AUGUST 24 2019 LISTENER
Children who are
cajoled, bribed
and forced into
eating certain foods
invariably end up
not liking them.
Email your nutrition questions
to [email protected]SCIENCE AND NATURE BRIEFS
RECORDS MELT
The Greenland ice sheet on August 1 had the
largest single-day melt since records began,
losing 12.5 billion tonnes of ice into the ocean.
60% of the country’s ice had at least 1mm of
melting, which would cover an area the size
of New Zealand in about 5cm of water. In July,
Greenland’s temperature was 15-30°C above
average.QUANTUM LEAP
Chinese physicists have teleported a tripartite
unit of quantum information, known as a “qutrit”,
for the first time. This is the most complicated
state of matter to be sent so far and another step
in the advancement of teleportation by sending
bits of information similar to binary used in
computing. Quantum teleportation may be used
for cybersecurity communications in future, by
sending unhackable information in photons that
act as qutrits.IMPOSSIBLE MILK
Researchers and entrepreneurs are working
to create cow-free dairy – a milk product with
biosynthetically made casein and whey protein
identical to bovine milk. The process is similar to
how meatless “meat” companies make products
similar to real meat, with microbes given genetic
instructions to produce the dairy proteins, which
are then cultivated. The method promises to use
less water than both traditional dairy and plant-
based vegan milk and food production.LONG HAUL
It could take 50 million years to recover all the
species of birds lost in New Zealand since human
occupation, scientists say. Half of the country’s
birds have become extinct since humans arrived.
Luis Valente, of the
Museum für
Naturkunde
in Berlin,
says the biodiversity
observed today is the
result of millions of years
of evolution. Extinctions
caused by human
activities erase
this history.Creating that fuss-free environ-
ment is crucial, because although in
the 1970s and 1980s it was common
to bribe or reward your kids for eating
their vegetables, we now know that
children who are cajoled, bribed and
forced into eating certain foods invari-
ably end up not liking them, and are
less likely to eat them when left to
their own devices in later years.
This is a fact I can attest to, given
the apple-crumble rewards I received
to eat those dastardly peas as a child.
I still avoid peas some 30 years after
the dessert bribes (and my Mum will
be so annoyed I brought this up.
Again.)T
he fact is, we know better now,
and we ought to do better.
Parents should ideally create
a good routine of set snack and
mealtimes and ensure these are
sit-down occasions with food served
on a plate and no distractions, such
as television or phones, present.
Do stay flexible and ensure you
accommodate changes in appetite
resulting from growth spurts or
increased energy needs.
Yes, you’d like your child to eat
vegetables at dinner time, but the
world won’t end if they don’t.
Remember, you can also offer
vegetables at snack time in a differ-
ent format, such as carrot sticks with
a tasty dip, or sweet cherry tomatoes
with cheese and crackers. Try it
out as an after-school snack when
they’re famished. Or blend veg-
etables into main dishes – grated
carrot in mince, tomato-based
sauces on pasta, roasted vegies
with a weekend roast meal.
Getting children to eat
their vegetables isn’t
the goal.
Rather, it’s
creating a harmoni-
ous relationship with
food. That
requires trust
in yourself and
your child and remem-
bering to play the long
game. l