One of the hardest tasks for parents is getting children to eat greens.
But scientists may have found the solution – and say it even works with kale.
The trick is just to make children eat the food they dislike every day for 15 days. After that, almost all of them will eat it without a fuss.
As part of the BBC’s Terrific Scientific campaign in partnership with Coventry University, about 80 schoolchildren aged nine to 11 were asked to eat kale every day for 15 days, while another 80 ate raisins.
Kale has become one of the most popular foods among the healthy-eating generation, but many people find it bitter.
After the experiment, most children who had eaten the leafy veg daily liked it significantly more. Meanwhile, those in the control group showed no difference in how much they liked or disliked it. The select few of those eating kale who still disliked it afterwards were labelled ‘super-tasters’.
Super-tasters have more fungiform papillae, which carry taste buds, on their tongue – and typically turn their nose up at foods with strong flavours, such as bitter green vegetables, blue cheese and grapefruit.
The study found that nearly all children can be trained to eat a particular food. While they won’t necessarily say they ‘like’ it afterwards, they will be prepared to eat it. Previous research suggests that 25 per cent of the population are super-tasters.
Conversely, around 25 per cent of people are ‘non-tasters’.
They are more likely to try most food, but may need more condiments. The remaining 50 per cent are ‘tasters’, and will often be adventurous but will probably dislike a few items.
Jackie Blissett, professor in health behaviour and change at Coventry University, said: ‘It’s been wonderful to work with these young scientists, and they’ve helped shed some light on one of the great mysteries: why some of us might not like our Brussels sprouts!