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Parent24 : Focus : nutrition : more : Eat your veggies!

Eat your veggies!

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Kids like veggie choices, but may not eat them.

Pic: Getty Images

Article originally in Reuters

Offering young kids a vegetable choice at dinner may not prompt them to eat more of these healthy foods, hint findings from a Dutch study.

Since vegetable eating is generally not popular among youngsters, Dr. Cees de Graaf, at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and colleagues compared whether offering 4 to 6 year old children their choice of a vegetable before or at dinner, or no choice, might alter the amount of vegetable the kids actually ate.

The investigators first determined which of 8 commonly served vegetables - carrots, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, red cabbage, beets, French beans, and spinach - were favored by each of 156 boys and 147 girls attending Dutch primary school.

Then, during a restaurant meal with their parent, 110 of the kids had a pre-meal choice between equal amounts of one of two vegetables they previously said was "okay" to eat. Another 97 had a similar choice as the meal was served, while 96 had no choice and simply found a vegetable of their liking on the plate.

According to a report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the researchers failed to see any noteworthy differences between the groups in veggie intake.

On average, kids offered pre-meal choices ate 51 grams of the served vegetable, while those offered at-meal choices ate 49 grams of the vegetable served. Those offered no choice ate 56 grams.

However, children described by parents as more "reactive" - those likely to get angry at restrictions or do the opposite of what they are told - ate about half the amount of vegetables when offered no choice compared with their more easy-going counterparts.

Overall, the children "enjoyed the act of choosing," de Graaf and colleagues note in their report.

In post-meal surveys, 75% of the kids given a pre-meal choice said they were happy with this level of autonomy, whereas 62 to 63% of the other kids expressed happiness over their choice offering.

How do you get your kids to eat their veggies?