Optimisation of the National School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

学校水果和蔬菜计划是一项公共卫生干预措施，为入学前三年的英国儿童提供免费水果。这一计划很重要，因为一些儿童的水果和蔬菜摄入量很低，这可能会增加他们日后患癌症和心血管疾病的风险。我们正在研究这项计划对来自英格兰各地、来自不同种族背景和生活在不同社会经济地区的儿童饮食的影响。我们正在测量儿童肥胖和重要维生素的身体储存。我们已经知道，儿童的水果摄入量在参与该计划期间会增加，但当他们在第三年不再有资格获得免费水果时，水果摄入量就会福尔斯。因此，我们正在调查是否可以采取干预措施，制定一项持续的活动计划，支持儿童在计划结束后食用水果和蔬菜，以阻止这种下降，并维持年龄较大的儿童的水果和蔬菜摄入量。用于课堂和实践活动，以支持种植，烹饪和品尝食物。增加幼儿水果和蔬菜消费可能对长期慢性病发病率产生重要影响

The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme is a public health intervention providing free fruit to English children for the first three years of school. This scheme is important because some children have low intakes of fruit and vegetables which may increase their risk of developing cancer and cardiovascular disease later in life. We are looking at the effects of this scheme on the diet of children from across England and drawn from different ethnic backgrounds and living in different socio-economic areas. We are measuring childhood obesity and body stores of important vitamins. We already know the intake of fruit increases while children take part in the scheme but falls when they are no longer eligible for free fruit in year 3.We are therefore investigating whether an intervention to develop a continued programme of activities to support eating fruit and vegetables by children after the end of the scheme will stop this decline and maintain fruit and vegetable intake in older children.The intervention involves lessons for the classroom and practical activities to support growing, cooking and tasting food. Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in young children may have important impacts on long-term chronic disease incidence rates