Healthy food? I don’t want it!

If you want your kids to eat healthy food don’t declaim its virtues: you will obtain the opposite effect.

This is borne witness to in a study carried out on a panel of children of pre-school age by Ayelet Fishbach, lecturer at the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago. The reason?
Simple: the kids show little interest for food “that makes you stronger” or “helps you to become more intelligent” because they take for granted that it doesn’t taste nice.

American researchers have carried out five experiments with 270 children of pre-school age, during which they registered the reactions to stories of a child who snacked with certain food, some of which she liked because it was health-giving, some of which because it was tasty, other of which without saying why.
The conclusion is inequivocable: if we tell a child that carrots help him grow or become more intelligent, he won’t want to eat them; to get him to like them one only need say they are good, or not say anything at all.