In the News - January 2008
Getting kids to eat vegetables and fruits
MURFREESBORO, Ark. - Parents and school lunchroom employees, even with
guidelines, have a big job. How do you get kids to eat more fruits and
vegetables, especially when they may only want to eat chicken nuggets and French
fries?
Robbie McKinnon, Pike County agent with the University of Arkansas
Cooperative Extension Service, feels your pain.
"As a mother of two children, I remember the time when the then new Fry Daddy
hit the market along with the opportunity to purchase chicken nuggets for home
use," she says. "That was around 1985. Children across American began their new
fast-food diet at home. We have to make a conscious effort to correct that
mistake since we have now had quick-order meals for over 23 years."
Children’s food preferences and food-intake patterns may be shaped largely by
the foods parents choose to make available to children and persistence in
presenting a food, McKinnon explains.
"It can help to start early," she says, "offering your toddler lots of
different types of foods and letting them see you eat and enjoy a variety of
foods, especially fruits and vegetables. Your infant gets a lot of fruit and
vegetable baby foods. However, once they start eating from the table, what you
eat is going to be a big influence on what your kids like to eat. If you rarely
serve fruit and vegetables, don’t be surprised if your kids develop the same
tastes."
She says if children have repeated opportunities to sample foods, some of
them will be accepted. You may have to offer a food 10 or more times to get them
to actually taste it.
For toddlers, a serving of vegetables may be as small as a tablespoon per
year of age and a half piece of fresh fruit. Older kids should eat a whole
fruit, one-half cup of cooked vegetables or 1 cup of raw vegetables to count as
a serving.
"New foods are more likely accepted at an earlier age," says McKinnon. "That
doesn’t mean that it’s too late to get your older kids to eat more fruits and
vegetables, but rather that they won’t do it on their own, and you’re going to
have to work at it."
If you can identify foods that your children already like such as smoothies,
muffins and yogurt, find recipes that allow you to add fruits or vegetables to
them like banana or zucchini muffins.
You might also let your kids pick the fruits they want to eat when you go
shopping, McKinnon says. Offer a fruit salad with a mix of watermelon, grapes,
strawberries and other fruit as a dessert or snack. Make a snack mix with
raisins, nuts and cereal. Add chopped fruit, especially berries and bananas to
your child’s cereal.
Getting children to eat vegetables is usually the bigger challenge. Chop and
mix vegetables into pasta sauces, lasagna, casseroles, soup, chili and omelets.
Add extra veggie toppings to pizza.
You might offer chopped veggies with a dip, such as ranch dressing or make a
stir-fry of vegetables. Start a vegetable garden at home so your kids can eat
the vegetables they grow or visit a farmers’ market so they can choose
vegetables.
"One of the best ways to get kids to eat more fruit and vegetables is to let
them help prepare the meal," McKinnon says. "Try some of the recipes that your
kids can help prepare.
For more information on nutrition, contact your county extension agent or
visit www.uaex.edu and select Health and Nutrition. The
Cooperative Extension Service is part of the U of A Division of Agriculture.
January 11, 2008
Media Contact: Lamar James
Extension Communications Specialist
U of A Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
(501) 671-2187 or (501) 753-0207
ljames@uaex.edu
Related Link
|
