The fairy tale of healthy fruit and vegetables works
Does your child disdain healthy things? Then try a suitable story. Instead of talking pigs, flying police dogs or petulant unicorns, your story can contain vitamins - and have a surprisingly lasting effect.
It seems like a fairy tale to me. And it is one, told in the name of science. Researchers have made fruit and vegetables palatable to a group of kindergarten children by attributing magical powers to these vitamin-rich foods. Quite rightly, of course. And this is how they did it:
80 children aged 4 to 6 listened to various stories. In one version, two siblings save the disappearing colours of their town by reviving the magical painter, who refreshes the colours at night and unfortunately falls ill with junk food, with the help of fruit and vegetables. In the second version, they provide the healthy painter with better colours. To this end, the groups discussed the respective helpful action - and the vitamin-rich variant worked its hoped-for magic in the days that followed.
Orange and banana vs cookies and cake
After hearing the story just this one time, the children were then regularly allowed to choose between different snacks and decide between bananas and cake, for example. There were at least two healthy and two unhealthy options. In the first week, up to 90 per cent chose the healthy snacks and even after the second week, 60 per cent stuck with them. Thanks to the magical painter.
Source: Shutterstock
The authors describe the effects of the story as surprisingly long-lasting, considering that the children were only exposed to the story for about 20 minutes. In a second experiment, not only sweet fruit but also vegetables, which are more difficult to communicate (because they are less sweet), were better received by children following the story.
Storytelling is everything
A result that I can understand very well since I was able to bring vegetables to my child in unusual quantities under the fictitious label "Rapumpel" for a few lovely summer days. Unfortunately, the effect was gone much quicker. What sticks: Storytelling is everything! This also applies to food. And there are various stories you can try your luck with if you don't want to get creative yourself.
Whether you've invented it yourself or bought it - there's one crucial detail you can't ignore. Children quickly realise whether you are acting in accordance with the story or whether you are happily munching on cake yourself. Then you're really telling a fairy tale instead of a coherent story. And they used to have a better reputation.
In the meantime, the word fairy tale in the sense of a fictitious story spread with manipulative intent, i.e. a false report, is rarely used in German. Instead, many people use the new German word fake news.
Phrased like this, it sounds harsh and no longer at all fairytale-like. But people love stories. When packaged correctly, the message often outshines the facts. And if you don't instil a few basic certainties in your children early on, advertising will have an easy time with even the youngest ones.
Fighting fairy tales with fairy tales
A monitoring commissioned by the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) in 2023 came to the conclusion that children aged 4 to 9 are more exposed to food advertising than other age groups. Especially on YouTube and most frequently for chocolate and sweets. In other words, exactly what children need - as we all know, sugar works its magic.
Today, advertising prefers to conjure up how much sugar is in products. With so much external influence, it seems legitimate to use all possible means to promote healthy eating. Learning from advertising means learning to win:
- Tell a good story
- Pay great attention to an appealing presentation
- Bring the target group into contact with it as often as possible
The wife of colleague Patrick Vogt has perfected how this works on 15×20 centimetres. I am in awe.
The moral of the story? Live by example instead of pretending - there's no other way. And if they're not spoilt, they're still munching on carrots or apples today.
Header image: Patrick Vogt
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Michael Restin
Senior Editor
Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.chSimple writer, dad of two. Likes to be on the move, shimmies through everyday family life, juggles with several balls and occasionally drops something. A ball. Or a remark. Or both.
