Small children are hardly interested in spinach making you strong, or carrots being good for your eyes. Much more important to them is that vegetables have been prepared tastily, according to an American study. Small children assume something can't have two qualities at the same time. So a vegetable can either taste nice or be healthy, paediatrician Dr. Monika Niehaus explains. Parents, however, should only sing the praises of a food when this is believable.
The American experts from Chicago conducted five studies with children between three and five years of age. In all studies, researchers read a story to the children about a girl eating crackers or carrots. Sometimes this would be paired with recommending the positive health effects of this food. Then children would be served the same food. The scientists then looked at how much the children had eaten. It turned out that children ate more when the food hadn't been recommended as being strengthening or good for intelligence, but put on the table without any comments.