Old cartoons of Popeye the Sailorman may hold the key to encouraging infants to eat vegetables, researchers have reported.
Popeye famously ate large amounts of spinach – and can inspire young children, according to a study in Bangkok, Thailand.
Other fruit and vegetable activities can also encourage children who might normally turn their noses up at healthy food, researcher Professor Chutima Sirikulchayanonta found.
Children also planted vegetable seeds and took part in parties to taste fruit and vegetables and even cooked vegetable soup in the project at Mahidol University.
At the end of the project children were eating twice as much vegetable – and also twice as many kinds of vegetable, the researchers report in the journal Australian journal Nutrition & Dietetics.
Professor Chutima Sirikulchayanonta said: "We got the children planting vegetable seeds, taking part in fruit and vegetable tasting parties, cooking vegetable soup, and watching Popeye cartoons.
"We also sent letters to parents with tips on encouraging their kids to eat fruit and vegetables, and teachers sat with children at lunch to role model healthy eating."
Chutima Sirikulchayanonta, Kingkarn Iedsee, Poonsook Suaytong and Suwat Srisorrachatr; Using food experience, multimedia and role models for promoting fruit and vegetable consumption in Bangkok kindergarten children; Nutrition & Dietetics; 2010;67: 97?101; DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-0080.2010.01426.x
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