MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. elementary school students will eat more whole grains if healthier bread products are gradually introduced in their school lunches, researchers said.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota said whole grain breads are strongly recommended as part of a healthy diet, but children and pre-teens often won't eat them. For the study, the researchers monitored how much bread students threw away, and whether that amount increased as the percentage of whole-grain flour in the bread and rolls was gradually increased.
The researchers tracked meals fed to kindergartners through sixth-graders at two Hopkins, Minn., elementary schools over the course of a school year.
Red and white whole-grain flour was added incrementally to products, but students showed no strong preference for either type of flour.
The study, scheduled to be published in the Journal of Child Nutrition and Management, found students didn't throw away more bread products until the percentage of whole-grain flour in the bread and rolls reached about 70 percent.
A gradual approach to improving children's overall diets can be successful both for parents and school food-service workers, Len Marquart, one of the study's authors said.
