Hawai‘i 5210 Let's Go!
Updates

Adding dip to veggies gets kids to eat more

Veggies-and-dip

Posted:June 06, 2013

Categories:Family, Featured

According to a new study, kids will eat more veggies when it is put alongisde dip.

Preschoolers were run through a study by the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Pennsylvania State University. Results were based on a taste test of vegetables with flavored and unflavored dip as well as the without a dip option. 31 percent of kids liked the vegetable by itself and 64 percent liked the vegetable when it was eaten with a flavored dip. Interestingly, 6 percent refused the both the vegetable and the flavored dip, while 18 percent refused the vegetable without any dip.

In another study, preschoolders were given celery or squash. It is recognized that kids don't typically like these two vegetables. Without any dip, kids ate about 15 grams of celery and six grams of squash. But when they were offered dip with the celery or squash, the kids ate about 25 grams of celery and 15 grams of squash.

See full post on the NCCOR website.

The important take-away is to realize that in order to give a little bit more vegetables in our kids diet, it might require a little bit of extra "empty" calories (although low-fat) in the form of flavored dips. Parents and children might soon realize kids don't have to be seen as disliking vegetables after all.