Fruits and Vegetables Make the Marks III: How to improve adolescents' eating habits?

The intake of fruit and vegetables in Norway is lower than in most other European countries, and much lower than what is recommended by the health authorities, while the consumption of added sugar is much higher than recommended. It is a major gap between what we know about the positive health effects of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and low in added sugar, and what Norwegian people really consume. The FVMM project is an intervention project, where interventions (e.g. free participation in the Nor wegian School Fruit programme) were conducted in 6th and 7th grade classes in the school year of 2001/2002. One baseline questionnaire survey (Sept. 01) and three follow-up surveys (May 02, May 03 and May 05) have been conducted. The FVMM cohort contains 1950 adolescents from 38 randomly selected elementary schools and their parents. A fourth follow-up survey (May 08), and a survey of new pupils and parents within the initial 38 schools will be conducted (Sept. 08). The FVMM project has some major advant ages: (1) It includes an intervention (free school fruit) with superior effect (increased FV intake, reduced unhealthy snacks consumption, long-term effect, and reduced social inequality). (2) It provides a solid base for assessing nutritional trends in t he society, with dietary intake measures of good quality. (3) It is one of very few studies in Norway that have good data on what adolescents really eat at school. (4) It is one of the first studies internationally that assess determinants of adolescents' soft drink consumption. (5) The cohort is large and the participation rate is very good. Since nutritional intervention research conducted in Norway is strongly encouraged, this project will contribute to the competence in a central health promoting fiel d. Through the data collected and the results published (see attached CV Elling Bere) within this project so far, a solid base for further research has been created.