"Tricks to Get Kids to Eat Healthier at Home"
If you offer kids broccoli or a chocolate bar,
which do you think they'd pick?
A study showed 4 out of 5 picked the chocolate.
OK, but how proud are the parents of the kids
that chose the broccoli right now?
But what if you put an Elmo sticker on the broccoli?
When an Elmo sticker was placed on the broccoli,
it was half and half. 50% chose the broccoli.
It works in schools too.
A picture of Spongebob saying, "Got Beans?"
and 37% more boys and 17% more girls chose green beans.
One little sign and kids were eating significantly more vegetables.
We saw how we should cut up (or ideally cut out)
cookies to minimize consumption.
How should we cut up vegetables to maximize consumption?
Which do you think 9 to 12 year olds ate more of?
Whole slices, sticks or stars?
And do they like them bigger or smaller?
The results, were strikingly clear.
Turns out "Shape was very influential;"
"children clearly preferred having their vegetables cut."
Stars were liked the most.
What about slices versus sticks?
No difference. And size only mattered for the whole chunk,
where the ordinary size was preferred to the miniature versions.
If they're still not biting, you can apply the same trick
I use to get our dog to eat stuff she doesn't like,
dip it in peanut butter.
Pairing vegetables with peanut butter,
"may successfully increase intake, even in vegetable-resistant children."
Offering a salad dressing dip may help as well.
Then there's always the hidden vegetables strategy.
"In the present study, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes,
squash, and zucchini were covertly added
to familiar entrees so that the appearance, flavor, and texture
of the original recipes were maintained",
like pureeing vegetables into a pasta sauce,
and families weren't the wiser.
This shouldn't be the only way, though.
"Covertly incorporating vegetables into foods"
can have a beneficial effect on children's vegetable intake,
(but) it should not be the only way
that vegetables are served to children.
Because the liking of an originally disliked vegetable
can be increased through repeated exposure,
it is important to use several strategies
to ensure that children experience different forms of vegetables,
especially whole vegetables."
Because they're not gonna live at home forever.
Worst comes to worst you can make a video game.
A public/private partnership "The Quest to Lava Mountain",
where you can apparently harvest kale
and gain knowledge about the health benefits
"of eating healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grain foods,
and the detrimental effects of eating junk".
What may be the best way, though,
to get kids to eat more fruits and vegetables?
This study looked at all sorts of parenting styles,
should you pressure them, should you lay off?
And what was the most important factor?
The results indicated that THE most important predictor
of children's fruit consumption was...
wait for it...
the parent's consumption -
and pretty much the same with vegetables.
If we want our kids to eat healthy,
we have to model healthy behavior.
The researchers conclude that in order to try to increase
"children's fruit and vegetable consumption,
parents should be guided to improve their own (darn) diet" first.