A new study has revealed that kids' unhealthy food habits of picking up junk items while grocery shopping could be helped by placing the healthier options at the eye level of children and moving the unhealthy ones out of the way.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers found that this dynamic is particularly frustrating for caregivers on limited budgets who are trying to save money and make healthy meals and many caregivers, when pressed by their children, ended up buying food that they did not intend to buy.
The researchers said that to counter this problem, caregivers suggested altering food placement, allowing children to sample healthy food at the store and offering cooking classes to older children.
The authors believe that the study is the first to examine both the influence of store environment on children and children's influence on grocery shopping and one suggestion for an improved grocery shopping experience was giving samples of healthy food, including fruit.
The study was published in the October issue of the journal Appetite.