Got kids? Here's how to get them to eat their vegetables.

You would think that after 5 years of me being on an anti-inflammatory diet, it would rub off on my kids, or at the very least me being responsible for the grocery shopping and the food preparation at our house would force them to stop snacking on sugar and start eating mountains of vegetables every day, but neither of those things happened.?

If you have kids, then you probably know how hard it is to get them to do anything they don’t want to do, especially if it goes against what their friends are doing, or seems uncool in any way.? My kids, picky like most kids, never took well to being forced to eat something, never agreed to “just try it” and could sniff out spinach in baked goods better than a working k9 dog. I stressed about it and I fought them, until I realized I could not strong-arm them and switched tactics. Here’s what’s been working for me and my clients who are trying to bring healthier fare to their family table.

?Normalize real food

When roasted chicken with a side salad, rather than dinosaur chicken nuggets, is what's for dinner at your house, the kids grow up thinking real food is just normal food. Of course it’s ok to go out for pizza and ice cream, or order occasional takeout, but the more home cooked meals or food that does not come in a package the kids see, the more they will treat real food as just a normal part of life. Every meal can be an opportunity to expose them to flavors, colors and shapes of real food - even if they don’t eat it right away (or at all!) - being constantly surrounded by real food will help shape their eating habits.

?Don’t be sneaky about it

This may work for other kids, but my kids never ate anything if I attempted to sneak in additional servings of vegetables and to this day are not fans of foods where components are not easily identifiable.? What worked instead was offering variety and options - over and over and over again. I always make two vegetable sides for every dinner and place it on the table in front of them and they have a choice whether to eat it or not. My son usually will. My daughter usually won’t. I try not to stress too much about it.?

?Involve them in shopping and prepping

Kids love to be helpful, and are more willing to try something new if they had their hand in shopping for or preparing the food. I always loved taking my daughter grocery shopping and asking her to pick 1 new fruit or vegetable that looked interesting, find a recipe for preparing it and help me make it. Of course it didn’t work every time, but sometimes it did!

?Find what they love, rinse and repeat

There are a few fruits and vegetables my kids love that make an almost daily appearance at our dinner table. My daughter has a cucumber and tomato salad with most of her meals and pears every day for breakfast. My son loves kale and I make a certain kale soup every single time he is home from college.? Yes, it can make food a little repetitive, and I love exposing them to new things (see point #1), but I feel better knowing they are getting their vitamins from produce they will definitely eat.?

Of course, years of modeling healthier eating and talking to them about food did bring about some incredible changes in the way my kids approach what’s on their plate, for which I am eternally grateful:

~My son called me last week to tell me he has been adding spinach to his breakfast burrito every day.

~He is also taking a nutrition elective, reading food labels, and trying to figure out how much protein he should be eating per day.

~He will try almost any new vegetable dish at the dinner table. He may not like it or eat much of it, but he will try it.

~My daughter, the baker of the family, has switched almost exclusively to gluten free baking and halves the amount of sugar recipes call for.

~Her most favorite dish at a local Mediterranean restaurant is a huge shepherd's salad and her favorite place to order lunch on long dance rehearsal days is sweetgreen.

These might not be huge changes, but it shows they are watching, listening, and developing a healthier mindset around food!

I hope this was helpful for you and I would absolutely love to hear any tips for healthier eating with kids that are working for you and your family! Just hit reply on this email and let me know :)

Have a great week,

Natalie

PS: If you are looking for support and would like more information about working together, get started by scheduling a free consultation call here.