A new study found that pairing dips and sauces with vegetables can make children want to eat more vegetables. This recommendation will surely help parents who had been struggling in convincing their children to eating healthier meals.
Researchers from the University of Arizona found that preschoolers who were served Brussels sprouts with cream cheese showed a higher likelihood of saying that they liked it and consumed more of the vegetable, and surprisingly even when they were served plain Brussels sprouts later on.
Associative conditioning is the technique of pairing something new with someone familiar and already liked by someone. The authors suggest that it could be employed to encourage kids and adults alike to consume more healthy food.
"This has the potential to change the eating habits of children, including eating more vegetables, and this in turn will affect childhood obesity," said Arizona State University's psychologist and the study's lead author Elizabeth Capaldi-Phillips to Reuters Health.
The parents of 29 children aged 3 to 5 were asked to answer a survey about their kids' perspectives on 11 vegetables, whether the like, dislike or have never tried it. It showed that most children have not tried Cauliflower and Brussels sprouts.
The researchers used these vegetables in the experiment to evaluate the preferences of children. They were given one of either vegetable, boiled and served plain, with unsweetened cream or sweetened cream cheese once a day for a week.
They ate their meals in a group of 5 or 6, facilitated by a researcher or a teacher. They were then served plain after the conditioning week. They discovered that the kids served Brussels sprouts with cream cheese liked them more in comparison to the children that were served plain vegetables during the period of the study. Two-thirds of the kids who ate Brussels sprouts with cream cheese claim to like the vegetables, while less than one in five who was given the plain sprouts said they did.
Using the flavor-pairing technique, children need to try the new vegetables only seven times to be able to be able to eat them plain. It could work with other vegetables and not only for Brussels sprouts of Cauliflowers.
The study was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
