IT’S THE common refrain of parents everywhere: ‘Eat your greens!’
But if you’ve got a pea-hating 10-year-old or a daughter who turns her nose up at broccoli, helpis at hand.
And it’s all thanks to a see food diet.
The University of Reading has partnered with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Food to help children get to grips with the fruit and vegetables.
Call See and Eat, it is a website with activities and eBooks to download, all designed to help make mealtimes fun.
Initially launched last year, the project was developed by Professor Carmel Houston-Price and is based on research showing that visual familiarity in the form of picture books is an effective way to increase a child’s willingness to try and liking of vegetables.
Activities on the website include a flash card game where children are asked to match pictures to the names of vegetables; VeggieSense, a guess-the-vegetable activity where parents encourage their children to explore vegetables through their sense of sight, touch and smell; instructions on how to grow your own cress; and shopping lists to involve children when choosing vegetables during the weekly shop.
Dr Natalie Masento, a collaborator on the project at the University of Reading, said: “Vegetables can be particularly difficult to introduce into young children’s diets as they’re less sweet than fruit and can often be rejected when they’re first offered.
“It has been shown, however, that children’s acceptance of vegetables can be boosted purely through increasing visual familiarity, and therefore our project’s aim is to build on this research, while developing a series of accessible resources to help parents introduce more vegetables to their children.
“With the launch of the new website, we hope more parents from across Europe will find the eBooks easier to access, and will enjoy the new evidence-based activities we have developed.”
Helena Gibson-Moore, Nutrition Scientist, BNF, said it is important to include a variety of vegetables in a child’s diet.
“Encouraging healthy eating habits from a young age will help your child make healthier choices as they get older, therefore it’s key to introduce lots of vegetables early on,” she said.
“Eating a variety of vegetables is important as different types and colours contain varying combinations of essential nutrients, like vitamins and minerals, as well as dietary fibre, which our bodies need to stay healthy.
“Trying a wide range of different vegetables introduces children to an array of various tastes and textures and can be an opportunity to include vegetables as snacks and in different dishes from salads and soups to curries and pasta bakes.”
There’s more growing from the See & Eat project team – they are currently conducting a study to understand whether extra interactivity and personalisation through eBooks, such as adding photos or videos of shopping for, preparing or eating vegetables, can support children to become even more receptive to new vegetables. The study covers a range of nationalities and languages, with results due to be launched in 2021.
The resources can be downloaded at: www.seeandeat.org
