JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Children’s eating habits are formed at an early age making childhood a crucial period for introducing novel foods such as pulse-based food products. Pulse Discovery Toolkit (PDTK) intervention was designed to increase familiarity with pulses and to eventually contribute to consumption of pulse-based foods among pre-school children in childcare centers.

Objective:

To determine PDTK’s impact on knowledge, acceptability and consumption of pulse-based foods among pre-school children attending childcare centers (CCs) and to assess its feasibility and acceptability by Early Childhood Educators (ECE) and cooks. The nutrient contents and food group servings of pulse-based intervention recipes in the PDTK were also compared with regular CCs recipes.

Methods:

The PDTK intervention was delivered over a 3-month period in two childcare centers in Saskatoon (n= 50 children, n= 8 staff). The intervention, which integrated taste exposure and nutrition education, consisted of 12 child-friendly weekly lessons, a food service guide for cooks, 15 recipes for pulse-based foods, four intervention recipes incorporated in the CC menu, and four parent newsletters. Pre- and post-intervention knowledge tests, plate waste measurement, sensory evaluation, nutrient content comparison of the intervention and control foods from the regular childcare menu were carried out to evaluate the impact of the intervention.

Results:

Improvements in correct identification of chickpeas (10% at pre-intervention to 33% at post-intervention), beans (38% at pre-intervention to 52% at post-intervention) and peas (27% at pre-intervention to 38% at post-intervention) were observed. Children consumed higher amounts of the regular recipes than the intervention recipes at both times. However, at the end of intervention, significant differences were only observed in the amount of total food consumption (P=.049) and the protein content (P= 0.04) when consumption proportion was examined, with both higher for the control recipes in comparison to the intervention recipes. Majority (92% and 72%) of the children rated the refried bean wrap and lentil smoothie “yummy”, respectively. Most of the intervention recipes have lower energy, fat, and sodium content compared to the regular CC recipes.

Conclusions:

: With a few modifications to make some of the lessons more age-appropriate and some of the recipes easier to cook, it is feasible to implement the PDTK in childcare centers in order to promote regular consumption of pulses.