ENCOURAGING children to eat fruit and vegetables is often a battle, but turning it into a competition could be the answer, according to research.

A new study suggests that playing to a youngster's competitive streak is likely to result in them choosing more of the healthy foods. And it indicates that girls are more likely to respond to an element of competition in vegetable-eating than boys.

The study analyses the findings of a trial conducted by researchers at the universities of Edinburgh, Bath and Essex involving more than 600 pupils aged six to seven and nine to 10 in 31 schools. In the "individual" challenge, pupils were given a sticker if they chose a portion of fruit or vegetables at lunchtime, or brought one to school as part of a packed lunch. They were given an extra reward if they chose, or brought in, more than four of the foods over a week.

In the team - or "competition" - challenge, a second set of pupils were also given a sticker for choosing a portion of fruit and vegetables, but were split into groups of four, with the youngster in the group who had the most stickers at the end of the week gaining an extra reward.

There was also a control group that was offered no incentives for eating fruit or vegetables. The researchers found that although the results differed by pupils' age, gender and background, overall offering pupils incentives increased their consumption of the foods, with the competition challenge having a greater and longer-lasting effect than the individual scheme.

In the competition challenge, the proportion trying fruit and veg increased by around a third, the study found. It added that the individual challenge seemed to work very well for older children, but less so for younger pupils.

Dr Jonathan James, of the department of economics at Bath University, said: "Our study looked at ways in which we can better target interventions that change young people's eating habits.

"Through our research we found that introducing an element of competition at lunchtime could have larger effects on children's eating habits than using an incentive scheme that was based only on their own choices."