Is it really this hard to get kids to eat vegetables?

Minneapolis mom Bridget O'Boyle read Wednesday how school kids ate more vegetables when their lunch trays had images of veggies on them. Maybe, she suggested, the schools should add some dip into the mix as well.

O'Boyle cited a recent study in which preschool children were tested to determine if they were sensitive to bitter tastes. The study monitored daily broccoli consumption for these children and whether they were more likely to eat vegetables if they were bathed in dressing, or if heavy or light dressing was offered as a dipping sauce. Among those children sensitive to bitter tastes, dip increased their broccoli consumption by 80 percent.

"I'm not of the camp that you just keep giving your kids foods that they hate," said O'Boyle, a mother of a 12 year old son and 8 year old daughter. "Try it in different ways."

O'Boyle, it should be noted, is rooted to the dip-making industry. She earned a $5,000 grant from the maker of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing in 2009 to create a sustainable community garden in Minneapolis and now serves on a parent advisory council for the company's "Love Your Veggies" campaign. The preschool dip study was funded by Hidden Valley Ranch's parent company, Clorox.

"I know it's corporate," she said. "Some of the (nutritional) programs they're sponsoring I can really get behind."

O'Boyle was raised in Inver Grove Heights when it was largely pastures. Her parents were organic farmers and operated a pick-your-own raspberry field as a side business to their day jobs. The big treat in her family, she said, was mixing Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning packets with buttermilk and putting it on potatoes.

"That was our super extra special treat," she said. "And I'm not just saying that."

Members of the Hidden Valley advisory council received the same taste strips used in the preschool study to determine sensitivity to bitterness. O'Boyle and her daughter are sensitive, but her husband and son are not.

"I hate raw broccoli. Hate it," she said. "Quite honestly, if I'm going to have broccoli I'm going to have to have dip with it."

O'Boyle said her children generally eat a variety of raw vegetables -- often skipping some ingredients in a salad but at least eating the others. She has no problem using dip to make veggies tastier for the kids, but draws the line at other incentives.

"I try not to be, 'if you eat that piece of broccoli I'll give you some French fries,'" she said. "To me, that's the complete wrong answer."