Catchy vegetable names can make kids eat more greens

In the first study,plain old carrots were transformed into 'X-ray Vision Carrots'.

Kids seem to have an aversion to eating vegetables,but you can make your child have more greens by using attractive names for healthy foods,according to a new study.

Researchers from the Cornell University conducted a couple of studies to explore whether a simple change such as using attractive names would influence kid8217;s consumption of vegetables.

In the first study,plain old carrots were transformed into 8216;X-ray Vision Carrots8217;. 147 students ranging from 8-11 years old from 5 schools participated in tasting the 8216;cool new8217; vegetables.

Lunchroom menus were the same except that carrots were added on three consecutive days. On the first and last days,carrots remained unnamed.

On the second day,the carrots were served as either 8216;X-ray Vision Carrots8217; or 8216;Food of the Day8217;.

The study found that by changing the carrots to 8216;X-ray vision carrots8217;,a whopping 66 per cent were eaten,far greater than the 32 per cent eaten when labelled 8216;Food of the Day8217; and 35 per cent eaten when unnamed.

In the second study,carrots remained 8216;X-Ray vision carrots8217;,broccoli became 8216;Power Punch Broccoli8217; and 8216;Silly Dilly Green Beans8217; replaced regular old green beans.

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Researchers looked at food sales over two months in two neighbouring NYC suburban schools.

For the first month,both schools offered unnamed food items,while on the second month carrots,broccoli and green beans were given the more attractive names,only in one of the schools the treatment school.

Of the 1,552 students involved 47.8 per cent attended the treatment school. The results were outstanding: vegetable purchases went up by 99 per cent in the treatment school,while in the other school vegetable sales declined by 16 per

cent.

These results demonstrate that using attractive names for healthy foods increases kid8217;s selection and consumption of these foods and that an attractive name intervention is robust,effective and scalable at little or no cost,researchers said in a statement.