The bottom line in a Cornell study: If you want school children to eat more fruit, serve them sliced apples rather than whole fruit. “It sounds simplistic but even the simplest forms of inconvenience affect consumption,” says David Just, professor of behavioral economics, told the Washington Post. “Sliced apples just make a lot more sense for kids.”
A pilot study at eight schools found fruit consumption leaped by more than 60 percent when the apples were sliced. A follow-up study at six other schools found apple consumption went up and a larger portion of students ate at least half of the apples.
Sales figures indicate that sliced apples are a popular idea, says the Post. Americans ate 500 million fresh sliced apples in 2014, three times the consumption 10 years earlier. “The jump in fresh sliced apple consumption just so happens to coincide with an uptick in overall apples consumption, which has grown by 13 percent since 2010. In 2013, Americans ate just under 17.5 pounds per capita, the most in almost a decade.”