Cartoons Can Encourage Kids to Eat Veggies

(August 9, 2010) - TV gets blamed for a lot of things but researchers say it can also get kids to eat their veggies. Do you remember the old Popeye cartoon, and how he used to eat a can of spinach to get his strength? Well using Popeye was one part of a program that successfully got kids to eat more vegetables.

Popeye cartoons, tasting parties and junior cooking classes helped increase vegetable intake in kindergarten children, according to new research published in the journal Nutrition & Dietetics. (Read about "Dietary Guidelines")\ Researchers found the type and amount of vegetables children ate improved after they took part in a program using multimedia and role models to promote healthy food.

Twenty six kindergarten children aged four to five participated in the eight week study. The researchers recorded the kinds and amounts of fruit and vegetables eaten by the children before and after the program.

The lead researcher said: "We got the children planting vegetable seeds, taking part in fruit and vegetable tasting parties, cooking vegetable soup, and watching Popeye cartoons. We also sent letters to parents with tips on encouraging their kids to eat fruit and vegetables, and teachers sat with children at lunch to role model healthy eating."

They also found vegetable intake doubled and the types of vegetables the children consumed increased from two to four. Parents also reported their children talked about vegetables more often and were proud they had eaten them in their school lunch.

There was no significant change in the kinds of fruit eaten by the children, but this was probably because they were already eating more fruit than vegetables at the start of the study.