Serious video games may help increase fruit, vegetable intake

​Washington: Parents, take note! Playing a serious video game online may help increase fruit and vegetable intake in your children, a new study has claimed.

Eating adequate amounts of fruit and vegetables is not only ideal for a healthy lifestyle, but has also been shown to reduce the risk of some chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease and certain cancers.

Using a serious video game, Squires Quest! II: Saving the Kingdom of Fivealot, researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital in the US evaluated how creating implementation intentions (ie, specific plans) within the goal-setting component in the game helped fourth and fifth grade students improve fruit and vegetable intake at specific meals.

For the study, 400 children played 10 episodes of Squires Quest! II, an online video game that promotes fruit and vegetable intake, in which they either created action or coping implementation intentions, both, or did not create implementation intentions during the goal-setting process to eat fruit and vegetables at specific meals.

All groups were asked to record whether they met their goals during the next episode in the game. Parents were sent emails with a newsletter and link to a parent website.