Children are often given a negative perception of a given type of food when they are told it is good for them. The healthy tag often leads to them associating it with being a type of food they do not find appealing and that should be avoided.
Parents will often tell their kids something along the lines that eating their broccoli will make them big and strong or they should drink up all of their milk because it will help them to become taller.
Healthy food can be something that is hard to sell to children and convince them to eat all of it. There are obvious benefits associated with certain foods when consumed by children, but it is easier said than done when trying to get them to actually eat these foods.
There as an interesting recent study that gave two different stories to children in preschool with regards to the eating of crackers. One of the groups was told that the crackers would make them be strong and healthy when they ate them. The other group was only told that the crackers were yummy.
The group that was told that they were healthy on average ate fewer crackers than the group who were told that they were yummy. The groups also gave their ratings as to how tasty the crackers were. The group who were told the crackers were healthy rated the taste lower than the other group.