Can what your child watches on TV affect their food choices? According to recent research, if your child watches a cooking program that features healthy foods, the answer is yes.
Research published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found a connection between watching healthy cooking shows and children’s food choices. The study, which included 125 children ages 10 through 12, may have found a way to get your kiddo to choose healthy snacks over chips, dip and cookies.
photo: AMSW Photography via Pexels
To better understand the impact cooking shows have on children and their food choices, the researchers asked some of the participants to watch clips of a Dutch cooking show (for kids) featuring healthy foods. The rest of the participants were asked to watch a a video featuring less healthy or unhealthy foods.
So how did the clips influence the kids’ food choices? Forty-one percent of the children in the healthy food clip group chose healthy foods when given a selection of snacks—but only 20 percent of the children who watched the unhealthy food video chose healthy snacks.
—Erica Loop
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