VEGETABLE EATING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 42, 17 January 1949, Page 6

VEGETABLE EATING

Fads Developed In Childhood

(By the Department of Health)

Generation after generation, we have developed fads in our childhood eating. Nowhere is this selective taste more noticeable than in vegetables. An English investigator took the trouble to trace the'cause of children’s likes and dislikes in vegetables and he found the children’s reasoning very logical. It’s a spur to mothers to cook things better, in many cases. The investigator had the children of a county write a normal school essay on “The vegetables we eat.” They wrote quite frankly about vegetables. Almost all liked potatoes. A fifth loved them baked in their skins—which is the most nutritious and tasty method of cooking them anyway. About half the children liked raw carrots. Turnips were turned down by a 60 per cent dislike. Swedes were even less popular. Parsnips were just as unpopular, although they have a more delicate flavour. But there was a quarrel within one vegetable family, for 80 per cent liked onions and 70 per cent disliked leeks! Peas and beans, particularly runners, were generally acceptable. Marrow was not so favoured. About one child in four disliked cabbage, sprouts and cauliflower. Salad vegetables, especially lettuce and tomatoes, were among the favoured ones. Most of the dislikes were connected with the manner of their preparation. This appears to be vital, with the young potato. A mushy mass of swede or turnip or marrow, a stalky overcooked mass of cabbage and cauliflower, stringy beans or improperly washed, gritty spinach or silver beet —why should children like them? Our task as parents appears to be to present a wide variety of vegetables and hide our own fads. It is best to begin with the very young in studying the reactions to each vegetable and cooking and serving it attractively. A periodical serving in such conditions will in time overcome most children’s fads.