Scientific theory for getting kids to eat veggies is music to our ears

Getting a child to eat their greens is a battle that’s familiar to most parents and grandparents.

But the solution – according to science – may be as simple as putting on some music, a study suggests.

Bear with us.

Apparently researchers found that ‘sweet’ tunes can make vegetables taste sweeter too.

They asked asked 106 people to rate different foods while listening to different types of music. The volunteers ate samples of baby carrot, baby cucumber, as well as two types of biscuits while soundtracks taken from a research database previously rated for their ‘sweetness’ were played to them.

While those tunes are not known to the general public, other familiar pieces which have been rated as ‘sweet’ include Satie’s Trois Gymnopédies No.2 Lent et triste, Camille Saint Saens-Carnival of the animals – Aquarium, and track seven from Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells.

‘You are looking for something with tinkling, high-pitched sounds,’ said Oxford University’s Professor Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist, who was not involved in the current study.

Professor Spence, an expert in matching food and music, has labelled the technique ‘sonic seasoning’.

The research team found people experienced foods as around five per cent sweeter while listening to a high-sweetness soundtrack compared to a low-sweetness soundtrack, which they described as a moderate-sized effect.

While playing music is not the same as ‘adding a spoonful of sugar to foods, it still seems to be an effective strategy to enhance sweetness perception’, said lead author Dr David Guedes.

While previous studies have tended to focus on ‘highly palatable’ foods such as ice-cream, chocolate, as well as wine and beer, the team believes their study is the ‘first time a sonic seasoning approach was applied to promote vegetable acceptance’.

‘Overall, these findings suggest that extrinsic sensory cues, namely music, may aid in reducing sugar intake by increasing the acceptance of products with lower sugar content,’ they wrote in their research paper, published in the journal Food Quality and Preference.

So if your kids aren’t interested in broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage, put on Tubular Bells at dinner time and see if it helps.

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