Researchers in Britain are claiming success with an educational video that relies on peer pressure and role modelling by superhero characters to persuade kids to make healthier food choices.

The Food Dudes video stars four pre-adolescent kids who get superpowers from eating fruits and vegetables. Organizers say they chose older kids for the starring roles because they act as role models for the younger children in the target group.

The dudes battle General Junk and the Junk Punks, who steal healthy food, thereby robbing the world of its Life Force, or energy.

Organizers tried the program at schools in England, Scotland and Wales before moving on to the Republic of Ireland.

During the first phase, lasting 16 days, school children are given fruits and vegetables while they watch the video. Each day the children are rewarded with small prizes for successfully eating — or at least just tasting — the food.

In the second phase, which lasts up to a year, kids are encouraged to bring their own fruits and vegetables to school every day. Classroom wall charts are used to record progress.

The World Health Organization recently honoured Food Dudes with a best practices award.

On its website, the Food Dudes organizers say the United Kingdom has one of the lowest fruit and vegetable intakes in Europe. As a result, they say Britain now has one of the worst heart disease records in the world and other diet-related health problems such as obesity are also on the increase.

Food program a hit in Ireland

The program now in 150 schools in Ireland, targeting about 30,000 children aged two to 11, has doubled the intake of fruit and vegetables and in some cases boosted consumption of such foods by 10 to 14 times, the organizers say.
 
Britain has been moving aggressively to improve the quality of school food. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been at the forefront of the campaign with his fight to ban junk food in schools and his TV series aimed at transforming cafeteria menus.

In 2005, the British government announced it would ban school cafeterias from serving poor-quality hamburgers and hotdogs. From this September, vending machines selling soft drinks, chocolate bars and potato chips to students will be outlawed.

Changing food habits isn't easy. Humans are genetically predisposed to prefer sugary and fatty foods — an evolutionary twist that made sense in prehistoric times but not anymore.

'Anything that tasted sweet was generally safe to eat."—Dietitian Paul Sacher

"Back when we lived in caves and children were crawling in forests, anything that tasted sweet was generally safe to eat," said Paul Sacher, a dietitian at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

"Today, evolutionary tendencies are actually our worst enemy," said Sacher. "We're beyond the stage where we have to be that careful, yet we still have this natural desire for sweet things."

That natural predilection can be managed, but it will always remain.

"The main driver of food selection is taste, taste, and taste," said Dr. Jeanne Greenberg, director of the nutrition communication program at the Friedman school of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University.

With files from the Associated Press