Children eat more vegetables when they are served with flavored dips, researchers from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) found through a study.
Most parents have difficulty in getting their children, especially younger ones, to eat their greens and vegetables. Jennifer S. Savage, associate director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Penn State, noted that less than 10 percent of all 4 to 8 years olds consume the daily dose of vegetables recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Moreover, more than one third of all children don't consume vegetables on a typical day.
According to ChooseMyPlate, a USDA initiative, all 3 to 5 year old children must eat at least one and a half to two cups of vegetables daily. So, Savage conducted a study to determine the ways to entice children to eat more vegetables.
For the study, researchers looked at 34 children aged between 3 and 5. The children were presented with six different vegetables: carrots, cucumbers, celery, green beans, red peppers and yellow squash. After tasting them, the children were asked to rate the vegetables according to "yummy," "just okay" and "yucky." Researchers also noted when children refused to taste some vegetables. The vegetables were again presented to the children with five different Miracle Whip-based reduced-fat dips and their likes and dislikes were reevaluated. One of the dips was plain while the others were flavored. Researchers found that children were three times more likely to reject a vegetable when presented alone than when given with a flavored dip and were twice more likely to reject a vegetable alone than when given with a plain dip.
Spice flavored dips were preferred to plain dips with flavors like "pizza" and "ranch" being the favorites and "garlic" and "herb" being the least preferred.
Researchers noted that initially only 32 percent children termed a vegetable as yummy when eaten alone but this number rose to 64 percent when presented with a dip. Moreover, initially 18 percent children refused to taste a vegetable alone but when accompanied with a flavored dip, this number dropped to only 6 percent.
"Just because a child refuses to taste a vegetable doesn't mean they don't like it," Savage said. "It's foreign -- the key is to try to get them to taste it in a positive light."
