Would you pay your child to eat their greens?

After a trial overseas found that paying children to eat their vegetables doubled healthy living, a new proposed initiative would see Australian tots get paid 25 cents a day to eat their greens at school.

 

The initiative doesn't come cheap - in order to pay all the pupils between the age of five and 14, 25c a day to eat their veggies, it would cost the government over $136 million 

 

However, not everyone think that this is a good way to encourage healthy eating in kids and believe that there are other means to fight obesity in children.

 

According to medical expert Dr Rob Grenfell, the projec will not work unless parents live by example and also have a healthy eating habit themselves.

 

Obesity Coalition chief John Funder is also sceptical saying Aussies are more questioning. He said: “If it was going to work anywhere it would work in Utah.  We’re not as orderly as Utah, we’re more questioning.”

 

However, with 25% of Australian children being overweight and less than one if four eating the required serving of vegetables a day, leading dietician Dr Rosemary Stanton thinks that it’s a plan that should be explored.