A study in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association has found that children in the United States aren’t eating enough fruits and vegetables to meet the recommended dietary guidelines.

The study’s findings are based on data collected from 6,500 children who were divided into three age groups: 2-to-5 year olds; 6-to-11 year olds; and 12-to-18 year olds.

According to researchers at Ohio State University, the youngest children ate more fruits and drank more juice than the older children while the adolescents ate the most vegetables. But they also found that nearly half of all the vegetables eaten by all three groups were fried potatoes, and less than 10 percent of the vegetables the children ate were either dark green or orange in color.

This disinterest in eating fruits and vegetables might be due to influences such as the Veggietales’ original Bunny Song. (Which reminds me, does he just want “a plate, a book and a bunny” or “a plate, a fork and a bunny”?)

If this is the case, perhaps another song from a different children’s show might have the opposite effect. Over the weekend I got hold of Songs from the Street, a 3-CD collection of well-loved songs, well-known artists and classic song segments involving both great music and great artists from 35 years of Sesame Street.

One of the best songs in the collection is the one from Captain Vegetable, as voiced by the immortal Jim Henson. If you didn’t watch the video above, the song features a caped rabbit who loves his carrot and celery and goes about convincing children that regular helpings of vegetables is better than constantly eating candy and spaghetti.

If they’d played this segment more often, Cookie Monster might not have had to suffer the indignity of acknowledging that cookies are a sometimes food.