Throughout life I’ve not enjoyed the look of red and yellow foods mixing together. I just don’t like the thought of stuff turning orange.
Well, let’s take sweetcorn with say, red peppers – I can handle that. It’s just when slimy elements get involved like tomato sauce and runny egg yolk, the mere thought sends me over the edge.
But if your little one shovels their food round the plate and doesn’t really eat much, there could be a very plausible reason why, according to researchers from the University of Copenhagen.
The fussy eating could all be down to how food is arranged on their plate. Yep, whether the beans are next to the mash.
These clever bods have looked at serving styles to see whether girls and boys vary in the way they prefer their meals to be served up.
The study asked 100 kids, aged 7–8 and 12–14 years, to put six photos of different dishes in preference order. These were served in different ways:
- Without any food items touching each other
- Some separate ingredients and some mixed together
- A mix up of all the food on the plate
The result was that the girls aged 7–8 preferred their food to be served separately and not touching — although the conclusion as to why, was never explained in the findings — while boys of the same age did not care how their food was arranged.
Children in the older age range (12–14) were much keener on having all or some of the food mixed up.
Associate Professor Annemarie Olsen, from Future Consumer Lab at the university, said: “ I have heard parents say that their children prefer to have their food served in a particular way, including in a specific order. But we do not have much evidence-based knowledge about how children sort and eat their food, which is very relevant when we want our children to eat more vegetables — or eat their food in general.
“It could be that they prefer to eat the different elements in a certain order but one suggestion could be that they believe that the different ingredients could contaminate each other. The child can mix the food when the various elements of the food are separated on the plate, while the reverse is not possible.”
However, psychiatrists have labelled yet another fear which your child could be facing — a fear of food touching the plate , known as Brumotactillophobia , which is considered a mild form of OCD.
Interesting food for thought when you’re trying to incorporate healthy items— keeping in mind the veg they like and dislike.
So next time you’re contemplating making an exquisite mash face, tomato eyes and shredded carrot for hair — consider who you’re catering for!
If you need a content writer for your business, I’m here.