Child Proof
The Scientific Reason Your Kid Hates Green Foods
Even the pickiest kids can learn to like vegetables if parents know how to approach the problem
Kids’ food philosophy is simple: If they don’t enjoy eating something, they won’t. It’s not exactly an approach that leaves room for arguments about the virtues of vegetables — much to the frustration of parents who try to feed their children a balanced diet, only to find themselves scraping uneaten cauliflower into the sink or collecting peas from the far corners of the kitchen.
Picky eating may manifest in many different ways and at various ages, but a recent review found that picky kids consistently eat fewer veggies than their more open-minded peers. The toddler years are especially tough, as kids develop more autonomy and start to have strong feelings about what’s on their plate: “All children go through some kind of picky eating phase around age two,” says Klazine van der Horst, a nutrition researcher at Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland.
In part, the problem starts at birth. Babies are naturally drawn to sweet tastes (like breast milk) and salty ones, says Pauline Emmett, a nutrition scientist at the University of Bristol, who adds that “they aren’t so keen on sour and bitter tastes,”…
