Eat Your Veggies

Saw a quick item on the local news this morning where a study stated something to the effect that kids eat more vegetables if you trick them into it (Here’s a link). By “tricking them into it” the study meant pureeing the vegetables and adding it to the food so kids didn’t know they were eating vegetables.

I’ll just say that we tried this on both kids and it was a colossal failure. Both kids caught on to what was going on and became forensic food scientists capable of spotting the tiniest bit of evidence that something didn’t belong. What made it worse is they started parsing their dishes even when there was no attempt to deceive, making even non-laced meals a fight.

So I’m wary of this study based on personal experience. Our kids eat veggies, but only because the Wife and I made them do so by not giving them any other choice. And we did that early on so that now, they aren’t excessively stringent in their veggie selection. Not to say they’re perfect, but we don’t have to resort to tricking them.