Parents will be all too familiar with the frustrations of trying to get their children to eat their greens. While adults may enjoy and understand the benefits of carrots, broccoli, and cucumber, many kids would much rather munch on chicken nuggets. Unfortunately for them, they don't offer the nutrients that greens give.
Research has shown, however, that simply playing certain music at the dinner table can encourage children to eat vegetables, as it apparently makes them taste sweeter. This could prove ground-breaking for families with picky-eaters.
Researchers from ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal, asked 106 participants to rate different foods while they listened to different types of music. Those taking part ate baby carrot, baby cucumber, as well as two types of biscuits.
While they tucked into the foods, soundtracks taken from a research database previously rated for their 'sweetness' were played to them.
Oxford University's Professor Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist who was not involved in the current study, said you should play something with 'tinkling' and high-pitched sounds in order to maximise the sweetness of the food.
The technique has been coined as 'sonic seasoning' by the professor, and the theory made its way into the study.
The Portuguese research team concluded that people experienced the foods as five per cent sweeter when listening to a 'sweet' soundtrack.
Lead author of the study Dr David Guedes said: "It seems to be an effective strategy to enhance sweetness perception".
The team also believes their study is the first time a sonic seasoning approach was applied to promote vegetable acceptance - previously, similar studies have been completed but with sweet foods such as chocolate.
In a 2010 paper, Julia Simner, Christine Cuskley, and Simon Kirby explain that 'humans experience cross-modality across a range of sensory domains', hence why what we hear around us can actually have an impact on what we taste.
Professor Spence said: "I think of it like using sound to draw people's attention to something in the tasting experience.
"When we pay attention to things they become more salient in our experience. Hence you can add five to 10 percent of something normally using the right sonic seasoning."
So, the next time you're trying to get your little ones to eat their greens, maybe try some sonic seasoning.
Would you try this method to get your kids to eat vegetables? Let us know in the comments.
