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The Food Dude Healthy Eating Program from Wales can get children to eat more F&V.
The traditional approach has been to inform children about what they should and shouldn't eat in the hope they will alter their eating habits accordingly. Unfortunately, research evidence shows that this approach has limited success and children's eating habits have remained unchanged.
Clearly, children's knowing what they should do does not mean that they will do it. What they need is not simply to be given information, but help to change their actual eating behaviour.
The Food Dude Healthy Eating Program has been developed on the basis of established psychological principles and is an exciting advance in helping children to improve their diets. The program is the result of scientifically rigorous research begun in 1992, by psychologists at the Bangor Food Research Unit (BFRU), based at the University of Wales Bangor, UK.
The Food Dude program is designed for use in primary schools.
The program comprises two key elements:
- Video adventures featuring hero figures, called the 'Food Dudes', who like fruit and vegetables and provide effective social models for the children to imitate.
- Small rewards (e.g. stickers, notebooks, pencils) to ensure that the children begin to taste the foods.
These additional elements provide support for the main programme:
- Food Dude letters
- Food Dude Homepack
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Learn more about this exciting program
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