I expect it is a combination of two things, foods the kids are unfamiliar with and unseasoned veggies are rather tasteless if not picked at the right time.
A fun example: I often bring a Kugel to pot lucks, I generally get one of two reactions. What is that?; or Kugel!, I want some.
Kugel is a type of bread pudding, mine has a lot of fruit in it. I think everyone has their own slightly different recipe, the guys at the Hillel House used to have fun guessing what I had actually used that week, since the fruits could differ.
“I expect it is a combination of two things, foods the kids are unfamiliar with and unseasoned veggies are rather tasteless if not picked at the right time.”
I can’t agree with that assessments for the reasons I posted earlier. It’s unlikely many kids are getting fresh picked vegetables, and it still wouldn’t matter. That’s why in a basic nutrition class one learns how to incorporate vegetables into a child’s diet creatively and mostly by hiding them by being combined with something else. Believe me, I was surprised (ages ago) to find that pizza was a sound, nutritional food. It has a protein (cheese), a vegetable (tomato), a grain (the crust) and of course other toppings can be added and other vegetables disguised in the sauce. It was considered one of the better fast food picks. Also, there’s basic Psych 101- try to force a child to do something and they all the more will rebel against it.