Parents can influence which foods their kids like

Parents can influence which foods their kids like

Parents can influence which foods their kids like, a new study has found.

One of the biggest struggles for parents is getting young kids to eat - and like - their vegetables.

But it turns out what you eat and like has a huge influence on what your kids will enjoy.

According to a new study, children could learn to hate their greens if they see others dislike them too.

Advertisement

So, if you refuse certain foods or if they see other kids refusing to eat their greens, this could make them less likely to eat them too.

Parents can influence which foods their kids like

According to the Metro, psychologists from Aston University observed facial expressions of people eating raw broccoli, and found they can influence our own liking or disliking of the vegetable.

They believe the same impressions could influence children.

Researchers explained that humans learn which behaviours pay off and which don’t from watching others.

Advertisement

In the case of food, people may use each other as guides to determine what and how much to eat. This is called ‘social modelling’ – and is one of the most powerful social influences on eating behaviour.

"We show that watching others eating a raw vegetable with a negative facial expression reduces adult women’s liking of that vegetable, but not their desire to eat it," lead author Dr Katie Edwards, a researcher at the Aston University School of Psychology, explained.

"This highlights the power of observing food dislike on adults’ eating behaviour."

They are what you eat

While the researchers focused on adults in this study, they also point out that given the power of negative facial expressions, and because children tend to be less willing to try vegetables by default, these findings could generalise to kids.

"For example, if a child sees their parent showing disgust whilst eating vegetables, this could have negative consequences on children’s vegetable acceptance," Dr Edwards said.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for great advice and recipes.

Join the conversation with other Moms by registering for our Discussions forum.

Read more articles like these

Want news and updates?

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

Copyright © 2024. Developed & Designed by Square1,powered by PublisherPlus

Advertisement