As a parent, I am very concerned about my children eating healthy foods and staying well nourished. I am fortunate in that two out of my three children naturally like healthy foods. Yes, they still eat too much candy and other snack foods much of the time, but they gladly eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. This is not the case with my middle daughter. If she had her choice she would have a chocolate chip cookie, bag of potato chips, and a candy bar for lunch. For dinner she would like to have a bowl of pasta with ketchup. Occasionally she will eat an apple or fresh mango, but she really doesn’t gravitate naturally to fruits and vegetables. She is not alone, only one out of five children meet the recommendation of eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

Despite having a doctorate in nutrition, I struggle with how to get my daughter to eat more fruits and vegetables. I was thrilled to see a recent study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association that investigated this issue. Scientists at Pennsylvania State University studied the food habits of 191 five-year-old girls and their parents. They were interested in whether children were more likely to eat fruits and vegetables if the parents pressured them to do so or whether it was better for the parents not to pressure their girls but to just eat plenty of fruits and vegetables themselves and by example the girls would eat more. The results were fascinating to me as a parent and as a scientist. The parents who ate plenty of fruits and vegetables themselves were far more likely to have girls who ate a lot of fruits and vegetables. The parents who ate fewer fruits and vegetables had girls who ate fewer fruits and vegetables. Ironically, these parents were also much more likely to pressure their girls to eat more fruits and vegetables, and pressure had a strong negative impact on intake. The girls who ate plenty of fruits and vegetables also had increased vitamin and mineral intake and less fat intake-overall, they had a much better diet.

Remember when your mom would say, “once you eat your beans you can go outside to play?” This type of pressure is predictive of a decrease in the preference for this food in the future. Other research has shown that pressuring children to eat certain foods may diminish the ability of the child to self-regulate intake, which is very important for long-term weight control.

So, keep plenty of fruits and vegetables in the house, on the table, and in the refrigerator, and eat plenty of them yourself. But don’t pressure your children to eat them. They will follow by your good example, and you will both benefit.

Here’s to strong and healthy children!