What’s the secret to getting kids to eat more vegetables? Give them a treat every time they taste a morsel, increasing their willingness to test new things. The suggestion comes from an experiment conducted on nearly 600 kindergarten children by Dutch researchers from the University of Maastricht, who spoke at the European Congress on Obesity last May to provide new ideas on how to improve pediatric nutrition. But, despite the success of the experiment, according to psychologists and pediatricians, the behavior-reward mechanism is not the most suitable for the age of development.
Reward and reward system wrong
“In case of refusal, rewarding, punishing, insisting or preparing alternatives that suit their taste are the least effective strategies for educating at the table”, he says. Rosanna Schiralli, psychologist and psychotherapist, creator and coordinator of European projects on emotional education. “Associating meals with prizes or punishments is not constructive, because children must feel free to choose without a profit”, he confirms Elena Scarpatospecialist in pediatrics and member of the Italian Society of Pediatrics (Sip).
The survey based on the experience of the parents
According to a 2016 Ismea survey, the latest conducted on the subject, seven out of ten parents report that their children consume fewer vegetables than they would like. Some blame it on flavor, others on too long times (which often do not exist) to prepare a good vegetable-based dish, others on the unattractive appearance of certain types of vegetables and on the pounding advertisements that push children especially towards snacks, snacks, sandwiches and ice cream, relegating salads and vegetables to the field of boring and healthy.
The aversion? Blame for evolution
The matter, however, seems more complex, and behind the aversion of the little ones towards vegetables there are not only whims and picky behaviors, but also evolutionary reasons. As the book explains Guide for hungry brains (Il Saggiatore, 2021), our ancestors left us neophobia, that is a mechanism by which, in the first years of life, we doubt whether to ingest something we have never seen or eaten because we think it could be dangerous.
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The predisposition towards red colored foods
“Infants have a predisposition towards red-colored foods and a sweet taste, and an aversion to green-colored, bitter-tasting foods,” he explains. Carol Coricelliresearcher in cognitive neuroscience at Western University of London in Canada and author of the book together with Sofia Erica Rossiwith a degree in philosophy and neuroscience: “The American researcher Annie Wertz during an experiment found that very young children turn their gaze to their mothers before touching the plants, demonstrating that the aversion to bitterness arises from a protective mechanism of ‘ evolution, which considers many plants potentially dangerous because they contain bitter poisons. This ancestral mechanism is the same that still influences the food preferences of children today “.
And in fact, the pediatrician Scarpato resumes: “Brussels sprouts, broccoli and artichokes are the vegetables tasted with more difficulty, precisely because of their bitter taste, while carrots, courgettes, tomatoes, green beans and squash are among the favorites for their sweet taste or neutral “.
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At what month of life to introduce vegetables in the child’s diet
During weaning, the introduction of vegetables should take place starting from the sixth month of life, with at least two servings a day. “We pediatricians recommend starting with zucchini, carrots and green beans, but there are no vegetables to avoid, because they are all sources, each in a different way, of micronutrients essential for the well-being of the child”, underlines the Sip expert: “Between those that should be offered more frequently, however, are carrots, rich in beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, important for eyesight; tomatoes, containing vitamin C and lycopene, which protects the tissues from oxidative damage; spinach , among the vegetables most abundant in vitamins and mineral salts; courgettes, almost devoid of fats and a source of potassium, vitamin A and vitamin B, essential for the nervous system; and finally broccoli, a vehicle of fibers and antioxidants, precious for the immune system”.
Spinach burger and carrot chips: how to disguise
If rewarding, insisting or punishing are not very effective methods from an educational point of view, the psychotherapist Schiralli suggests cooking vegetables by imitating the form of recipes loved by children and creating an active involvement. “So the carrots take the shape of chips, while the pressed spinach becomes hamburgers. When the children are older, on the other hand, you can go shopping and cook together, or ask for an opinion on the taste, stimulating the description of the flavors. we can also associate the consumption of vegetables with the powers of the favorite characters of the children, as it was once done with Popeye, or create games at the moment of tasting “.
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The good example from the adults at the table
To stimulate the consumption of fruit and vegetables, there is also the good example of parents (who often do not consume enough vegetables), and structural interventions such as food education in schools. There is good news on this front, because from the 2021-2022 school year the School & Food project was launched, which introduced food education in kindergartens up to secondary schools within the hours of civic education. The program was created by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Italian Foundation for Food Education and aims to teach children a healthy and sustainable diet, also involving parents with material available on the online platform of the project (scuolaecibo.it ).
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