By michael - December, 5th 2014

Getting kids to pass up junk food in favour of healthier fruits and veggies has led to many a mealtime meltdown for parents everywhere. Now, researchers from the University of Alberta offer a simple solution: give them an apron.

A provincewide survey of Grade 5 students in Alberta suggests the best way to get your child to eat healthier foods—and actually enjoy them—is to have them help with meal preparation.

Getting kids involved in the kitchen, through cooking classes or at home, may make them more likely to choose healthy foods, according to a recent review.

Cooking programs and classes for children seem to positively influence children’s food preferences and behaviors, according to the new research. And, although the review didn’t look at long-term effects of such programs, the findings suggest that such programs might help children develop long-lasting healthy habits.

This research published in the CDC’s Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice and Policy, comes at a time when childhood obesity rates have been rising rapidly. More than one-third of adolescents in the United States were obese in 2012, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the UK the figure is about a third, in Australia around a quarter.

This trend has been caused, at least in part, by a significant decrease in the …

In general, children preferred fruits to veggies, but children who helped with cooking showed a greater preference for both. Vegetable preference was also 10 per cent higher among children who helped cook.

The data also showed that kids who did meal prep and cooking were more confident about the importance of making healthier food choices.

Please Read Article At NyrNaturalNews.com

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