Video Game May Improve Kids' Eating Habits !!
Submitted by Boney on August 18, 2004 - 17:31.
Video Game May Improve Kids' Eating Habits
USDA - ARS News Service
A fun, fast-paced video game called "Squire's Quest!" might entice
kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, according to the scientists
who are creating and testing it. Researchers at the Children's
Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas, are trying out the
action-packed computer game with 1,600 children in Houston elementary
schools.
The Nutrition Center is operated jointly by ARS, Baylor College of
Medicine, and Texas Children's Hospital. ARS is the chief research
agency of USDA. Kids in the United States only eat about two to
three-and-one-half servings of fruits and vegetables a day, instead
of the five servings essential for optimal physical and mental growth
and development, according to Tom Baranowski.
A professor of behavioral nutrition at the research center and
Baylor's Department of Pediatrics, Baranowski leads the team that is
developing and testing the video game as part of an innovative new
nutrition-education program. Each child playing the video games
starts as a squire and enters into training to become a knight.
Knights help to protect an imaginary kingdom, called "Five-A-Lot,"
from invaders bent on destroying its fruits and vegetables. As
squires earn points towards various levels of knighthood, they learn
about fruits, 100-percent fruit juices, and veggies.
The video game is part of a series of ten, 25-minute-long classroom
sessions in which kids make tasty virtual recipes using fruits and
veggies. Then they set personal goals for making those recipes at
home, and for eating at least one more serving of a fruit or
vegetable at a specific meal or snack.
Baranowski developed the video game and kid-friendly, behavior-change
curriculum in collaboration with Baylor assistant professors Janice
Baranowski and Karen Cullen, along with health educator Lauren Honess
Morreale and freelance writer Brenda Congdon. The scientists expect
to finish analyzing the results of their education experiment by the
end of summer 2000.
Scientific contact: Tom Baranowski,
ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center Houston, Texas
phone 713-798-6762
fax 713-798-7098
