Serving veggies with delicious dips could make children eat vegetables, including the ones they hate, researchers say.
Nutrition intake during the early stages of life plays a major role in keeping children healthy and determines a healthy life in adulthood.
Low fruit and vegetable consumption, accounts for more than 1.7 million deaths worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), insufficient fruit and vegetable consumption can increase the risks of developing a wide range of deadly diseases like cancer, heart diseases and strokes. The organization recommends consuming at least 400 g of fruit and vegetables a day.
However, most of the parents often struggle to coax children into eating healthy and meet the daily servings of vegetables and fruits.
For the study, Jennifer S. Savage, associate director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Penn State and colleagues analyzed eating habits of 34 children aged between 3 and 5. They noted and made a list of the vegetables the children both loved and hated.
Later, the scientists offered children vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, celery, green beans, red peppers and yellow squash, and asked the children to rate after tasting each of them under three different categories: "yummy," "just okay," or "yucky." Around 31 percent of the children voted "yummy".
Then, the children were given a choice of five reduced fat-dips. While one was plain, the rest were flavored with different spices. The experts then asked the children to have the vegetables with their favorite dips.
Interestingly, this time their opinion about the hated vegetables was totally different. When provided with a dip, the rate of children voting "Yummy" were around 64 percent, more than double the initial percentage.
Researchers re-confirmed their findings a second time by re- introducing two most disliked vegetables- celery and yellow squash, with a flavored dip.
"Just because a child refuses to taste a vegetable doesn't mean they don't like it," Savage, said in a news release. "It's foreign-the key is to try to get them to taste it in a positive light."
Findings of the study have been published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
