GENERATIONS of children have been told that eating carrots will make them see in the dark, and that spinach makes them strong, but now research suggests telling youngsters a dish is good for them will turn them off it.

The study concludes that young children are less likely to eat a particular food if they have been told that it is healthy.

It suggests that instead, parents should try to make their sons and daughters eat nourishing foods by simply telling them it is tasty, or saying nothing at all.

The study is based on a series of experiments involving about 270 pre-school children.

The youngsters were read stories in which a girl was given food for a snack. Some stories gave the message that the food was healthy, some gave the message it was tasty and others gave no message at all.

Researchers then looked at how much of the food in the story - for example crackers or carrots - the ­children ate after hearing a particular tale.

The study, due to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research in October, found that children ate more of a food when they had been told that it was tasty, or when they were given no message, than they did when they had heard the food was good for them.