Placing smiley faces on packaging of veggies and offering small prizes for buying them can encourage children to eat them, found a new study. The findings could be very helpful for schools that want to improve food eating habits in their students.

Children now a days prefer fried food over vegetables, which has become worrisome for many parents as carries health risk for their children. However, this new simple and inexpensive way can help them better their plight by attracting children to healthy food items.

The study was conducted in the cafeteria at an inner-city elementary school that had almost 300 students in Cincinnati. In the first phase of the study, the researchers simply put smiley face emotions on the four most nutritious items offered each day in the school cafeteria. The items were a vegetable side dish, plain fat-free milk, a fruit option and an entrée typically made with whole grains.

In the second phase, the researchers created a 'Power Plate', which consisted of the four types of healthy foods in one meal. They offered little toys or small prizes, like stickers, temporary tattoos, to children who would buy the Power Plate. The researchers told that the concept behind creating the Power Plate was to create a balanced meal for children.

The results were very exciting as sales of the plain fat-free milk rose to 48% from 7.4% before the study. A significant decline to 44.6% was seen in the sales of chocolate milk from 86.5%. Children also often purchased fruits and vegetables.

Health experts say poor food selection among school students increases the risk of childhood obesity. The study findings have provided a new way to shift focus of children from unhealthy food to the ones that are essential for their physical and mental growth.