This Article is From Nov 13, 2017

Australian Scientists Create a New App to Tackle Vegetable Aversion

Vegetable aversion is common but a group of Australian scientists have found an innovative way to tackle it. They have launched a "dinner table" app in an effort to tackle aversion towards consuming vegetables.

Australian Scientists Create a New App to Tackle Vegetable Aversion

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Highlights

  • A dinner table app has been launched to tackle vegetable aversion
  • It features educational resources, recipes and serving sizes
  • It challenged people to eat vegetables for dinner for 21 days
It's common to like some vegetables and dislike some. Everyone has their favourites and pet-peeves. For instance, potatoes are so lovable while a lot of people just can't stomach green vegetables. Vegetable aversion is common but a group of Australian scientists have found an innovative way to tackle it. They have launched a "dinner table" app in an effort to tackle aversion towards consuming vegetables.

According to their research, two out of three Australian adults are not eating enough vegetables which is contributing partly to the nation's health and obesity problems. 

VegEze app, developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), aims to encourage people to add extra vegetables to their daily diets and promote healthy living,  CSIRO nutritionists will study how effective the app's game-like nature is at changing people's eating patterns as part of a broader research study.

Manny Noakes, CSIRO's senior principal research scientist professor, shared that a fresh approach was required to improve Australia's vegetable consumption and diet quality. "Our research found that two out of three Australian adults are not eating enough vegetables, especially as part of their evening meal. It's time to find more engaging, effective approaches to help break these entrenched diet habits," she said. 

The app VegEze challenges users to eat three different types of vegetables during their evening meal every day for a period of 21 days. During this period, it will track their intake and tally vegetable serves, with reminders and rewards.

For the study, the team studied the dietary habits of more than 191,000 adults for its Healthy Diet Score research since May 2015. Further, research of 1,068 adults has showed that some Australians were falling short due to lack of awareness and time, and even low confidence. To overcome these barriers, the VegEze app features educational resources, including a visual guide to optimum serve sizes, recipes and nutritional information. 

Inputs from IANS
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