Encouraging children to eat more vegetables is not a new parenting problem. As many parents over generations have felt, it can feel like a daily battle. But has the issue been just how to sell them?
That’s what advertising executive David Bell thought. After becoming interested in gut health himself, he looked around and saw the dire food choices available for his own young son. “As I was learning about my own gut health, it rattled me to think that we were ignoring it as a topic for kids. We are seeing a rise in childhood obesity, in their diets being filled with UPFs, and there’s very little engaging education.”
And so, to get his own son interested in the topic, he started inventing stories which reframed gut microbes as “Belly Bugs”, superheroes that live inside our stomachs that need feeding with nutritious, and healthy, fruit and veg. His son lapped it up.
Encouraged by what he saw at home, he wrote a book, Belly Bugs, which he first self published, and, after thousands of parents have bought it, has now been picked up by a publisher as part of a three-book deal.
The premise of Belly Bugs is simple. A girl falls asleep and enters a world inside her tummy, populated by friendly characters who help keep her healthy. Feed them fruit and vegetables and they thrive; feed them ultra-processed food and the villains take over. “The story is – as all great children’s stories are – simple,” Bell says. “At its heart it’s about goodies and baddies. Eat a cabbage to fight bad gut bacteria. Pick colourful fruit and vegetables to get “rocket fuel” that power up your insides. Oh, and there are poo jokes.”
It’s wildly radical – but at the same time incredibly simple. “Gut health isn’t actually that difficult,” Bell says, “but it’s been made to feel that way.” That’s not to say the story hasn’t had serious scientific input: Bell consulted Professor Tim Spector from the start, and gut health experts ranging from Dr Federica Amati to Rhiannon Lambert sing praises of the book.
But it’s also playful and imaginative, and for that Bell credits advice from the Paw Patrol’s creator Keith Chapman “who gave me some pointers” and illustrator Martin Smith – another ad man. The reason: children don’t want to be told what to do, they need better stories. “We’re competing with billion-pound food brands who understand how to speak to kids,” Bell says. “Healthy eating has been left to boring leaflets.”
Not any more. A pilot study at a primary school in Sunderland shows that it also works on changing food habits. When pupils were read the story in the morning, and taught about the amazing things that fruit and veg do for their bodies, they all chose salad at lunchtime. Not because adults told them to, but because they wanted to “help their Belly Bugs”.
Bell says that the school cook noticed the first immediate difference. “Normally she said she would have to throw away at least half of the salads she’d made; when the children started reading the book, they ate pretty much all the salads. And this behaviour change was sustained right through the 8-week pilot.” But later parents also reported children explaining food choices at home.
What’s clever is that the story gives kids a sense of ownership, something my own (slightly picky eating) children have taken and run with. I’ve found that by reading Belly Bugs with them – and using the sticker chart – healthy eating becomes something my kids now feel personally invested in. It’s no longer about me cajoling them to eat peppers, it’s part of a game where they are the lead characters.
Dr Amati agrees: “Involving children in the conversation about gut health is essential. Habits formed in early childhood have profound implications for lifelong health, and yet, traditional nutrition education often fails to engage young learners. Belly Bugs flips this dynamic by making the science personal: children understand why their food choices matter because they see the consequences in the world of their own Belly Bugs.”
The project has since expanded beyond the book. Along with its website, which is filled with recipes to try, there is a new iPad game and food diary, which attracted a Government grant, launching this spring, designed like an arcade game rather than a health app. Children log what they eat, earn rewards and see what happens inside their gut — including animated poo.
“It’s exciting to see where this all takes us,” Bell says. “I’ve heard so many inspiring stories about children getting really interested in food, to the point that they want to help make meal decisions and help make recipes. I hope it’s the start of children’s gut health revolution.”
Jessica Salter is a lifestyle journalist who writes for a range of titles from the Financial Times to Vogue, covering health and wellness, fashion, interiors and travel. She lives in London with her husband and two children.
