Study advises parents to tell kids food is 'tasty or just say nothing'

Generations of children have been told that eating carrots will make them see in the dark, and that spinach makes them strong, but now research suggests that telling youngsters a dish is good for them will turn them off it.

The study concludes that young children are less likely to eat a particular food if they have been told that it is healthy.

It suggests that instead, parents should try to make their sons and daughters eat nourishing foods by simply telling them it is tasty, or saying nothing at all.

The study is based on a series of experiments involving around 270 pre-school children.

The youngsters were read different stories in which a girl was given some food for a snack. Some of the stories gave the message that the food was healthy, some gave the message that it was tasty and others gave no message at all.

Researchers then looked at how much of the food in the story – for example crackers or carrots – the children ate after hearing a particular tale.

The study, due to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research in October, found that children ate more of a food when they had been told that it was tasty, or when they were given no message, than they did when they had heard that the food was good for them.

It concludes: “We find consistent evidence that making food instrumental in achieving a goal, relative to presenting the food as yummy or with no message, decreases pre-schoolers’ consumption (current and planned) by leading to lower taste ratings. When food is presented as instrumental, children conclude it cannot be as tasty, and therefore they reduce consumption.”

Lead researcher Professor Ayelet Fishbach, of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said: “Pre-schoolers seem to think that food can’t serve two purposes, that it can’t be something that makes them healthier and something that is delicious to eat at the same time.

“So telling them that the carrots will make them grow tall or make them smarter actually makes them not want to eat the carrots. If you want them to eat the carrots, you should just give the kids the carrots and either mention that they are tasty or just say nothing.”