Is Shrek, Scooby Doo, Dora the Explorer Making Your Kids Fat?

NEW YORK (CBS) Like parents don't have enough to worry about. Now a new study says they need to be on the lookout for cartoon characters pushing their kids to eat junk foods.

"We found that when kids are presented a food with licensed characters they think the food actually tastes better," Christina Roberto, M.S., a doctoral student at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity told CBS News. "And the characters are plastered over mainly foods with poor nutritional quality."

Roberto's study, published in Pediatrics, found that more than half of the kids they queried thought food that had cartoon characters on the packaging tasted better. And up to 85 percent of them, when given the choice, reached for products with characters emblazoned on the box.

The study looked at the effects of Dora the Explorer, Shrek, and Scooby Doo, characters which are popular with young kids. They didn't find that any of the characters had a stronger effect than the others.

The important message, says Roberto, is that parents need to be aware and hopefully regulators will step up.

"I think knowing how powerful these characters can be, parents can pay more attention and not get blindsided by their power," she says. "They can flip the box over and check it out."

But Roberts recognizes that it's not easy.

"When the kids really want Dora the Explorer, that's a tough battle to have in the super market," she says.

Roberts says the food industry knows very well what they are doing and feels regulators need to help.

"Parents need advocates," she says. "Let's get them [the characters] off those foods and then get them on healthy foods."

The American Psychological Association has called for a full stop to marketing food products to children, according to CNN.

Is the government listening? Perhaps parents should send a cartoon character to make their case.