These tactics can help even the pickiest of eaters tuck into their greens..
You want your child to be healthy, but not even the Jolly Green Giant could persuade your picky eater to eat his or her broccoli. It's a dilemma most parents face — but maybe science could help!
Researchers have been looking at what influences children's choices when it comes to food, and the results just might surprise you. Read on for their best tips for getting your kiddos to fill up their plates with the good stuff.
1.
Make 'Em Colorful
[post_ads]A small January 2012 study from the Cornell University found that kids are attracted to plates that contain as many as six colors while adults adults will be drawn to plates with just three. This is something candy ;companies know well — open a packet of M&Ms, for example, and you'll find six colors inside.
"What kids find visually appealing is very different to parents," lead study author Brian Wansink, PhD, a professor of marketing at Cornell, . "Unfortunately, when we parents plate food for kids, we do it in a way that is appealing to us and not to them."
2.
Offer Variety
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Dr. Wansink said children also find food placed in a figurative design more appealing.
Instead of mixing vegetables into a meal, try placing them in separate piles. Serve chicken with separate mounds of sweet corn, peas, broccoli, carrots, pasta, and tomato sauce, and they'll be more likely to try everything on their plate — in theory, at least.
3.
Serve Vegetables First
[post_ads]That's the thinking of Traci Mann, PhD, a professor of social and health psychology at the University of Minnesota, who has been studying eating habits for more than 20 years. Her advice is to offer vegetables first, when children are hungry and less likely to be distracted by other foods.
Dr. Mann tested her theory in school cafeterias, according to her website, and found that it tripled the amount of vegetables kids ate.
4.
Let Them Play With Their Food
Try playing around with the names of foods, too. In the aforementioned Cornell study, Dr. Wansink and his team found that children ate more carrots, broccoli, and green beans when school menus called these vegetables X-Ray Vision Carrots, Power Punch Broccoli, and Silly Dilly Green Beans.
5.
Involve Them Behind the Scenes
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In a May 2015 study, Cornell University researchers found children to be five times more likely to eat salad when they had grown it themselves.
6.
Don't Give Up!
Sometimes, getting your little ones to eat their greens comes down to sheer persistence. In a September 2013 study, University College London researchers offered children a vegetable they didn't like every day for 12 consecutive days and found that the children ate — and enjoyed — them by the end.
The secret? Offer a reward, the researchers said, which could be a sticker or enthusiastic praise each time the vegetable passes their lips.
After a month of continued exposure, participating children who were given a sticker ate more of the vegetable than those who received only praise. Yet after three months, the ones given a sticker were no different to those who received praise — and both groups were eating nearly twice as many vegetables as the kids in the control group.
The secret? Offer a reward, the researchers said, which could be a sticker or enthusiastic praise each time the vegetable passes their lips.
After a month of continued exposure, participating children who were given a sticker ate more of the vegetable than those who received only praise. Yet after three months, the ones given a sticker were no different to those who received praise — and both groups were eating nearly twice as many vegetables as the kids in the control group.
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