Here’s how to make children eat kale and brussels sprouts - without crying

Getting children to eat full-flavoured green veg like kale and brussels sprouts is not an easy task – as any parent will tell you.

But an experiment may have found a way to get youngsters to tuck in – without screaming or crying.

But getting there is going to be a struggle: you have to force children to eat kale for 15 solid days, according to an experiment in the BBC’s Terrific Scientific campaign, in partnership with Coventry University.

The researchers found that most children will eat foods such as kale without complaint once they have done so for 15 days.

MORE: Pensioner, 74, ‘deliberately fed cookies laced with marijuana to his local church’

MORE: Sex killer wants transfer to Scottish prison so he can have ‘view of snow-topped mountains’

They also discovered that a 25% of children are ‘supertasters’ and particularly sensitive to strong flavours – and that these children may take longer to get used to the pungent taste of kale and sprouts.

Jackie Blissett, professor in health behaviour and change at Coventry University, said: ‘It’s been wonderful to work with these young scientists, and they’ve helped shed some light on one of the great mysteries: why some of us might not like our Brussels sprouts!

‘BBC Learning’s Terrific Scientific campaign is a fantastic way to engage youngsters in an interactive experiment which makes the learning experiment much more fun.’