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A car that has seemingly taken Jordanian roads by storm on a somewhat small scale, the now common electric-powered Fiat 500e’s popularity stands in contrast with regular petrol Fiat 500 derivatives.

With limited local take up of the broader 500 range since the Italian carmaker’s defining retro heavy model was first introduced in 2007, enthusiasm for the 500e’s seems to largely stem from substantial electric vehicle (EV) duty exemptions and, as of more recently, reduced levies compared with petrol cars.

Diminutive charms

A perfect case of how the Jordanian market differs from other regional markets and how car companies can miss out small but significant opportunities when approaching the Middle East as a homogenous GCC-oriented entity rather than a collection of more locally nuanced markets, the Fiat 500e, like other similar cars, is officially unavailable for sale in the Middle East. Instead, demand for the 500e has been met by independent auto traders importing used and new examples from the US market.

On sale in the US since 2013, Fiat’s diminutive 3-door city hatchback is almost identical and charming in EV 500e guise as petrol versions, with the same high urban manoeuvrability and somewhat limited practicality compared with conventional-looking competitors like its own Fiat Panda sister. With few tell-tale distinguishing signs, the stylish 500e, however, stands out for its rounded, bug-eyed, big footprint and narrow upright retro-infused charisma harking back to Fiat’s iconic original post-war people’s car, rather than laboured, unconvincing and complicated attempts at aesthetically singling it out as an EV.

Ready responses

Driving the front wheels through a front-mounted electric motor and single-speed gearbox in place of regular models’ transverse combustion engines, the Fiat 500e is, however, significantly heavier at 1,355kg owing to its 364V, 24kWH batteries positioned underneath the cabin.

Producing 111BHP and 147lb/ft torque with an almost immediately accessible and responsive jolt from standstill, the 500e is capable of 0-100km/h in around 9.5-seconds. Top speed is meanwhile limited to 141km/h — presumably somewhat due to weight and its single ratio gearing, but regardless, it overtakes responsively when cruising.

With near instant access to it generously torque-biased output the 500e launches confidently with a little torque steer, and chirp from its relatively slim tyres. Seamlessly smooth in delivery and with healthy mid-range versatility, the 500e does its best work at lower and more moderate speeds.

Like most EVs, the 500e is at its most energy efficient in the city, where it returns 160km single charge range in ideal conditions, which drops to 139km on the combined cycle, with a fuel efficiency equivalency of 2l/100km.

Stylish city car

More efficient in town than on highway as most EVs are, the 500e’s range is further reduced at speed and under heavy acceleration input. Meanwhile charging times vary from lengthy 24-hours for basic 120V home charging to four hours with a high capacity 240V charger.

That given, combined with its fundamental small and tall city car design, the 500e is particularly well suited as a mostly urban commuter car with good efficiency, adequate range and easy manoeuvrability from home to work, where battery charge can be topped up.

A nippy and agile city car well able to zip through narrow and confined conditions, the 500e’s forte is not to be found in long distance touring, owing mainly to its range and re-charge time restrictions, despite it being adequately stable reassuring at speed.

And while a little busy in its ride quality over imperfect surface, the 500e’s somewhat altered weighting for EV service lends it a more planted ride quality, in addition to perhaps a slightly more increased instinct for understeer if pushed too hard on turn-in.

Perched high and grounded low

That said, the 500e is otherwise tidy and responsive on turn-in, and with direct steering and adequate road feel from its 185/55R15 tyres, is easily maneuvered through narrow winding lane and tight parking garages alike. Nimble and agile, but stable through corners owing to its tiny 2,300mm wheelbase and relatively big footprint, it leans slightly through corners. But with much of the added weight situated in the under-cabin battery packs, the low centre of gravity seems to counteract its tall and narrow roofline.

Driving with a slightly more grounded feel than regular petrol versions but the same high perched driving position, the 500e provides terrific driving visibility for manoeuvring. With commanding road view and good front headroom and narrow cabin, driving controls also fall easily to hand.

Stylishly retro inside, the 500e’s cabin accommodates four people, but with rear leg and head room at a premium, and 199L regular boot space, a compromise between passenger capacity and comfort and extended folded rear seat luggage volume sometimes has to be made.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: Permanent magnetic electric traction, front-mounted electric motor

Battery, voltage/capacity: Lithium-ion, 364V/24kWh

Gearbox: 1-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Final drive: 9.59:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 111 (112) [83]

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 147 (200)

0-100km/h: approximately 9.5-seconds

Top speed: 141km/h

Range, city/combined: 160/139km*

Fuel consumption equivalency, combined: 2-litres/100km*

Charging time, at 120V/240V: 24-/4-hours

Length: 3,617mm

Width: 1,627mm

Height: 1,527mm

Wheelbase: 2,300mm

Track, F/R: 1,407/1,397mm

Ground clearance: 115mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficiency: 0.311

Headroom, F/R: 989/903mm

Legroom, F/R: 1,035/702mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,255/1,179mm

Hip room, F/R: 1,215/1,083mm

Seating capacity: 4

Luggage volume: 199-litres

Kerb weight: 1,355kg

Weight distribution, F/R: 57/43 per cent

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Lock-to-lock: 3-turns

Steering ratio: 16.3:1

Turning Circle: 9.54-metres

Suspension: MacPherson struts/twist beam

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 284 x 22mm/251 x 11mm

Tyres: 185/55R15

*US Environmental Protection Agency figures

Living with Arabs: Nine Years with the Petra Bedouin

Joan Ward

Um Peter Publishing, 2014

Pp. 190

Many in Jordan probably know the author of this book, UK citizen Joan Ward, for she was Head of English at the International Community School (ICS) in Amman from 2006 until 2008, before deciding to settle in Um Sayhoun, the housing built for the bedouin who were relocated from Petra’s caves.

In “Living with Arabs”, she relates her experience with open-mindedness, compassion, humour and a critical eye. At first, Ward spent weekends in the Petra area, but her decision to live there began with an epiphany that occurred on her first visit as a tourist in 2004. On a hike north of Petra, it hit her: “my heart lurched with the realisation that this place was my soul’s home. I wanted to stay here forever”. (p. 7)

Her way of expressing this reflects her deep spirituality, which is further revealed in later parts of the book.

After securing a job at the ICS, she began spending as much time as possible in the Petra area: “Those early holidays and the weekends of the two years that I taught in Amman, were spent on donkey back in the Petra mountains, accompanied by a wonderful guide, whose family were to become my closest friends and neighbours.” (p. 8) 

By summer 2006, building began on the house for her guide’s family with separate accommodations for her. “Over the years our lives were to become intermingled in many different ways. In the course of my life, I have battled cancer, injustice, unhappy marriages and physical pain, but nothing was to make me dig as deep into my reserves as the life that lay ahead of me in Um Sayhoun.” (p. 74)

One might imagine that Ward had found a quiet, peaceful retreat, but the noise and confusion of her neighbours and their animals was her biggest problem in the beginning. One remedy for this was long hikes alone. “The luxury of uninterrupted time on my own, to sit and think was such a rarity back in the village that, on my days out, knowing that I would be a source of interest, I tried to stay hidden.” (p. 92) 

This is not to say that she always avoided social contact, on the contrary. One chapter of the book consists of a journal she kept after her friends in the UK asked her what she did all the time. Its entries attest to how much time and effort she devoted to social relations with her neighbours and helping the women of the community in particular, by driving them on errands or to the doctor. If the doctor was in Aqaba, it gave excuse for a fun excursion. 

Through Ward’s eyes and eloquent prose, one meets dozens of people and hears their stories. She is a keen observer of human behaviour, attune to the significance of small gestures and body language. As her Arabic improved, she gained more and more insight into the Petra bedouins’ lives, how families and the community functioned, and what was meaningful to them. There are also beautiful descriptions of nature and graphic accounts of her adventures in the mountains. Ward was especially admiring of the matriarchs but found all the women delightful: “They are lovely. They are kind and sensitive. They are welcoming and accepting. They have, on average, eight children each. They are old before their time… They are the salt of the earth and I love them.” (p. 47)

Ward also expresses admiration for the ability of the bedouin to make a life wherever they are, despite poverty and marginalisation. “The bedouin are extremely resourceful and are masters of improvisation. No hammer? Use a disused engine part. No tea-glass? Cut the top or bottom off a plastic water bottle. No tripod for the pot? Use stones?” (p. 19)

It is interesting to compare Ward’s book to Marguerite van Geldermalsen’s “Married to a Bedouin” (2006), because presumably it is the same community in which they lived. However, Marguerite’s book covers seven years of living in a cave, while Ward came later, when the Petra bedouin were resettled in Um Sayhoun. Both women seem to have struck a balance between integrating in the community and being themselves, but there is one surprising difference in their narratives: Marguerite does not mention instances of cruelty, whereas Ward, though essentially positive about the community, is deeply disturbed by the instances of cruelty to animals and women’s subordination which she observes. Did the people change after they relocated? Why are the two women’s perspectives on this so different? One wonders if they ever met. 

The only disconcerting thing about this book is the cover which shows a woman who resembles a Gulf Arab more than a Jordanian bedouin, evoking a stereotype that is otherwise completely absent in Ward’s narrative. “Living with Arabs” is available at Books@cafe, Redwan bookstore in Aqaba, and the Crown Plaza gift shop in Wadi Musa.

Sally Bland

During the Holy Month of Ramadan, the whole routine of life changes for those fasting. A combination of several factors may have a negative impact on our bodies, including our skin.

Long hours of fasting hours and fewer hours of sleep combined with warmer weather may leave your skin dehydrated and susceptible to breakouts and dry patches. Here are my five skin care tips to keep your skin refreshed, radiant, glowing and healthy leading up to Eid.

1. Water…much more

Drinking water is the mother of all skincare tips. I recommend drinking two to three litres of water during iftar hours. Even better, adding mint, cucumber or lemon makes it all the more refreshing and appealing. Water will hydrate your skin, reduce breakouts and aid in digestion and bowel movement. 

Recommended: Water-rich food — fruits like cantaloupe, watermelon, grapefruit, oranges and cucumber are full of water. 

Avoiding or limiting: Milk, coffee, soda, sugar and salt are dehydrating.

2. Hydrating and moisturising your skin 

Moisturising is a must any day of the year but it’s even more important when your skin cannot be internally hydrated. I recommend using a moisturiser in the morning, not forgetting the sunblock, applying a serum before bedtime and moisturising your body after every shower.

Recommended: A homemade face mist: Simply find a bottle mist, add one quarter rosewater, two quarters filtered water and 10 drops of pure glycerine (you can get it from any pharmacy). Whenever you feel the need or after each wudu’ (ablution), just spray it over your face to lock in moisture. 

Avoiding or limiting: Long sun exposure — sunblock should be reapplied every two to three hours for optimal protection Showering in hot water: Hot water dries the skin faster.

3. Extra eyecare

Regularly staying up late and interrupted sleep may impact our eyes with darker circles, puffiness and more wrinkles. Extra care is needed to stay looking refreshed throughout the month. I recommend using a water based eye cream and searching for these ingredients in your eye cream: amino acids, peptides, hyaluronic acid.

Recommended: Perfume-free, paraben-free and glutenfree eye cream.

Avoiding: Sleeping with your makeup on and harsh ingredients that irritate the eye area.

4. Eating foods that make your skin glow

Raising your antioxidant intake during iftar and suhoor will give you radiant, healthy looking skin even when fasting. I eat foods that are rich in fibre and antioxidants, such as berries, almonds, dark chocolate and pomegranates and have a handful of berries as they are a great source of the vitamins and minerals our skin needs after a day of fasting.

Recommended: Plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and fish as they are rich in vitamins and minerals.

Avoiding or limiting: Fast food, sugar and refined carbohydrates as they are really bad for our skin. Eating this sort of food can lead to skin blemishes, breakouts and makes skin look generally dull.

5. Less makeup during the day

The combination of heat, dehydration and heavy makeup can lead to clogged pores and breakouts. I recommend products that are light and moisturising such as BB creams (also known as beauty balms or blemish balms) and lip balms with added SPF. If you want extra coverage, go for a water-based foundation.

Recommended: Rosewater mist (mentioned above) before applying your makeup for added moisture.

Avoiding: Oil-based makeup and applying foundation directly onto your skin — cleanse, moisture and apply sunblock before spreading on your foundation I wish you all a blessed month! Let us make smarter decisions about our skincare throughout Ramadan and may this be the perfect opportunity to get into good habits for the rest of the year.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours Magazine

Kindergarteners who get more than two hours of screen time a day may be more likely to have behaviour and attention problems in school than their classmates who spend less time in front of televisions, smartphones and tablets, a Canadian study suggests. 

Doctors urge parents of young kids to limit screen time or avoid it altogether because all of those hours watching videos or gaming have been linked to slowed development of speech and language, fine and gross motor skills, and social and behavioural skills. After all, time spent in front of screens means less time for scribbling with crayons or playing games that help kids learn how to kick a ball or take turns. 

In the current study, researchers surveyed parents of more than 2,400 Canadian kids to assess screen time at three and five years. The second assessment also asked about behaviour problems like inattention and aggressiveness as well as issues like sleep difficulties, depression and anxiety. 

Very few five-year-olds had these problems: just 1.2 per cent of kids had so-called “externalising” behaviour problems like aggression or inattention and just 2.5 per cent had “internalising” problems like depression and anxiety. 

But compared to kids who got less than a half hour of screen time daily, children who had more than two hours daily had an almost six-fold greater risk of attention problems and an almost eight-fold greater risk of meeting the criteria for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. 

“It is never too early to talk to your child about limiting screen time,” senior study author Dr Piush Mandhane of the University of Alberta in Canada said by e-mail. 

Canadian guidelines recommend that parents limit screen time to less than one hour a day for children two to four years old and less than two hours daily for older kids, researchers note in Plos One. 

At age three, kids in the study exceeded these limits, getting an average of 1.5 hours a day of screen time. They got slightly less — 1.4 hours a day — by age five. 

Overall, almost 14 per cent of kids had more than two hours a day of screen time. 

It is possible that some kids in the study who already had challenges with behaviour or social skills opted to spend more time in front of screens because they struggled to relate to peers. 

The study also was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how screen time might cause behaviour problems. 

“This study does not draw any conclusion about certain types or contexts of media use being better for child development than others,” said Andrew Ribner, a psychology researcher at New York University who was not involved in the research. 

“However, other research has suggested screen time that has a slower pace, is relatively less fantastical, and provides some kind of contingent responsiveness — something like Sesame Street or Dora the Explorer rather than Spongebob Squarepants — is better than the alternative,” Ribner said by e-mail. 

Fast-paced digital media can precondition little ones to expect unnatural stimulation, leading to shorter attention spans because real life can seem slow and underwhelming by comparison, said Dr Dimitri Christakis, director of the Centre for Child Health, Behaviour and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. 

“We also know from decades of research that real, human interaction and play is critical to cognitive and social development,” Christakis, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “Even if it were ‘harmless,’ the time spent on digital devices displaces these interactions.” 

Beyond just limiting screen time, parents should concentrate on creating screen-free times in children’s daily routines, said Dr Jenny Radesky of the C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

“The more important thing is reducing tech distractions during meals, when playing solo or together, and before bedtime — and not giving in to every moment of boredom or whining with tech use,” Radesky, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “It’s so important for children to learn how to handle big feelings, tolerate boredom, and settle themselves down at night.” 

People spend nearly an hour each day gossiping, but most of our behind-the-back chatter is not necessarily negative. That is according to a new study that reveals just who is most likely to dish on others and why.

University of California–Riverside researchers looked at 467 people who wore portable recorders that picked up bits of their conversations for two to five days, the university said in a release. Those snippets were then analysed for overall gossipiness.

What they found: The average person gossips for 52 minutes a day, but only about 15 per cent of the gossip picked up in the study was negative.

“We actually found that the overwhelming majority of gossip was neutral,” Megan Robbins, study co-author and UC Riverside psychologist, told NPR.

“About three-quarters of the conversation we heard in our sampled conversations was neither positive nor negative,”

The recorders picked up about 10 per cent of participants’ conversations, the university said. Anything spoken about a person not present counted as gossip, which research assistants then rated as positive, negative or neutral.

Women gossip more than men, the study found, but only on neutral, information-focused topics — think updates about a niece’s job or a friend’s cancer treatment. Younger people sling more negative gossip than older adults, the data showed.

People are way less likely to gossip about celebrities like Kim Kardashian than they are about an acquaintance like Kim from accounting, the study found.

And, unsurprisingly, extroverts are more likely than introverts to gossip whether positive, negative or in-between.

People often imagine gossips to be poorer and uneducated, the authors said, but the study found those with less education and wealth do not gossip more than wealthier, more educated people.

“These naturalistic observation findings dispel some stereotypes about this prevalent yet misunderstood behaviour,” the study’s authors said.

The study was published earlier this month in the peer-reviewed journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

For people without heart disease, taking a daily aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes may increase the risk of severe brain bleeding to the point where it outweighs any potential benefit, a research review suggests. 

US doctors have long advised adults who have not had a heart attack or stroke but are at high risk for these events to take a daily aspirin pill, an approach known as primary prevention. Even though there’s clear evidence aspirin works for this purpose, many physicians and patients have been reluctant to follow the recommendations because of the risk of rare but potentially lethal internal bleeding. 

For the current study, researchers examined data from 13 clinical trials testing the effects of aspirin against a placebo or no treatment in more than 134,000 adults. 

The risk of intracranial haemorrhage, or brain bleeds, was rare: taking aspirin was associated with two additional cases of this type of internal bleeding for every 1,000 people, the study found. 

But the bleeding risk was still 37 per cent higher for people taking aspirin than for people who did not take this drug. 

“Intracranial haemorrhage is a special concern because it is strongly associated with a high risk of death and poorer health over a lifetime,” said study co-author Dr Meng Lee of Chang Gung University College of Medicine in Taiwan. 

“These findings suggest caution regarding using low-dose aspirin in individuals without symptomatic cardiovascular disease,” Lee said by e-mail. 

For people who have already had a heart attack or stroke, the benefit of low-dose aspirin to prevent another major cardiac event is well established, researchers note in JAMA Neurology. But the value of aspirin is less clear for healthier people, for whom bleeding risks may outweigh any benefit, the study team writes. 

Already, guidelines on aspirin for primary prevention of heart disease in the US, Europe and Australia have incorporated a need to balance the potential benefits against the risk of bleeding. For elderly people, who have a greater risk of bleeding than younger adults, the risks may be too great to recommend aspirin. 

For adults ages 50 to 59 considering aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes, for example, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends the pill only for people who have at least a 10 per cent risk of having a heart attack or stroke over the next decade and who do not have a higher-than-average risk of bleeding.

One limitation of the analysis is that the smaller clinical trials examined a variety of aspirin doses up to 100 miligrammes daily. The analysis also only focused on brain bleeds, and not on other types of internal bleeding associated with aspirin. 

“We have long known that aspirin can precipitate bleeding, most commonly in the gastrointestinal tract, but most devastatingly in the brain,” said Dr Samuel Wann, a cardiologist at Ascension Healthcare in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was not involved in the study. 

Despite the benefits for preventing heart attacks, the consensus on aspirin has changed over time, particularly for people without heart disease or hardening and narrowing of the arteries (atherosclerosis). 

 “We have previously recommended aspirin to prevent platelets from sticking to the inside of an individual’s arteries, but the benefit, while real, turns out to be small compared to the rare but devastating incidence of brain haemorrhage,” Wann said by e-mail. “We no longer recommend routine use of aspirin in individuals who have no demonstrable cardiovascular disease or atherosclerosis.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — WhatsApp on Tuesday encouraged its users to upgrade the app to plug a security breach that allowed sophisticated attackers to sneak spyware into phones, in the latest trouble for its parent Facebook.

The vulnerability — first reported by The Financial Times (FT), and fixed in the latest WhatsApp update — allowed hackers to insert malicious software on phones by calling the target using the app, which is used by 1.5 billion people around the world.

“WhatsApp encourages people to upgrade to the latest version of our app, as well as keep their mobile operating system up to date, to protect against potential targeted exploits designed to compromise information stored on mobile devices,” a spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

The FT cited a spyware dealer as saying the tool was developed by a shadowy Israel-based firm called the NSO Group, which has been accused of helping governments from the Middle East to Mexico snoop on activists and journalists.

And security researchers said the malicious code bore similarities to other tech developed by the firm, according to The New York Times.

The latest exploit — which impacts Android devices and Apple’s iPhones, among others — was discovered earlier this month and WhatsApp scrambled to fix it, rolling out an update in less than 10 days.

The firm did not comment on the number of users affected or who targeted them, and said it had reported the matter to US authorities.

It also informed authorities in Ireland about the “serious security vulnerability”, according to a statement by the country’s Data Protection Commission (DPC).

“The DPC is actively engaging with WhatsApp Ireland to determine if and to what extent any WhatsApp EU user data has been affected,” it said.

It echoed WhatsApp in encouraging users to update the app, as “the possibility remains that EU users were affected”.

The breach is the latest in a series of issues troubling WhatsApp’s parent Facebook, which has faced intense criticism for allowing its users’ data to be harvested by research companies and over its slow response to Russia using the platform as a means to spread disinformation during the 2016 US election campaign.

Highly invasive software

The WhatsApp spyware is sophisticated and “would be available to only advanced and highly motivated actors”, the company said, adding that a “select number of users were targeted”.

“This attack has all the hallmarks of a private company that works with a number of governments around the world” according to initial investigations, it added, but did not name the firm.

WhatsApp has briefed human rights organisations on the matter, but did not identify them.

The Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto, said in a Tweet it believed an attacker tried to target a human rights lawyer as recently as Sunday using this flaw, but was blocked by WhatsApp.

The NSO Group came to prominence in 2016 when researchers accused it of helping spy on an activist in the United Arab Emirates. Its best-known product is Pegasus, a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target’s phone camera and microphone, and access data on it.

The firm said Tuesday that it only licenses its software to governments for “fighting crime and terror”.

The NSO Group “does not operate the system, and after a rigorous licensing and vetting process, intelligence and law enforcement determine how to use the technology to support their public safety missions”, it said in a statement to AFP.

“We investigate any credible allegations of misuse and if necessary, we take action, including shutting down the system.”

AMMAN — Hollywood heavyweight Will Smith said on Monday his son Jaden inspired him to take the role of the genie in a remake of Disney classic Aladdin, out later this month.

Smith said he had been reading scripts and struggling to decide which role to accept.

“I had three or four movies that I was considering and I was having a hard time making a decision,” he said at a news conference in Jordan, where parts of the film were shot.

His son Jaden, Smith’s co-star in the 2006 film “The Pursuit of Happyness”, had walked into the room and asked about the films.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star pitched him each of the plotlines and asked for his opinion.

“He looked down at the screenplays and grabbed the other ones and just threw them on the floor and said: ‘duh, the genie? You have the chance to play the genie?’ He was blown away,” Smith said.

The film’s plot is drawn from a centuries-old Middle Eastern folk tale that features in the Arabian Nights and was retold in a 1992 Disney cartoon.

It is the story of a street urchin who finds a magic lantern containing a genie and falls in love with a rebellious princess, Jasmine.

Directed by Guy Ritchie, the 2019 remake stars English actress Naomi Scott as Jasmine and Canadian-Egyptian Mena Massoud as Aladdin.

They held a press conference Monday hosted by Jordan’s Royal Film Commission to mark the Middle East premiere of the film.

Some scenes were shot in 2017 in Wadi Rum, a desert valley in south Jordan that also featured in the 1962 classic Lawrence of Arabia.

“There is such a peace out in the middle of the desert,” Massoud said. “There’s nothing like it.”

By using the right words and repeating the phrases, adults can help young kids get over picky eating behaviours and eat healthier foods, according to a new study. 

Saying: “Lentils will help you run faster,” for instance, encourages preschoolers to understand the benefits and pick the foods they want, the study authors write in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour. 

“Previous studies have shown that adults struggle with how to talk to young children about food,” said lead study author Jane Lanigan of Washington State University in Vancouver. 

Most children between four and eight years old do not meet recommended guidelines for vegetables, grains and fatty acids and they tend to eat too many empty calories. 

“Conversations are sometimes inaccurate or not helpful or even harmful in terms of helping a child learn to eat healthfully,” she told Reuters Health by e-mail. 

Lanigan and colleagues worked with 87 preschoolers from two early childhood education centres, testing whether repeat exposure and the correct phrasing would help preschoolers try four foods that are generally less accepted by little kids: tomatoes, bell peppers, lentils and quinoa. 

The researchers also surveyed parents about their child’s eating history, the meal environment at home and nutrition knowledge, as well as parental income and education. 

In the exposure tests, the study team assessed whether the children liked the foods, which were presented separately in small plastic containers. The tomatoes and green peppers were raw and chopped into bite-sized pieces. The quinoa and lentils were cooked with no added spices. Kids who refused to sample a food were encouraged to smell, touch or lick it and told they could try it and spit it out if they wanted too. 

Then, for the next six weeks, researchers ran a tasting station in the classroom two days a week and offered one food to taste. On the second day, a researcher would include food-specific phrases in the conversation two times during the tasting, such as “Lentils will help you run fast and jump high” or “Fruits and vegetables keep you from getting sick”. 

Lanigan’s team found that after the six-week experiment, children were more willing to try foods, particularly the kids whose parents had higher education levels. The children also rated the foods one point higher on a five-point scale compared to their ratings at the start of the study. 

Importantly, at home one month after the experiment ended, parents reported that children consumed twice as much of the foods introduced in the experiment as they had before. 

“Parents asked for our ‘recipe’ because they couldn’t believe their child would eat lentils or quinoa,” Lanigan said. “The funny part is we prepared the foods with no added spices or flavours to maintain consistency. There are much more appealing recipes.” 

Repetition gave the children multiple experiences to become familiar with the food and explore it without the stress or pressure of being expected to eat the food, the study authors note in their report. This may lead to an increased willingness to try, like and eat the food. At home, meal-time conversations could be a way to encourage food exploration and develop positive eating behaviours, they add. 

 “We all struggle to eat healthily given our current food environment, and developing ways to get children to try healthy foods that may not be as immediately appealing as a sugary treat is important to encourage children to develop healthy eating habits early,” said Alison Miller of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who was not involved in the study. 

“I think it’s likely helpful for parents to talk about the benefits of healthy food with their children in a child-friendly way, and also to model it,” she said in an e-mail. “But also, all children have a different ‘temperament’ when it comes to eating, so don’t get too worried about your child being a picky eater unless they’re not growing.”