Food is nature’s healer; it can work to calm stress, to build us back up when we’re feeling weak, and it’s also a way for families to congregate at the dinner table. But if you find that mealtimes are stressful because your children do not want to eat vegetables, you may worry that they’re not getting enough nutrients.
How can we start to get our kids to eat more vegetables, but more importantly, to love them?
Make Vegetables More Appealing
One of the big reasons our children do not like vegetables is because they’ve been told that they have to eat them from day one. It’s far easier to turn their nose up at something, either to get a good reaction out of the parents, or it could be the fact that vegetables do not look appealing. This could be for many reasons. The vegetables may taste too bitter, which is not going to appeal to younger children’s taste buds. But if you want to make it more appealing, you can try some of the following approaches:
- Combining different flavors with the vegetables. Something like hummus and carrot sticks can provide a familiar flavor but with that vegetable punch. Also comment if you like to cook Italian meals, something like eggplant with parmesan cheese is a great way to get more vegetables into their diet.
- Sneak in vegetables. If you cannot get your child to eat a single vegetable, blitzing it down to a fine paste or juice and adding it to a meal like a spaghetti bolognese or something that can absorb the sauce can make all the difference. It’s important to find the right juicer to do this so you can blend it up into a fine paste without any lumps. If you are looking for the right juicers, there is more info here. It is one of the best ways to get your children started on their journey. And yes, it is sneaky, but if it’s something that you can all eat together, and it doesn’t taste like it’s healthy, this is half the battle won!
- Make the vegetables look fun. One of the benefits of vegetables is that they can be as colorful as you like! Trying to make them look fun is a very important part of the journey for children because if it looks good, they will be more inclined to taste it!
- Change the texture. If you boil vegetables until they are a soft mush, try and bake them in the oven so they become more flavorful. Also, think about adding more herbs and spices so they taste more appealing. A good example is if you want to make something like sweet potato fries. A healthy version without any vegetable oil, but seasoned with other spices can make a big difference.
It’s not easy to get your kids to eat vegetables, but the important thing is that you keep trying.
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