Cartoon boosts healthy-eating habit in children

A cartoon which was created to encourage British children to eat more fruit and vegetables is to become the focus of a new Department of Health campaign, reports BBC Online.

Trials have shown that the cartoon prompted a dramatic increase in children's consumption of fruit and vegetables. The Department of Health is to carry out an experimental programme in around 20 British schools.

The project has been prompted by the worrying results of a former poll which showed that children are not eating a balanced diet nor the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables daily.

The MORI poll, released last November, showed as many as 200,000 children in England and Wales had eaten either no fruit or no vegetables in the previous seven days. It was also found that on average, children are eating less than 13 portions of fruit and vegetables a week.

The idea likely came from evidence that Popeye the sailor, who acquires super-strength by eating spinach, had a huge impact on children's eating habits after first appearing in an American cartoon strip in 1929.

The new characters devised by psychologists at the University of Wales at Bangor, have been equally influential on children.

In the animation, each "food dude" has a favourite vegetable -these include carrots, tomatoes, raspberries and broccoli. The fruit and vegetables give the four heroes the "life force" they need to save the world from "General Junk" and his army of unhealthy eaters, the "junk punks".

Around 1,000 children have taken part in trials over the past two-and-a-half years.

Dr Katy Tapper, who led the research, said: "The result showed an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption at lunchtime which was significant."​

She added: "There's evidence that if you taste something enough times you learn to like the taste. The intervention gets the children to repeatedly taste fruit and vegetables so they develop a liking for them."​

Tapper believes that many children have not even tried the vegetables they claim to hate, and that the cartoon will change views, making it "cool" to eat fruit and vegetables.

The video was used in conjunction with rewards which encouraged children to follow the advice of the cartoon's heroes. Trials also showed that once acquired, children kept up their habit of eating fruit and vegetables.

In the latest study at a primary school in Brixton, south London, the amount of fruit children ate went up from 36 per cent to 79 per cent during the course of the programme, and vegetable consumption went up from 44 per cent to 66 per cent.

Two years ago, the British government launched a scheme to provide free fruit to 80,000 primary school children.