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Get your kids to eat healthily: A new experiment on kid's eating habits
01.10.2023 00:30
Updated: 13.05.2024 21:23
Children need lots of vitamins and nutrients to grow healthy, and that's why they need to eat lots of fruits and veggies.
Unfortunately, lots of kids dislike eating them, and you can't force them to like healthy food - so what can you do?
Actually, there is one effective method that can help you.
A useful method
A new curious experiment discovered that when kids spent an extra ten minutes at the dinner table, making it a total of 30 minutes, they ate noticeably more fruits and vegetables.
On average, they consumed about 100 g more of these healthy and fresh foods.
This is like having an extra small apple or a small bell pepper, which is about one of the five recommended daily portions of fruits and veggies.
This is vital for public health because having just one more daily portion of them can reduce the risk of various diseases by 6-7%.
To make this work, it's crucial to have enough fruits and vegetables on the table, and it's best if they are cut into small, easy-to-eat pieces.
How it was discovered
In the experiment, 50 sets of parents and their kids participated.
They were served a normal German dinner with sliced bread, cold cuts, cheese, and also some fruits and vegetables in bite-sized pieces.
Why is it important?
The duration of the mealtime is an essential part of family dinners that parents can adjust to encourage their kids to eat more healthily.
The experiment also shows that longer meals didn't make the kids eat more "regular" foods.
It's believed that the bite-sized fruits and vegetables were more appealing and easier to eat.
