How to Boost Fruit and Vegetable Intake in Kids

What Parents Can Do To Encourage Children to Eat more Greens

Nov 28, 2008

Parents should be more creative and provide incentives to encourage their children to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Studies around the world have shown that children are not eating enough fruits and vegetables. In 2004, researchers at the University of Minnesota led by registered dietitian Nicole Larson found that as teenagers got older, their consumption of fruits and vegetables decreased. In Australia, the National Nutrition Society showed that only one-third of 2 to 18-year-olds met the minimum recommended vegetable intake while one-fifth didn’t eat any vegetable at all.

In the United Kingdom, the Sport, Physical activity and Eating behavior: Environmental Determinants in Young people (SPEEDY) study conducted in 2007 by researchers from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit and the University of East Anglia found that most children still failed to eat five pieces of fruits and vegetables a day.

Results of the studies are definitely disturbing, given that children need the vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals found in fruits and vegetables to stay healthy. Here are some suggestions for parents to encourage children to consume more greens.

Make Great-Tasting Vegetable Dishes

To make vegetables more appealing to children’s taste buds, add grated cheese, herbs, olive oil, sweet chili sauce, honey or soy sauce to cooked vegetables. Trying out different methods of cooking such as steaming, roasting and stir-frying may help too as different ways of cooking bring out different tastes and flavors.

Prepare Fruits and Raw Vegetables in Different Ways

Slice and arrange a few types of fruits creatively on a small platter for children between meals. Make it fun for them too. Try asking them to make a face or funny picture using grapes, sliced apples, cut raw carrots and celeries. Kids are more likely to eat them when they look appealing!

Cut up Fruits

Wash, cut up and leave fruits in a covered container in the refrigerator so that the children can just grab them for snacks whenever they feel a little hungry between meals. Cut fruits are far more likely to be eaten than those sitting in the fruit basket.

Involve Children in Buying Fruits and Vegetables

Bring the kids along to the supermarket, grocery store or local farmer’s market on food shopping trips. Being surrounded by a huge array of fruits and vegetables is a good way to help them develop a liking for greens.

Plant Fruits and Vegetables in the Garden

A Saint Louis University research led by Debra Haire-Joshu, director of the university’s Obesity Prevention Center, found that preschool children in rural southeast Missouri ate more fruits and vegetables when the produce was homegrown. The research showed that preschool children who were almost always served homegrown fruits and vegetables were more than twice as likely to eat five servings a day than those who rarely or never ate homegrown produce. The garden produce appeared to create a positive food environment. So get busy in the garden. Plant some fruit trees and vegetables and get the kids to help with watering them.

Get Children into the Kitchen

Get older children to help in preparing vegetable dishes. Tasks such as washing, peeling and cutting fruits and vegetables will get them interested in greens. Just make sure safety precautions are observed when the children handle sharp peelers and knives.

Praise Children When They Eat Greens

Praises are especially important if a child tries and eats a new fruit or vegetable. Avoid “bribing” them, though. Don’t promise ice cream or candy in exchange for the child to eat his vegetable. He’ll only have like ice cream or candy more, not vegetables!

If parents inject some fun elements in preparing and cooking greens, children are more willing to try them out. Activities such as bringing the kids along on food shopping trips, planting greens in the garden and getting kids to help in the kitchen can help improve their interest in eating more fruits and vegetables as well.

Sue Thompson. “Eat your Greens, Kid!” in Australian Parents. New South Wales: FPC Magazines, June/July 2006

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