![[image]Photo David](/blog/themes/influencer/images/david_maxfield.jpeg)
Eat your vegetables! And enjoy them!
How can you get your kids, or anyone, to like something like broccoli or spinach? Can you actually change the way people taste foods?
Mark Bittman has a brief piece attacking two books that advise parents to trick their kids into eating right by, for example, baking vegetables into brownies. I agree with Mark on this one. Remember our test for whether an influence technique is manipulative?
“Would it lose its power if people knew exactly what you were doing and why?”
I think these books flunk the test. But, seriously, you really can change the experience people have of the foods they’re eating. Many of these strategies are described in Brian Wansink’s marvelous book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More than We Think.
There are three general approaches:
Mark Bittman has a brief piece attacking two books that advise parents to trick their kids into eating right by, for example, baking vegetables into brownies. I agree with Mark on this one. Remember our test for whether an influence technique is manipulative? “Would it lose its power if people knew exactly what you were doing and why?”
I think these books flunk the test. But, seriously, you really can change the experience people have of the foods they’re eating. Many of these strategies are described in Brian Wansink’s marvelous book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More than We Think.
There are three general approaches:
- Improve your preparation—cook the food in ways that remove the bitterness or combine with other foods so that its flavor isn’t overwhelming.
- Change the meaning or experience of the food—those of us who are older can remember pretending to be Popeye when we ate our spinach. It made this sailor want more. Wansink tells the delightful story of two preschool brothers who loved broccoli because their mother had told them to pretend it was dinosaur food. My five year old nephew slurps raw oysters because he’s convinced it’s what a pirate would do.
- Give your food a little class—linen table cloths, candle light, and a fine California wine present your food in its best possible light. Wansink finds the atmosphere influences our experience of a dinner far more than we realize.
This is a public forum. VitalSmarts and its partners are not responsible for what is posted herein. Comment moderation has been enabled on this blog. All comments must be approved by the blog author or administrator. VitalSmarts makes no warranties or guarantees concerning any advice dispensed by its authors, employees or readers.
Community standards in the comment area do not permit hate language, profanity, or other patently offensive language. Please be aware that all information posted to this comment area becomes the property of VitalSmarts LC and may be edited and republished in any format.
Important Note: The comment areas are not intended for commercial messages or solicitations of business.