Using Spices and Herbs to Increase Vegetable Intake Among Urban High School Students
September 6, 2021 updated by: Chris D'Adamo, University of Maryland, Baltimore
Using Spices and Herbs to Increase Vegetable Intake Among Urban High School Students in the National School Lunch Program
A two-phase, school-based intervention will be conducted at a high school in Baltimore to evaluate whether the addition of spices and herbs to vegetable dishes in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) can increase vegetable intake among students in an urban and predominantly African-American high school.
Study Overview
Status
Completed
Conditions
Intervention / Treatment
Detailed Description
The proposed research will be conducted at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore, Maryland. In this two-phase intervention, the research team will work in Phase I with stakeholders throughout the high school community to identify the barriers to vegetable intake in the NSLP in this student population and to determine how spices and herbs might help overcome these barriers. The stakeholders with whom we will collaborate will include students, school administration, and cafeteria staff.
Phase II will focus on the direct measurement of vegetable intake among students both before and after spices and herbs are added to the vegetables in the NSLP. The spiced vegetable recipes that received the most favorable student rankings in the taste tests of Phase I will be offered.
The vegetable recipes flavored with spices and herbs will meet all NSLP requirements for fat, sugar, total calories, and all other guidelines.
Student vegetable intake will be assessed through two outcomes: 1.) plate waste, and 2.) production waste.
Study Type
Interventional
Enrollment (Actual)
29
Phase
- Not Applicable
Contacts and Locations
This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.
Study Locations
-
-
Maryland
-
Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21201
- Center for Integrative Medicine University of Maryland
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-
Participation Criteria
Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.
Eligibility Criteria
Ages Eligible for Study
12 years to 21 years (Child, Adult)
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Genders Eligible for Study
All
Description
Inclusion Criteria:
- Enrolled student at Cristo Rey High School
- Able to read and write English (exclusive to Phase 1 participants)
Exclusion Criteria:
- Does not eat lunch in the Cristo Rey High School cafeteria
- Not willing to complete questionnaires (exclusive to Phase 1 participants)
Study Plan
This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.
How is the study designed?
Design Details
- Primary Purpose: Other
- Allocation: N/A
- Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
- Masking: None (Open Label)
Arms and Interventions
Participant Group / Arm |
Intervention / Treatment |
|---|---|
|
Experimental: School Lunch Participants
School lunch participants will be given vegetables with and without additional spices and herbs to determine if intake will increase with the addition of spices and herbs.
|
Direct measurement of school lunch vegetable intake among students both before and after spices and herbs are added.
|
What is the study measuring?
Primary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
|
Vegetable plate waste
Time Frame: The overall time frame for the outcome measure assessment is up to 8 months. This will occur during the 2016-2017 school year.
|
Student vegetable intake will be assessed through plate waste (weighed).
|
The overall time frame for the outcome measure assessment is up to 8 months. This will occur during the 2016-2017 school year.
|
Secondary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
|
Cafeteria production waste as measured by calculating the difference between total prepared vegetable weight and discarded vegetable weight.
Time Frame: The overall time frame for the outcome measure assessment is up to 8 months. This will occur during the 2016-2017 school year.
|
This outcome involves quantifying both the amount of vegetables that were prepared and served and the amount of vegetables that were thrown away by cafeteria staff after lunch.
|
The overall time frame for the outcome measure assessment is up to 8 months. This will occur during the 2016-2017 school year.
|
|
Attitudes towards eating vegetables
Time Frame: The outcome measure is being assessed up to 12 months. Spring 2016 through Spring 2017.
|
Participants will complete a baseline questionnaire in the Spring of 2016 followed by a follow-up questionnaire at the end of the 2016-2017 school year.
Changes in attitudes towards eating vegetables will be assessed before and after the addition of spices and herbs to the school lunch vegetables.
|
The outcome measure is being assessed up to 12 months. Spring 2016 through Spring 2017.
|
Collaborators and Investigators
This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.
Investigators
- Principal Investigator: Christopher D'Adamo, PhD, University of Maryland, Baltimore
Publications and helpful links
The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.
General Publications
- D'Adamo CR, McArdle PF, Balick L, Peisach E, Ferguson T, Diehl A, Bustad K, Bowden B, Pierce BA, Berman BM. Spice MyPlate: Nutrition Education Focusing Upon Spices and Herbs Improved Diet Quality and Attitudes Among Urban High School Students. Am J Health Promot. 2016 May;30(5):346-56. doi: 10.1177/0890117116646333.
- Hanks AS, Wansink B, Just DR. Reliability and accuracy of real-time visualization techniques for measuring school cafeteria tray waste: validating the quarter-waste method. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2014 Mar;114(3):470-474. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2013.08.013. Epub 2013 Oct 14.
- Gase LN, McCarthy WJ, Robles B, Kuo T. Student receptivity to new school meal offerings: assessing fruit and vegetable waste among middle school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Prev Med. 2014 Oct;67 Suppl 1(0 1):S28-33. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.04.013. Epub 2014 Apr 16.
- Byker CJ, Farris AR, Marcenelle M, Davis GC, Serrano EL. Food waste in a school nutrition program after implementation of new lunch program guidelines. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2014 Sep-Oct;46(5):406-11. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2014.03.009. Epub 2014 May 22.
- Just DR, Wansink B, Hanks AS. Chefs move to schools. A pilot examination of how chef-created dishes can increase school lunch participation and fruit and vegetable intake. Appetite. 2014 Dec;83:242-247. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.08.033. Epub 2014 Aug 27.
Study record dates
These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.
Study Major Dates
Study Start
September 1, 2016
Primary Completion (Actual)
May 1, 2017
Study Completion (Actual)
June 1, 2017
Study Registration Dates
First Submitted
September 7, 2016
First Submitted That Met QC Criteria
September 17, 2016
First Posted (Estimate)
September 21, 2016
Study Record Updates
Last Update Posted (Actual)
September 14, 2021
Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria
September 6, 2021
Last Verified
September 1, 2021
More Information
Terms related to this study
Additional Relevant MeSH Terms
Other Study ID Numbers
- HP-00066121
Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)
Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?
NO
This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.