will be given vegetables with and without additional spices and herbs to determine if intake will increase with the addition of spices and herbs.

Treatment:

Other: Adding spices and herbs to school lunch vegetables