Kids are more likely to eat well when you tell them the benefits of the food, researchers have said.
Researchers have found that kids are twice as likely to eat nutritious food if they are told it will make them bigger and stronger.
Other research has shown that the more kids are offered food, the more likely they are to try it.
Jane Lanigan from Washington State University said: “Every child wants to be bigger, faster, able to jump higher.”
She continued: “Using these types of examples made the food more attractive to eat.”
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Lanigan’s study was conducted over six weeks where they gave lower-rated food and gave facts about it based on the ages of the kids.
They only began seeing process in the experiment a month into the process.
Lanigan said: “The kids ate twice as much as their CCNP (child-centered nutrition phrases) food with the repeated exposure compared to the food without the positive words.”
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She explained: “For example, when we presented lentils we would say, 'This will help you grow bigger and run faster.”
She added: "We wanted to fill a gap, where parents are often told what their kids should be eating but not how to get them to eat it. And that's really important."
