School-based gardening, cooking and nutrition intervention increased vegetable intake but did not reduce BMI: Texas sprouts - a cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: Although school garden programs have been shown to improve dietary behaviors, there has not been a cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted to examine the effects of school garden programs on obesity or other health outcomes. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of a one-year school-based gardening, nutrition, and cooking intervention (called Texas Sprouts) on dietary intake, obesity outcomes, and blood pressure in elementary school children.

Methods: This study was a school-based cluster RCT with 16 elementary schools that were randomly assigned to either the Texas Sprouts intervention (n = 8 schools) or to control (delayed intervention, n = 8 schools).

Design and participant characteristics of TX sprouts: A school-based cluster randomized gardening, nutrition, and cooking intervention.

Aims: To outline the study design, outcome measures, protocol and baseline characteristics of enrolled participants of Texas (TX) Sprouts, a one-year school-based gardening, nutrition, and cooking cluster randomized trial.

Methods: Eight schools were randomly assigned to the TX Sprouts intervention and eight schools to the delayed intervention over three years (2016-2019). The intervention arm received: formation/training of Garden Leadership Committees; a 0.