A Fun Way to Get Your Kids to Eat More Vegetables

When it comes to favorite foods, most kids don’t list carrots and broccoli at the top of their list. They’d much prefer a chocolate chip cookie or a peanut butter sandwich to a dish of hot steamed vegetables. If you’ve run out of ideas to get your kids to eat more vegetables, you may be interested in the results of a new study. It shows a unique and very effective way to motivate kids to eat more vegetables instead of just pushing them around on their plate.

This study which was carried out by a group of researchers at Cornell University showed that four-year-old preschoolers ate more vegetables when the vegetables were given catchy, funny, child-friendly, names such as “super sonic spinach” or “topsy turvy tomatoes”, for example. It seems these types of names resonate with children and inspire them to eat the same vegetables they previously would have ignored.

In this study when vegetables were given names and presented to a group of pre-school kids, the four-year-olds ate fifty percent more than when the vegetables were called by their standard names. While this may sound silly to adults, as it turns out, adults aren’t immune to the power of names either. When menu items at restaurants are given fancier, more descriptive names, sales of these items tend to go up. It seems that there’s power in words, particularly when it comes to encouraging your children to eat more vegetables.

Would this clever naming trick work in your own house? Start by choosing a healthy vegetable and before preparing it for your child, give it a nifty new name. Try to relate the name to something your child enjoys such as a favorite television show, cartoon character, comic book character, or a sports name. This will help your child better identify with it. When your child sits down to dinner, encourage him to help himself to the “power peas” and “blast off broccoli”. To your delight, you may find your child asking for seconds instead of struggling to eat the first plate. And more vegetables mean more antioxidants to help keep your child healthy.

Although this study was conducted on four-year-old children, there’s no reason to think the renaming game won’t encourage children of all ages to eat more vegetables. Give it a try in your house and see if doesn’t inspire your own children to eat more veggies with less of a fuss.