How Popeye Can Combat America's Childhood Obesity Epidemic

Food manufacturers constantly use lovable characters like Barbie, Batman, and Bugs Bunny to market junk food to kids. Just take a stroll down the snacks aisle of the supermarket and you'll see a hodgepodge of animated personalities on boxes of cookies, candy, and sugary cereals. But what if these same figures were used for good, a la Popeye and his trusty spinach?

Researchers at Bangkok's Mahidol University aimed to find out. The scientists worked with 26 four- and five-year-olds, noting what the kids ate before the program began and after it ended. For eight weeks, researchers used multimedia and role models like Popeye to promote fruits and vegetables. They also got kids to plant seeds, cook nutritious foods, watch cartoons, and talk with parents and teachers about healthy eating. At the end of the program, the kids' vegetable intake doubled and the types of veggies they consumed increased from two to four. Not too shabby for only eight weeks of cartoon-watching and outdoor fun.

Led by researcher Chutima Sirikulchayanonta, the group concluded that multimedia and positive role models can help kids start eating healthy at a young age, making them more likely to embrace these good dietary habits during adulthood. It can also help children reach their recommended daily doses of fruits and veggies, a chronic problem throughout the world. In Australia, for example, one study suggested that only 61 percent of kids ages four-to-eight eat the recommended amounts of fruits, and fewer than one in four eat enough veggies.

From a health perspective, this study gives parents and teachers useful tools to initiate kids into proper nutrition. But there's another field where this information could serve a useful and perhaps more widespread purpose — advertising.

Advertising snacks to kids is a multi-billion dollar industry, and junk food manufacturers are well aware of the hold cartoon characters have over children. I consistently see Spongebob Squarepants headlining boxes of sugary fruit snacks and Marvel comic book heroes promoting McDonald's Happy Meals. But where are the Fantastic Four in the produce section? Why are the Looney Tunes conspicuously absent from boxes of healthy, whole-grain cereals?

What this study proves is that cartoon characters and other role models resonate with kids, regardless of what kinds of foods they're promoting. Imagine what would happen if Batman, Barbie, and Bugs swapped teams and made appearances on packages of healthy foods. I'm guessing the switch-a-roo would make a pretty significant dent in America's childhood obesity epidemic.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons