London - Nagging children to eat their greens is one of the few ways most parents ensure they get some healthy food inside them.
But it turns out that constantly pressurising defiant youngsters to finish foods they do not like has the opposite effect.
Toddlers are more likely to eat nutritious but unappealing foods if they are not repeatedly told to eat them up, research shows.
In tests, four-year-olds who were nagged to finish their food consumed less than those who were left to get on with it.
American psychologists from Pennsylvania State University and the Appalachian State University told the journal Appetite: “The use of pressure contributes to lower intake and can foster negative responses to foods.
“In fact, children were more likely to increase their intake of an initial unfamiliar food if they were not pressured to eat it.”
In contrast, previous studies have shown that restricting access to tasty fast foods, such as chips and burgers, can encourage a child’s liking for them and may eventually lead to overeating.
Child psychologist and author Dr Richard Woolfson said: “The answer is gentle encouragement rather than a full-scale battle. The more anxious a child gets, the more tense they become and then they lose their appetite.”
Meanwhile, eating greens can apparently reduce the risk of heart disease - even if it runs in the family.
Scientists say a diet rich in raw vegetables and fruit can alter the gene 9p21, which can increase the risk by around 30 percent.
Researcher Sonia Anand, of McMaster University in Canada, told the journal PLoS Medicine it was “a real surprise” to find that diet could alter what was thought to be an irreversible risk.
Heart disease accounts for a third of deaths in the UK. - Daily Mail