AUDIO: HOW TO GET KIDS TO EAT MORE VEGETABLES

Researchers from Penn State have a suggestion for getting your kids to eat more vegetables: Put more vegetables on their plate, and they will eat more vegetables. Study authors found that doubling the amount of corn or broccoli served with a meal led to children eating 68 percent more vegetables overall. The thinking is, kids only eat what they feel is “enough” of a portion to get by, and if the initial portion is bigger, they’ve got more to choke down before it looks like they’ve eaten enough.
– Another trick: serve the veggies with foods that are not your kid’s favorite food. If you offer vegetables alongside, say, chicken nuggets you might be disappointed. The vegetables will be compared to the other foods on the plate. You need to make sure your vegetables taste pretty good compared to the other foods (* This is where the Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup comes in).
– Surprisingly, adding butter and salt did not make the veggies more attractive to the children. (* Did they try jelly? Chocolate sprinkles?)
(The study appears in the journal Appetite.)
* Also – LAY OFF THE BROCCOLI, MAN! Give them the vegetables they like.
* Like beans. Beans – the musical fruit (see audio clip).
* This study comes from the Penn State School of Parental Sneakiness.
* It was originally titled “How To End Up Throwing Out More Vegetables.”
CLIP: This sort-of relates: our classic “Make A Woosh” parody spot.