How can you get children to eat healthy foods? Employ the same gimmicks food marketers have used for years to persuade children to demand the latest sugar-coated cereal; find an appealing cartoon character to make the pitch.
Researchers at Mahidol University in Bangkok say there is a lot to that theory.
In 1932 the cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man began eating spinach whenever he was in a fight with the bully Bluto and needed a burst of super strength. As a result, kids everywhere stopped turning up their noses at spinach and began eating it.
Spinach consumption reportedly increased 33 percent in the United States between 1931 and 1936 as Popeye gained popularity. Some even credit Popeye with saving the spinach industry during the Depression.
The same thing could work today, researchers say. They found that the type and amount of vegetables children ate improved after they took part in a program using multimedia and role models to promote healthy food. Their findings are published in the journal Nutrition & Dietetics.
Twenty six kindergarten children aged four to five participated in the eight-week study. The researchers recorded the kinds and amounts of fruit and vegetables eaten by the children before and after the program. The program tried to making eating healthy foods more fun.
"We got the children planting vegetable seeds, taking part in fruit and vegetable tasting parties, cooking vegetable soup, and watching Popeye cartoons," said lead researcher Chutima Sirikulchayanonta. "We also sent letters to parents with tips on encouraging their kids to eat fruit and vegetables, and teachers sat with children at lunch to role model healthy eating."
Vegetable intake doubled
Sirikulchayanonta and her colleagues found vegetable intake doubled and the types of vegetables the children consumed increased from two to four. Parents also reported their children talked about vegetables more often and were proud they had eaten them in their school lunch.
She said there was no significant change in the kinds of fruit eaten by the children, but this was probably because they were already eating more fruit than vegetables at the start of the study.
According to Australia's last children's nutrition survey, Australian children are eating too much saturated fat, sugar and salt, and not enough fruit and vegetables. Only 61 per cent of the four to eight year-olds surveyed ate the recommended amounts of fruit, and fewer than one in four ate enough vegetables.
Sirikulchayanonta cites studies she says have shown the food habits and eating patterns picked up in early childhood 'track' into later childhood and adulthood. She said focusing on healthy food choices at an early age can have a major impact on the future health of adults.
