Cartoons & Food

Can a cartoon really make food taste better? It can if you're a kid.

Anyone with kids has been there, watching your child through a grocery store tantrum over a food box with a cartoon character on it.

Now researchers have confirmed what most of us probably thought. A study out of Yale University found that, to children at least, food that's marked with cartoons tastes better.

In this study 40 children were asked to do a taste test on three different food items---gummy snacks, graham crackers and baby carrots. One bite came from a plain package and one bite came from a similar package but with a cartoon character on the front label.

Although both packages held the exact same snack, children consistently said food from the cartoon labeled box tasted better. And this was especially true for high sugar foods like the gummy snacks.

The researchers involved in this study point out that here in the U.S. the food industry spends a great deal of money on cartoon food labeling---and should probably be restricted to a system like the UK where food has to meet a certain nutritional standard before it can be marketed to kids.

Meanwhile, it's up to parents to realize just how much these "simple" cartoon characters can affect kids choices and remember---it's alright to say no.