This Just In
Miracle Food Spray Gets Kids to Eat Veggies, But Would You Use It?
Hey there, moms! Are you sitting down? I sure do hope you're sitting down. Because when you hear about the results of this super high-tech, top-secret scientific study on kids and nutrition, heaven only knows what the shock might do to you! Truly, the way you feed your children could change forever.
Are you ready? Wait, wait -- let me set the scene for you:
Picture a team of doctors and researchers in white lab coats, Bunsen burners, beakers filled with fizzing, popping liquids of every color. (Every so often one of them starts to smoke menacingly.) There is some SERIOUS medical studying stuff going on up in here, y'all. At last, one of the scientists looks up from his microscope and shouts, "Eureka! I've found it! I've found the secret to making kids eat their vegetables!"
Can you guess?? The secret is …
Sugar!! Yes, it's true! Now we have scientific proof that dousing veggies in sugar makes children more likely to eat them all up.
You're not really all that shocked, I bet. Sorry to set you up like that, I just … DUH! Like, really?? Just a spoonful of freaking sugar makes the vegetables go down?!
More from The Stir: 13 Questionable Things We Do to Get Picky Eaters to Eat
No sh*t.
I'm really NOT oversimplifying here, either. This is exactly how the study was conducted:
Preschoolers who were served lightly sweetened vegetables (sprayed with a mist of sugar) at lunchtime ate more of the healthy foods compared to those who were served unsweetened vegetables.
Although the researchers tested other ways to mask the vegetables' bitterness, including various salts, plain sugar worked the best.
Maybe I'm being unfair. Perhaps there is some sort of take-home message here: If sugar spray makes veggies more tasty to tots, maybe a sweet (but not outrageously unhealthy) sauce would do the same. It might be worth dipping a couple of stalks of broccoli in some maple syrup or applesauce to find out. Or if your kid is like that adorable fibbing boy, maybe sprinkles are the way to go?
Would you spray veggies with sugar to get your kid to eat them?
Image via Cyn74/Flickr
Piping Hot Posts
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
AnonyMOUSE715
handy0318
I haven't done sugar, but when they were little my kids always ate much more of the cooked veggies if I used honey butter on them...sugar and honey are wholly natural foods, nothing wrong with using them, especially if the goal of getting more veggies down the little throats is achieved.
schlis
abra819
schils, well goddamn, you are totally the bestest mom evar!!!!!! Too bad we don't all have unbelievably perfecto children like yours!!!!
Amanda Solita Shovlin
My oldest is autistic so getting him to eat anything was a hassle. He just recently accepted green beans into his diet as long as they are drenched in ranch dressing. My 2 year old is a picker, she will eat 2 bites of whatever and be done then an hour later be hungry again. I was the same way still am.
Rene Moodley
Lynette
Ridiculous. All 4 of my children love veggies, no sugar, ranch dip, or cheese needed.
dixiechick2
Michelle
Gul Bahar
well, if you are going to spray it with sugar, just put chocolate all over it . My daughter loves her veggies, okay not all. but she will eat spinach salad. with light dressing.