By Colleen Hurley, RD, Certified Kid’s Nutrition Specialist
During the winter months, Mum Mum’s has discussed several ways to increase kid’s immunity. One major component of a healthy immune system is a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. For many parents, however, getting kids to eat their veggies is a serious challenge. If you thought giving those veggies fun names like ‘X-Ray Vision Carrots’ would help you kids eat it, would you try it? A new study found it may be that easy.
Parents of picky eating preschoolers rejoice! A Cornell University study found that giving
vegetables silly names left kids asking for seconds. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the study also found that this technique continued to work for days afterward.
One hundred eighty six four year olds were given “X-ray vision carrots” and ate almost double the amount they did on the lunch days the food was simply labeled ‘carrots’. Kids continued to eat 50% more carrots with lunch even without the new labels. The study findings were presented this week at the School Nutrition Association’s annual meeting in Washington DC.
The premise of the study was based on similar findings with adults. Simply changing the name of “Seafood Filet” to “Succulent Italian Seafood Filet” increased sales by 28% as well as increasing taste approval ratings by 12%; a restaurant study found.
Researchers feel that although the study was conducted on preschoolers, the results can be extrapolated for children of any age. It was so successful that the study authors have begun naming veggies for their own kids at home with similar results. This is undoubtedly a simple, and fun, way to get your kids to eat their veggies. By sparking imagination, you can also spark interest in new foods. So break out those “power peas” or “turbo charged tomatoes” and see what happens.
译文:
儿童营养 多吃蔬菜：学龄前儿童喜欢吃名字好记的蔬菜
作者 儿童营养专家 赫尔利·科琳
在冬天，妈妈们经常讨论不同的方法来增强孩子们的免疫力。形成一个健康的免疫系统的关键因素是要多吃含水果和蔬菜的食物。然而，对于许多父母来说，让孩子们吃素是一件非常具有挑战性的事。如果给这些素食取一些有趣的名字，如“X光梦幻胡萝卜”可以让你的孩子喜欢吃胡萝卜，你会尝试着考虑给这些素食取一些有趣的名字吗？一项新的研究表明这是十分容易做到的事情。
挑食的学龄前儿童的爸爸妈妈应该为此感到高兴！科内尔大学的一项研究表明给蔬菜取一个搞笑的名字可以让孩子对这个名字思考几秒钟。Robert Wood Johnson基金会为一项研究提供资金，研究发现这种做法在以后的日子里同样会对小孩子有作用。
186名4岁的小孩在午餐时间会吃很多取名为“X光梦幻胡萝卜”，而对于那些仅仅是称为“胡萝卜”的食物则吃得很少，前者的量几乎是后者的两倍。在以后的时间里，即使胡萝卜没有标上有趣的名字，这些小孩也会因为记得这种食物曾经有个很好玩的名字而比其他不知道这个食物有好玩名字的小孩多吃50%的胡萝卜。这项研究的结果已经在在华盛顿举行的学校营养协会年度会议上公布。
这项研究同样也建立在对成年人的研究的基础上。通过一项在餐馆进行的研究表明，仅仅是把“海产食品”的名字变成“汁多味美的意大利海产食品”就可以使销量增加28%，同样人们对食品味道的赞美也会上升12%。
研究人员认为虽然这项研究是在学龄前儿童中进行的，但是根据这个研究可以推算出这种方法使用与任何年龄段的孩子。这项研究如此成功，以至于这项研究的创始者也开始在家里为自己的孩子给各种素食取好玩的名字，这种做法也取得了很好的效果。这无疑是一个使你孩子肯吃素食的简单又有趣的方法。发挥你的想象力，你同样也会对那些新的食物感兴趣的。所以，剥开豌豆，或者是使用涡轮(发动机)加工西红柿，然后看看会有什么情况发生。