Parents should "pretend" to enjoy eating vegetables in front of their children, new health study suggests

Parents should encourage children to eat their greens by showing enthusiasm for veg themselves, a new study has suggested.

New research by Aston University School of Psychology has found that children are likely to imitate the reactions that those around them have when eating food. In the study, 205 young women watched a video of adults eating raw broccoli, with visible facial expressions indicating their reactions.

Those who saw women reacting negatively to the broccoli were less likely to eat it themselves, researchers discovered. This, they say, could in turn have a negative impact on that person's diet.

However, a positive reaction to the food did not necessarily lead to others feeling favourably about it.

Dr Katie Edwards, who led the study, said: "We show that watching others eating a raw vegetable with a negative facial expression reduces adult women’s liking of that vegetable, but not their desire to eat it This highlights the power of observing food dislike on adults’ eating behavior.

"Watching others eating a raw vegetable with a positive facial expression did not increase adults’ vegetable liking or eating desire. This might imply that watching someone eating a raw vegetable with positive facial expressions does not seem an effective strategy for increasing adults’ vegetable consumption.

"If a child sees their parent showing disgust whilst eating vegetables, this could have negative consequences on children’s vegetable acceptance. We also need more research to see whether the findings from this study translate to adults’ actual intake of vegetables."