Jul 22, 2014 12:48 PM EDT By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

When children hear about the benefits of healthy food, they are less likely to eat it, according to a recent study.

American researchers found these messages foster the idea that if something is good for them or healthier, it must surely taste bad.

"We predicted that when food is presented to children as making them strong or as a tool to achieve a goal such as learning how to read or count, they would conclude the food is not as tasty and therefore consume less of it," researchers Michal Maimaran of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Ayelet Fishbach of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business wrote in the study.

To test this idea, the researchers conducted five studies with children between the ages of three and five. In all of the studies, the children were read a picture book story about a girl who ate a snack of crackers or carrots. Depending on the experiment, the story either did or did not state the benefits of the snack (making the girl strong or helping her learn how to count).The children were then given the opportunity to eat the food featured in the story and the authors measured how much they ate.

The research team found that the children ate more when they did not receive any message about the foods making them strong or helping them learn how to count.

Researchers said brands marketing food items to parents and children can use these results to de-emphasize the benefits of healthy food and focus more on the positive experience of eating the food. These results also help to empower policy makers and medical institutions looking to combat childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes.

"Parents and caregivers who are struggling to get children to eat healthier may be better off simply serving the food without saying anything about it, or (if credible) emphasizing how yummy the food actually is," the authors conclude.

The findings were recently published in the Journal of Consumer Research. 

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