Picky Eater? Pair Your Child's Veggies with Savory Condiments

Adding condiments such as peanut butter and cheese sauce to children's vegetables can encourage them to continue eating the healthy food until they are older, a recent study finds.

Researchers involved in the study found that children introduced to Brussels sprouts with cream cheese were more likely to eat them and say they actually liked them - even when they were later on served plain. "This has the potential to change the eating habits of children, including eating more vegetables, and this in turn will affect childhood obesity," said Elizabeth Capaldi-Phillips, a psychologist at Arizona State University and lead author of the study.

Capaldi and her colleagues invited the parents of 29 children between the ages of three and five years old to fill out a survey about the children's views of 11 vegetables, including whether or not they liked them. Most of the children had not tried cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, so they were selected to gauge children's preferences. They found out that children given Brussels sprouts with cream cheese during conditioning liked them significantly more compared to those given plain sprouts.

"Children develop food preferences at a young age, yet tend to be really picky at this age, so it's important to sustain healthy habits which will persist into adulthood," said Devina Wadhera, also a researcher at Arizona State University and the study's lead author. "It's our job as parents, as educators, to get them to accept new foods at this time," she added.