By: Shannon Hall
Published: 01/20/2015 08:33 AM EST on LiveScience
Left to their own devices, most kids will choose to gobble down ice cream or chocolate rather than broccoli or brussels sprouts. So, at school lunch, they’ll likely eat the yummiest items first and then drop the rest in the trash. But a new study finds that kids eat more fruits and vegetables when school recess takes place before lunch, rather than after.
“Recess is a pretty big deal to kids,” said lead researcher Joe Price, an associate professor in the Department of Economics at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. “If you’re going to make a kid choose between going to recess and eating their veggies, recess is going to win.”
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The findings will be published in February in the journal Preventive Medicine.
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