Insufficient consumption of fruit and vegetables was found in primary school children. To address this problem, a three-year school-based multicomponent intervention was conducted in 14 primary schools in the City of Zagreb. The aim of the study was therefore to evaluate one of the primary goals of the intervention—the increase in fruit and vegetable intake among primary school children. A total of 681 children were allocated to the intervention (n = 300 in the control group and n = 381 in the intervention group). The intervention included 23 interactive classroom workshops, 10 cross-curricular activities, 13 homework challenges, visual exposure with educational posters in classrooms, parent education via the website, and the implementation of new dishes into the school food system. Fruit and vegetable intake was assessed using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire at baseline and after the intervention. Data were analyzed by per-protocol analysis. The study involved 259 children (50.2% girls; age 7.7 ± 0.4 years; n = 116 in the control group and n = 143 in the intervention group) who completed a food intake frequency questionnaire at both time points. Children in the intervention group showed a significant increase (p < 0.001) in total daily fruit and vegetable intake (before: 332.1 ± 164.9 g; after: 430.1 ± 186.7 g) compared to the control group (before: 350.2 ± 187.5; after: 382.6 ± 196.8) after the intervention. The increase in fruit and vegetable intake was achieved in 89% of children, while 25% more children reached the daily recommendation of 400 g. The use of the multicomponent intervention showed potential to increase fruit and vegetable intake in primary school children.

The health benefit of a vegetarian diet is still under debate as it may result in a higher intake of some beneficial micronutrients, while others may be reduced, thus influencing various metabolic pathways and health-related biomarkers. This scoping review discusses inflammatory, oxidative and DNA damage status in vegetarians and vegans compared to omnivores. Most of the reviewed studies indicated favorable effects of a vegetarian diet on oxidative status compared to omnivores but did not clearly associate particular dietary habits to genome damage. The evidence on the effect of vegetarian diet on the inflammatory and immunological biomarkers is poor, which could at least partly be explained by methodological constraints such as small sample size, short duration of vegetarianism and inconsistent definitions of the omnivorous diet. The only inflammatory biomarker that seems to be associated with the vegetarian diet was inflammatory mediator C-reactive protein, which in several studies showed lower values in vegetarians as compared to omnivores. There were very few studies on immunological markers and the results on the difference between vegetarians and omnivores were inconclusive. Although several biomarkers involved in oxidative stress and inflammation showed a beneficial association with the vegetarian diet, further research in well-defined and sufficiently sized cohorts is needed to provide more evidence.

Non-communicable diseases (NCD) and lifestyle, particularly diet, have a close relationship. Based on the recent statistics, Croatian men and women lead in European overweight lists, which implies pessimistic prognosis in terms of incidence and prevalence of NCDs in the future. One of the possible solutions to overcome weight problems is turn to traditional balanced and sustainable diets, such as the Mediterranean diet. In this study, we assessed adherence towards Mediterranean diet using a validated questionnaire in an online survey and associated adherence scores with several demographic and anthropometric data. Based on the results of a validated Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (N = 3326), we assessed the adherence score to be 7.6 ± 2.5. The score tended to depend on sex, residence, age, education, income, and body mass index (BMI); indeed, women, residents of a coastal part of the country, older volunteers, those possessing a higher education degree, those with higher income, and those with lower BMI were associated with higher scores. As income was one of the significant findings related to higher adherence scores, we developed a dietary plan complying with Mediterranean diet principles that, on average, costed less than the average traditional balanced diet menu. Taken together, this study brought new findings regarding target groups who need to be encouraged to make lifestyle changes, and highlighted the first steps on how to make them.

Preference could be the trigger for fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption in children and could be modified by appropriate intervention to increase the acceptance of FVs. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the effects of the three-year school-based multicomponent intervention “Nutri-školica” on the FV preferences of primary school children. It also aimed to explore whether a positive change in FV preferences could lead to an increase in actual FV consumption. The study was conducted in 14 primary schools from the city of Zagreb on 193 children (52.3% boys; age, 7.7 ± 0.4 years; n = 85 in the control group and n = 108 in the intervention group) who completed a preference questionnaire before and after the intervention with a 5-point hedonic smiley-face scale, where 5 means “I like it a lot.” The per-protocol approach was used for data analysis (28.3% of children from the study sample). After the intervention, children in the intervention group (before: 3.1 ± 0.8; after: 3.5 ± 0.8) increased their FV preferences significantly more than children in the control group (before: 3.2 ± 0.8; after: 3.3 ± 0.7). Children’s FV preferences changed most toward the varieties for which they had the least preferences at the beginning of the study. Participation in the intervention had a stronger effect on changing FV intake than change in FV preferences among primary school children. In summary, the present study highlighted that a targeted intervention can increase children’s FV preferences, but that participation in the intervention is substantial for increasing FV intake.