Kids Cuisine

There’s a new study out that explains why it can be so hard to get kids to eat healthy food. Researchers at Stanford followed preschoolers in a Head Start program in California. The kids were given samples of burgers, chicken nuggets, french fries, juice, milk, and carrots — one of each was unbranded, and one had a McDonald’s wrapper. Both the branded and unbranded contained the exact same food.

It probably won’t surprise parents to know that the kids preferred the food with the McDonald’s labeling, but the actual numbers might.  Almost 77 percent said that the branded fries tasted better, and 53 percent thought McDonald’s carrots tasted better. Only a quarter of the kids thought the (identical) foods tasted the same.

Clearly, avoiding unhealthy branded food is an up hill battle. Kids really believe that the food from their favorite fast food restaurant tastes better than what comes from the grocery store. I have a feeling this would extend to branded groceries too — does your kid prefer Oreos to store-brand cookies with cream inside? I know a lot of kids that do.

So what can you do? You can try to avoid advertising and eating out at fast food restaurants, but for many busy families that’s not entirely possible. So how about this? Next time you are at McDonald’s, hang on to those Happy Meal bags and boxes. Then give the kids a “special treat” (secretly made at home with healthier ingredients, but they’ll never know). Chances are your kids will like their “Happy Meal” better than if you just put it on their plate.