Children are more likely to try vegetables when they are offered with a dip flavoured with spices, a new study has revealed.
The research conducted by Jennifer S. Savage, associate director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Penn State, and his colleagues has found that children were three times more likely to refuse eating a vegetable alone than they were to eat the same vegetable when paired with a reduced-fat flavored dip.
And the children were twice as likely to reject a vegetable with no dip than they were if given the same vegetable with plain dip.
The researchers worked with 34 children between the ages of 3 and 5 to determine each child's familiarity with vegetables and which were liked or disliked.
The children were then reintroduced to the same vegetables, this time with a dip, and each child's likes and dislikes were reevaluated.
In as few as four tasting sessions, Savage and colleagues found that preschoolers consumed more of a disliked vegetable when it was paired with a dip flavored with spices than when it was eaten alone.
The study was published in a recent issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
