Focused on getting your kids to eat healthy at home? Just as expected, getting your kids to eat healthy at home, all comes down to marketing.

Yes, you need to put your familial marketer hat on!

McDonald’s and every other fast food chain in America have it down pat. What the kids see on television and in the movies they want on their food. The latest findings from NutritionFacts are revealing, though not entirely surprising, when you review the research they put forward. It makes complete sense.

Click the video to play, from our nutritional research partner NutritionFacts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The moral of the story, as we see it is this.

Thousands of hours go into marketing man-made products to appeal to all the senses. Billions of dollars are spent on marketing fast foods, vs only millions a year in the US on promoting fruits and vegetables.

• The food and beverage industry spends approximately $2 billion per year marketing to children. 1
• The fast food industry spends more than $5 million every day marketing unhealthy foods to children. 1
• Kids watch an average of over ten food-related ads every day (nearly 4,000/year). 2
• Ad spending for interactive video games is projected to reach $1 billion by 2014, with six million 3-11 year olds visiting some form of virtual game online each month.3
• Nearly all (98 percent) of food advertisements viewed by children are for products that are high in fat, sugar or sodium. Most (79 percent) are low in fiber. 4

Unhealthy and Unregulated.

Here is a good PDF on the Subject by the American Heart Association. It states that food advertising to children is unhealthy and unregulated.

Marketing is what makes the difference; what does not seem part of popular culture tends to fall into the background, and that means produce consumption. Of course, it’s not addicting like a junk food diet and if the parents are hooked on a junk food diet, so will the kids. Parental influence is probably the biggest factor in the way kids eat.

So, we parents need to market our foods to our children in subtle ways every day.

Here are 3 Proven Tips for getting your kids to eat healthy at home. 

1. Change the color of your foods by adding fruit and vegetable powders to your kids foods to make them fun. Fussy eaters, need food to be fun. That’s what marketers do, and so do you!  Check out Super Sprouts. They will ship these products from down under, in Australia!
2. Cut up your vegetables and fruits into shapes your kids will love, like stars
3. Serve them associated with brands they know like Barney, or their latest video game. You can come up with all kinds of creative ways to do this, from putting a stuffed animal next to the food you are serving, or tie the consumption of a meal with something fun. It’s all about association and the science of marketing!