When children see Grimace, a professor says their reaction is to chow down on more food.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder are blaming “plump” cartoon characters associated with food, like the portly Grimace, a purple glob of a McDonald’s pitchman who had a hankering for milk shakes.

grimace
Courtesy: gunaxin.com

The study — deemed the “first of its kind” — found kids will eat more after they observe rotund characters.

“They have a tendency to eat almost twice as much indulgent food as kids who are exposed to perceived healthier looking cartoon characters or no characters at all,” says the study’s lead author, Professor Margaret C. Campbell, according to Science Blog.

The study finds children perceive “ovoid, or egg-shaped” characters as overweight.

“Because research like this is new — looking at kids and stereotyping particularly of cartoon characters — we weren’t sure whether kids would be aware of bodyweight norms,” according to Campbell. “But surprisingly, they apply typically human standards to cartoon creatures — creatures for which there isn’t a real baseline.”

Campbell believes the solution to kids pigging out is for an authority to intervene.

As the news outlet reports:

The inclination to eat more junk food was curtailed, however, when kids in the study first had the opportunity to summon their previously learned health knowledge. That is, before looking at the ovoid cartoon character and then taking a cookie taste-test, the children’s health knowledge was activated when they were asked to choose the healthiest option represented in six pairs of pictures and words — such as getting your sleep versus watching TV, soda versus milk and playing inside versus playing outside — which led to lighter cookie consumption.

“But perhaps if we’re able to help trigger their health knowledge with a quiz just as they’re about to select lunch at school, for instance, they’ll choose the more nutritious foods,” Campbell says.

The researchers tested 300 children in three age groups averaging 8, 12 and 13 years old.

Such proposed intervening, such as Campbell’s quiz idea, isn’t new.

Last year, a USDA report proposed grocery store shopping carts that would comment on a shopper’s food decisions.

EAGnews reported last summer:

The high-tech carts – which would cost every grocery store about $30,000 to provide – would be physically divided and color coded to help consumers select approved food items. It would also “have a system installed so that when the shopping cart reaches its healthy ‘threshold’ it would congratulate the customer,” FreeBeacon.com reports.

In case that’s not creepy enough, the feds want grocery store employees to serve as government “ambassadors” who can “redirect” food stampers toward healthy items by explaining the various incentive programs and nutritional information.

Michelle Obama and her minions also envision turning the grocery store into a “classroom” where shoppers can receive cooking tips and advice from dieticians – presumably ones employed by the federal government.

The feds also want stores to use better signage, lighting and product placement so customers can easily find the food their government thinks they should be eating. They also want stores to set aside more shelf space for the government-preferred products.

That plan hasn’t seemed to be getting much traction, at least not yet.