Five new food-themed story books have been created by scholars at US-based Stanford University to teach kids the importance of fruit and vegetables.
University psychologists Sarah Gripshover and Ellen Markman claim that children will voluntarily eat more fresh produce if they already understand the benefits. Markman explained: 'We sought to harness this curiosity by creating a framework for guiding children to understand more deeply why they need to eat a variety of healthy foods.'
The research project, which was conducted over three months at a US pre-school, saw a group of 3-5 year olds read one of five different books each week during lunch time. They were then then tested on their grasp of the healthy eating concepts they had learnt about. The books taught children about the importance of having a varied diet, how digestion works, different food groups and how nutrients work to make us healthier. Subsequently, it was found that the kids who did read the books doubled their voluntary intake of vegetables during snack time, whereas the vegetable consumption of children who hadn't read the books remained the same.
Markman added: “What sets our materials apart from other approaches is the care we took to explain to children why their body needs different kinds of healthy food. We did not train children to eat more vegetables specifically.”
According to a recent government study, the UK now has the highest rate of child obesity in western Europe. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who famously campaigned for healthier school dinners, told FPJ in a recent interview that there are British children “not eating any fruit and vegetables from one week to the next.”
