Food Wars - How to get your child to eat his greens

Only mention the words fruit and veg and most children will run a mile. They seem to smell out that these things are 'good for you' and that's enough to have them making for the exits.

In Britian we have a shameful record for consumption of fresh fruit and veg, and despite recommendations that we eat 400g per day per adult, most of us are managing only 245g. In fact, children's diets are in several respects less nutritionally healthy than they were in the 1950s, and Britain now has one of the worst heart disease records in the world.

But an exciting new project is under way, a result of a nine year research programme by the School of Psychology at the University of Wales in Bangor carried out in a variety of schools across the country in different social areas. The project was supported by leading supermarkets.

The theory is: start children with good eating habits as young as possible.

With the appealing title Food Dudes, the programme incorporates video adventures featuring hero figures who like fruit and veg and aim to defeat General Junk and his Junk Punks. The idea is that they provide social models for the children to imitate. The children then receive small rewards (stickers, badges, pencils etc.) when they taste the food.

The Results
In home studies of fussy eaters, consumption of targetted fruit rose from 4 per cent to 100 per cent, and more importantly was still as high six months later.

In primary school trials in which 400 children participated, fruit consumption amongst five and six year olds more than doubled, and veg increased four fold.

Ninety eight per cent of parents asked acknowledged that their child's consumption had increased.

Though the videos are not yet available nationwide, the Department of Health is interested in taking the project to all schools, and hopefully it will be availble for home use too.

For more information on the project, contact the University's School of Psychology on 01248 382211.

Eat your heart out, Popeye!