Eat Healthy With Cartoons

Do you want your kids to eat healthier foods? Cartoons might be the answer.

Borrowing a trick that marketers use to get kids to buy just about anything might just get them to eat more fruits and veggies too. The classic struggle between kids and their parents often revolves around getting them to eat healthier foods. They'd rather have cookies and candy and you'd rather they ate fruits and veggies. Well, here come cartoon characters to the rescue.

Researchers found that when elementary school aged children were given a choice between an apple or a cookie for lunch, they were much more likely to pick the apple if it had a cartoon character branding it. In the case of this study, researchers used commonly known characters like the Sesame Street puppet Elmo. Some days they labeled apples with the cartoon characters and other days they didn't. When there weren't any labels on the snacks, 9 out of 10 children picked the cookie. But when the apple had the cartoon character on it, almost 40% of the kids picked the healthier snack. As the researcher put it, advertisers know what attracts a kid's attention and it's time to start fighting fire with fire.

So, if a cartoon character gets them to eat healthier, then by all means use the cartoon character. It could be a cheap and struggle-free way to get your child to eat more of the healthier foods you buy for them.