After being fingered as a key cause of the rising rate of US childhood obesity, video games got a reprieve Tuesday as a new study showed they can be used to encourage kids to eat healthier foods.

The study, conducted in the United States, where nearly one in five six- to 19-year-olds is obese, found that children who played certain "serious" video games -- not the blockbuster blood-and-guts ones like "Black Ops" -- increased the amount of fruit and vegetables they ate per day by around one serving.