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A New System for Getting Your Kids to Eat Healthier Foods - KellogInsight
This situation likely sounds familiar to parents: You want your child to eat a healthy array of fruits and vegetables. But your kid is more interested in crackers, chips, and other processed snacks. So you find yourself disguising grated veggies in baked treats, or artfully arranging fruits in rainbows.
Now Michal Maimaran, a research associate professor of marketing at Kellogg, and her colleagues have hit upon a new technique that parents can add to their toolbox.
The researchers found that if kids didn’t already have strong preferences for the foods being offered, they often chose to try a couple of different options rather than just one. And children tended to pick a wider variety of options, including more fruit, when asked to select all their snacks for the week ahead of time, compared to when choosing one each day.
The study suggests that for younger kids who haven’t yet formed preferences, parents can encourage them to explore different foods by presenting multiple options, Maimaran says. If the kid already has definite likes and dislikes, having them choose a series of snacks all at once might help get them out of food ruts.
This situation likely sounds familiar to parents: You want your child to eat a healthy array of fruits and vegetables. But your kid is more interested in crackers, chips, and other processed snacks. So you find yourself disguising grated veggies in baked treats, or artfully arranging fruits in rainbows.
Now Michal Maimaran, a research associate professor of marketing at Kellogg, and her colleagues have hit upon a new technique that parents can add to their toolbox.
The researchers found that if kids didn’t already have strong preferences for the foods being offered, they often chose to try a couple of different options rather than just one. And children tended to pick a wider variety of options, including more fruit, when asked to select all their snacks for the week ahead of time, compared to when choosing one each day.
The study suggests that for younger kids who haven’t yet formed preferences, parents can encourage them to explore different foods by presenting multiple options, Maimaran says. If the kid already has definite likes and dislikes, having them choose a series of snacks all at once might help get them out of food ruts.