It' that time of year when those of us who have gardens are starting to harvest our freshly grown vegetables. Parents, are you having a hard time getting your little ones to eat their vegetables? Fret no more, help is on the way!
The new findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, show that a conceptual framework encourages children to understand why eating a variety of foods is ideal and also causes them to eat more vegetables by choice. The study done by two scientists from Stanford University devised an experiment to test their hypothesis that children would be capable of understanding a conceptual approach to nutrition.
The "results showed that the children who had read about nutrition had a greater and more comprehensive understanding of nutrition and bodily processes. Their ingestion of vegetables during snack time increased voluntarily, while the amount of vegetables consumed by children in the control groups remained relatively unchanged".
The bottom line: This study indicates that combining educational concepts with behavioral information may result in children making voluntary changes and it supports other studies that show picture books have a powerful influence on children’s understanding of concepts and the world around them as well as their behavior. So please, come to the library, we've got lots of books about nutrition and the four food groups. We'd love to show them to you!
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