Purpose: It is known that the consumption of fruits and vegetables in children is declining despite wide-spread national and international policy attempts to increase consumption. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of children's consumption of fruits and vegetables so as to facilitate better health education targeting.…

Purpose: Food practices, including associated routines, rituals, and habits, are an unexplored area in school health promotion. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap through exploring how food rituals act as vehicles for young people to establish, maintain, and strengthen social relationships. Design/methodology/approach: Through an…

Purpose: The health-promoting schools (HPSs) framework has emerged as a promising model for promoting school connectedness in the school setting. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential for food practices to promote school connectedness within a HPSs framework. Design/methodology/approach: This study explores food practices within a…

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the association between the school nutrition climate and students' eating behaviors and body mass index (BMI). Methods: Data were collected as part of Youth'07, a nationally representative health survey of high school students in New Zealand. Overall, 9107 randomly selected students from 96…

Objective: To examine the relationship between family meals and nutrition behaviors of adolescents. Design: Secondary analysis of Youth'07, a nationally representative survey. Setting: Secondary schools in New Zealand. Participants: Randomly selected adolescents (aged 13-17 years, n = 9,107) completed a multimedia and anonymous survey about their…

Background: Internationally, it is well established that the behaviour, performance, and achievement of schoolchildren is directly linked to the nutritional status of overall diet -- including the contents of their school lunch-boxes. In a previous survey study by the lead authors, primary school children's food consumption behaviour was…

A wide array of health policies and initiatives have emerged in New Zealand recently in an attempt to resurrect a presumed "lost", adventure-loving, physically capable and non-obese Kiwi kid. Chief among these is "Mission-On"--a 67 million dollar package of 10 initiatives designed to explicitly target the eating and exercise…

Eating patterns among school-aged children continue to be highly reliant on frequent consumption of food items that are perceived to have low or poor nutritional value. This has become a serious public health concern. In this New Zealand-based study, primary school children's food consumption behaviour was investigated via two sources: a…

Whether in health, in education, or in material well-being, some children will always fall behind the average. The critical question is -- how far behind? Is there a point beyond which falling behind is not inevitable but policy susceptible, not unavoidable but unacceptable, not inequality but inequity? There are no widely agreed theoretical…

Objective: To use the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO) framework to determine the barriers and promoters of healthy eating and physical activity in children aged 5-12 years, as a basis for the development of a pilot community-based programme for preventing obesity in children (APPLE project: A Pilot Programme for Lifestyle…