ABSTRACT
Encouraging children to eat healthily is advocated in the belief that they will benefit from the long-term physiological consequences of a good diet and that establishing healthy eating patterns early in life will lead to life-long healthy eating. This chapter describes a systematic review that addressed the question of whether such interventions increase fruit and vegetable intake, along with questions concerning children’s views and experiences of healthy eating. It deals with a broad question—related to healthy eating in general—and searched extensively using established methods for systematic reviews in health promotion. In an iterative process, barriers to, and facilitators of, healthy eating and implications for intervention development were inferred from the descriptive themes. The views from children provided valuable insights into their experiences of food and healthy eating. The children themselves provided three recommendations for the promotion of fruit and vegetable consumption.
