Evaluating Effectiveness of Spices and Herbs to Increase Vegetable Intake Among Military

Summary

"The goal of this study is to evaluate whether the addition of spices and herbs to the vegetables served to military personnel on a large military base can increase vegetable intake as compared to typical vegetable offerings without spices and herbs.

A two-phase intervention will be conducted on base at Naval Station Activity Bethesda (NSAB) to evaluate whether the addition of spices and herbs to vegetable dishes can increase vegetable intake amongst military service members.

Phase I will involve extensive engagement with key stakeholders involved in current vegetable consumption at NSAB, including military service members, staff dietitians, the health promotion specialist on base, barracks managers, military culinary specialist, unit leaders, morale welfare and recreations/single sailor program leaders, base senior enlisted leaders, and the base commander. Questionnaires will be administered evaluating current barriers to vegetable intake at NSAB, familiarity with and liking of a variety of spices and herbs, and sensory testing of several vegetables with and without spices and herbs. The recipes in the vegetable sensory testing comparisons will be identical other than spices and herbs content.

Phase II will involve will focus upon the direct measurement of vegetable intake (primary outcome) and vegetable linking (secondary outcome) among active-duty service members with spices and herbs and without spices and herbs. The vegetables will be provided as part of an entire meal on a "grab and go" plate. The other foods in the meal (proteins, starches, etc.) accompanying the vegetables will be kept consistently paired to vegetable recipes to minimize confounding. Vegetable intake will be assessed via cell phone pictures and liking will be assessed by a single 5-point Likert scale question."

Conditions

• Dietary Intake

Interventions

OTHER

Spiced

Vegetables provided to volunteers will be spiced.

OTHER

Plain

Vegetables provided to volunteers will be plain.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Maryland, Baltimore

  collaborator OTHER

• Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine

  collaborator OTHER

• Pennington Biomedical Research Center

  collaborator OTHER

• McCormick Science Institute

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

  lead FED

Principal Investigators

• Chris D'Adamo, PhD · Assistant Professor

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-11-06

Primary Completion

2024-07-30

Completion

2024-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations