Fairy tales that feature magical fruit and vegetables seem to encourage children to make healthy food choices 鈥� with just 20 minutes of storytelling enough to see a difference.
With childhood obesity on the rise, at the Humboldt University of Berlin and his colleagues wondered if storytelling could encourage healthier eating choices. their family environment, while , suggesting this might be possible.
To learn more, Sommer鈥檚 team and colleagues at the University of Nairobi looked at 80 children aged 4 to 6 years old in Kenya.
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The children were divided into two groups. The first heard a story about a painter who refreshes the colours of a city every night but was unable to when he became ill from eating junk food. His strength was later restored by eating magic vegetables. The second group heard a similar story but without any food references.
Every day for the next two weeks, the children were offered a choice of snacking on fruit, vegetables, cakes or cookies, presented on the same platter. Those who heard the first story ate significantly more fruit and vegetables than they did a week before hearing the tale, while no change occurred in those who heard the second story.
鈥淲ith a single instance of storytelling lasting only about 20 minutes, we obtained a surprisingly strong change from a preference for non-healthy snack food towards a preference for healthy fruits or vegetables,鈥� says Sommer.
The children probably got a taste for the healthy snacks after being motivated to try them following the first story, says at the University of Southern California. 鈥淩epeated consumption of a food increases the likelihood that kids will eat it again,鈥� she says.
But the stories were told by the children鈥檚 teachers, so they might have chosen the healthier snacks because they sensed that was the 鈥渞ight鈥� or expected choice after hearing the story, not because their food preferences changed, she says.
medRxiv
