Your kids don’t eat vegetables … study finds solution

If you’re having trouble getting your kids to eat vegetables, the results of a new scientific study may offer the answer. A team of researchers from Penn State University in America doubled the amount of corn and broccoli in children’s dishes served in the meal from 60 to 120 grams.

And they found that children on average ate 68% of the vegetables in the diet, which equates to an additional 21 grams, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”.

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What’s more, the team of researchers believe the results of their study may help parents around the world get their children to achieve the recommended amounts of vegetables per day, provided the advice is followed without the children sticking around. notice or refuse to eat vegetables at all.

“The increase we have seen is about one-third of a meal, or 12% of the recommended daily allowance for young children,” said researcher Hanim Diktas, graduate student in nutritional science.

Additionally, the research team emphasized that it’s wise to figure out which vegetables kids like the most and not force them to eat any kind they don’t like.

“It’s important to give your kids lots of vegetables, but it’s also important to give them the ones they like because they are in competition with the rest of the food,” said researcher Barbara Rolls.

“Parents can make it easier by taking a step-by-step approach to eating new vegetables, cooking them the way their children like them, and experimenting with different flavors and spices to get them used to them,” she added.

Find alternatives

At the same time, the researchers said they were working “on additional research that investigates the possibility of replacing vegetables with other foods rather than just adding more vegetables.”

In the future, they said, perhaps they could make portion size recommendations and replace vegetables with other foods, which could help reduce waste after every meal and encourage children to eat. more vegetables.

The researchers also noted that seasoning vegetables with butter and salt did not affect children’s consumption rates.

It is reported that the UK NHS emphasizes that children should eat at least five servings of a variety of fruits and vegetables per day. However, this serving size can vary with age, body size, and levels of physical activity.