The good news: Research suggests that a new federal rule has prompted the nation's schools to serve an extra $5.4 million worth of fruits and vegetables each day.Good Grief. I don't know which is more disturbing- the economic waste or the erroneous dietary guidelines.
The bad news: The nation's children throw about $3.8 million of that in the garbage each day.
The case against using bribes in parenting is perhaps best articulated in Alfie Kohn's 1999 book "Punished by Rewards." In many scenarios, the use of rewards can crush internal motivation. With healthy eating, for example, some fear that prizes will prevent children from developing their own motivation to eat things that are good for them. Another danger, known as a boomerang effect, is the possibility that some children would eat less fruits and vegetables when the rewards disappeared.So many studies. No improvement in behavior or health. So do more studies...
That's why Price and Just measured fruit and vegetable consumption before and after the week-long experiments. When the week of prizes ended, students went back to the same level of fruit and vegetable consumption as before -- no lasting improvement, but no boomerang effect either. Now the researchers are studying whether extending the experiments over three to five weeks might yield lasting change.
Good work if you can get it, I guess.
