We all know how marketing is being used to entice more people and children into eating junk foods. This level of influence possessed by marketing ads can also be used to attract kids to consuming healthy vegetables more instead of junk food.
A study published on July 5 in the journal Pediatrics acknowledged that marketing undoubtedly influences children, and that power can be used to encourage kids to eat more healthy selections of food. For the study, the research team put up banners around cafeteria salad bars in 10 urban elementary schools.
The banners showcased cartoon vegetables dressed up as superheroes. Videos featuring the characters were also shown in the schools' TV screens, CBS News reported.
Promising Results
After four weeks, the research team recorded positive results. The number of children who ate vegetables from school salad bars has doubled or tripled.
For schools that used banners of the cartoon veggie superheroes, 24 percent of students are now taking vegetables from the cafeteria's salad bar from the less than 13 percent previously recorded. Schools that used both banners and videos saw even more positive results. Nearly 35 percent of children now take vegetables from their school's salad bar, a far cry from the previous 10 percent.
Tamara Melton, a dietician and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, said putting up banners and showing videos are some of the practical methods that schools can use to promote vegetable consumption. However, schools might need to modify those tactics over time given that its effects on kids could wear off. But through those marketing methods, experts are hoping that children will be into diets filled with fruits and vegetables and maintain it as they grow up.
How Parents Can Help
Parents should also encourage their children to eat more vegetables. Melton advised parents to follow healthy eating habits as well so they could serve as examples to the young kids.
Other than that, Melton said parents should allow their children to help prepare fruits and vegetables because youngsters are more likely to eat a meal if they have a hand in its preparation. Parents can give vegetables a twist through added ingredients, and to cultivate a home garden that kids can take care of.
New meal standards have been in effect in schools across the United States since 2012. The meal standards control the number of calories per meal serving and should contain at least one portion of fruits and vegetables, CNN reported. Middle schools and high schools that follow the meal standards saw increases in the levels of nutrients in the meals.
