For parents, whose children eat their greens such as broccoli and cabbage, must be a dream. I seem to remember it being a constant battle to eat mine when I was young although I thoroughly enjoy picking kale or cabbage leaves from the garden in my more senior years, for a Sunday lunch. For parents though, the prospect of encouraging their kids to eat generally bitter vegetables might have improved.
Findings from a recent U.S. study showed that providing a low-fat dip such as a dressing, to eat with vegetables reduced the inherent bitterness in the food for those children eating their greens. The study was conducted by the Family Eating Lab. at Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education who are investigating strategies for improving vegetable consumption in children.
In the article, 152 preschool-age children in their Head Start programme were served raw broccoli at snack time over a seven-week period. The researchers found that offering a low-fat dip (ranch dressing) improved consumption of the vegetable by 80% among bitter-sensitive children. A number of children are sensitive to bitterness and tend to avoid such foods, so offering something to help reduce this appeared to improve uptake. At the molecular level, bitterness appears to stem from the presence of the TAS2R38 gene which influences perception of the sensation. To gauge the level of sensitivity in each child to bitterness, the researchers offered each one a cup with increasing amounts of 6-n-propylthiouracil, a bitter-tasting compound common in green vegetables. After each cup, each child was then asked whether the drink tasted like water or was bitter and about 70% of the children responded in the latter. The dips did not improve eating of broccoli in bitter-insensitive children. The Center was keen to point out in their comments on the research that it was preferable not to provide high fat dips.
Reference
Fisher, J.O., Mennella, J.A., Hughes, S.O., Liu, Y., Mendoza, P.M., Patrick, H. (2011) Offering “Dip” Promotes Intake of a Moderately-Liked Raw Vegetable among Preschoolers with Genetic Sensitivity to Bitterness. J. Amer. Dietetic Soc., – 24 November (10.1016/j.jada.2011.08.032) accessed 3rd December 2011
My kids were really picky. We gave them vegetables but never forced them. They eventually ate more and more vegetables and now as young adults eat a wide range of foods from all five food groups. When talking to my 25 year old son th other day, I realized that we never restricted sweets and now neither of them are really much interested in sweets. Take a look at ‘The Division of Responsibility’ as outlined by the Ellyn Satter Institute because it really does work!
There are plenty of books on how to get your children to eat well – a good example is ‘Getting the Little Blighters to Eat’ by Claire Potter, which I believe has a really great practical guide to getting children to eat a good diet. It offers lots of very sensible advice.
I blitz mixed veg up and add to gravy. Home made cheese and onion pasties with some finely chopped veg. Ketchup just a few tinned tomatoes with veg and a touch of vinegar and blitz it up into a dipping sauce for chips.It can be so stressful trying to get them to eat what they dont want to.