| "LET'S face it, fruit and vegetables have never been an easy sell to children. A host of phrases echo down the generations as frustrated parents encourage their children to eat up because it will "make them big and strong" or "make their hair curl"." "Today the goal is the same, even if we understand the health benefits better. Low intake of fruit and vegetables is estimated to cause about 19 per cent of gastrointestinal cancers worldwide, about 31 per cent of coronary heart disease and 11 per cent of strokes. Eating more fruit and vegetables also helps to displace junk foods that are high in saturated fats, sugar or salt." "Yet if fruit and vegetables are so vital, why are we so bad at convincing children to eat them? And we are bad, as recent reports from the US and UK reveal " ". So it is encouraging to see that one scheme is apparently bucking the trend. A programme called " " draws deeply on psychological research and exploits three very human foibles. The first and most interesting is that repeatedly exposing somebody to small tastes of a food increases their fondness for it." "This is such a well-known effect it seems surprising that nobody has tried it out on a large scale before. It is powerful too. As one researcher put it: "On day one, no child in the class will admit to liking red pepper, but after two weeks their little hands are reaching for it."" "Two more-familiar human characteristics also come into play - the habit youngsters have of copying older children, and the desire for reward. Schoolchildren receive small rewards,
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