Impact of Experience of Cultivation of One Kind of Vegetable on Vegetable Consumption for Preschool Children of 4-years old

摘要

Objective of this study is to examine the impact of an experience of cultivation of one kind of vegetables on vegetable consumption for preschool children of 4-years old. We selected “eggplant” as one of vegetables. The study design was pre-post study design. We compared amount of consumption of “eggplant” and “other vegetables” at kindergarten and at home, between before and after an experience of vegetable cultivation at kindergarten. The subjects were 32 preschoolers aged 4-years old in one kindergarten at Niigata city. The intervention was consisted of eggplant cultivation, harvesting, cooking and eating during May to July in 2010. Before and after the intervention, amounts of leftover of 2 kinds of eggplant dishes and other 2 vegetable dishes at lunch in the kindergarten were weighed. The questionnaire surveys were conducted for caregivers to evaluate the consumption of vegetables of preschoolers at home. The results revealed significant increase of amount of consumption for 2 kinds of eggplant dishes at lunch in the kindergarten after intervention. We could not compare consumption of other vegetable dishes clearly, because the kinds of those dishes were different. Significant difference was not found for consumption of eggplant dishes at home. These results suggested the impact of cultivation of one kind of vegetables on the consumption of the vegetable, which is cultivated by the children, at lunch in the kindergarten. However, our data could not suggest impact on consumption of other vegetables at lunch in the kindergarten and impact on consumption of the vegetable at home.