Children overcoming picky eating (COPE) - A cluster randomised controlled trial.

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Behavioral Nutrition
• Mindfulness Studies

Background:

• Food neophobia, a reluctance to try unfamiliar foods, significantly restricts dietary variety in children.
• Existing interventions for childhood food neophobia have yielded inconsistent results.
• The application of mindfulness techniques to address food neophobia in children remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of two distinct mindfulness exercises in enhancing children's acceptance and consumption of novel foods.
• To compare the effects of mindful eating and mindful breathing interventions against a control group.

Main Methods:

• A cluster-randomised controlled trial involving 71 children aged 10-12 years.
• Intervention groups practiced mindful raisin-eating or mindful breathing, while the control group performed a non-mindful task over five days.
• Outcomes measured included anticipated liking, novel fruit intake, and self-reported levels of mindfulness, food neophobia, and anxiety.

Main Results:

• Children in the mindful raisin-eating group reported higher anticipated liking of a novel fruit.
• Both mindfulness intervention groups demonstrated increased consumption of the novel fruit compared to the control group.
• No significant changes in mindfulness, food neophobia, or anxiety were observed within any trial arm over the study period.

Conclusions:

• Mindfulness interventions show potential as an effective strategy for increasing children's willingness to try new foods.
• Further research is warranted to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of mindfulness in food acceptance.
• Future studies should explore long-term impacts and generalizability to other food categories, such as vegetables.