It's not always easy to encourage your children to eat a balanced diet. Healthy eating habits and modeling these behaviors in yourself is what you teach them that determines their feelings about food. If you show them that you love vegetables and consider them delicious, that's how they will feel about vegetables.
The following are some things you can do to encourage your child to eat vegetables.
1. Start early.
Children learn their eating habits at a very young age, age 2 or even younger. From the time they can eat solid or even semi-solid food, they should be given choices of vegetables. Don't use bottled vegetables, since they are often filled with salt and sugar, but rather make the vegetables into small portions yourself.
Give the child the vegetable to eat by itself, not with a choice of fatty things or sweet things that he will gravitate toward. Do not threaten that the "good stuff" comes only after the vegetables are eaten. Vegetables must be seen as part of the good stuff. And, of course, set an example. Let him see you eating and enjoying the vegetables. The message will come through loud and clear.
2. Let children pick.
Children love to feel that they have power. Give them the power to pick the vegetables in the market that they and you will eat. Move around to the different colors, explaining that the reason for the different colors is that each color represents a different kind of food that they need in their body. Get a rainbow of vegetables.
Try to know what the vegetables contain so you can explain to the child. This vegetable gives you this vitamin and mineral. That vegetable gives you that one. Your body uses them all to create a healthy person.
3. Involve children in food preparation.
When you ask children to describe their earliest memories, they often talk happily about helping their grandmother make some kind of food.
Preparing food together can be a great bonding experience between you and your child, and it also provides you with the opportunity to teach good nutrition. If your child helps you to prepare vegetables, he will want to try what he has prepared.
4. Keep problem foods out of sight and good foods in easy view.
If potato chips or creamy cookies sit on the kitchen counter, can you blame your child (or yourself) for grabbing a handful every time he or she goes by? Don't buy these foods in the first place. If you do, keep them out of sight. You know what happens when you walk up to a buffet table. You can more easily avoid what you don't see.
On the other hand, keep fruits and vegetables in plain sight. Have carrot sticks and celery sticks easily available. Keep some cooked broccoli and cauliflower in the refrigerator.
5. Grow a garden.
Even if all you have is a small box, you can show your child where vegetables come from, how they grow, when to pick them, and the fun of eating what you grow. Plus, foods that you grow and pick yourself, just at the peak of taste, are a totally different experience from what you get at the market.Only the farmer's market can come close. So if you can't possibly grow your own, take your child to a farmer's market. They are everywhere.
Let your child do the picking. The thrill of picking your own food is not to be missed. If you can't pick in your own garden, pick where you can pay for the produce in another garden.
6. Find vegetable recipes they like.
In the age of the Internet, the availability of great recipes is almost overwhelming. Brilliant chefs are working to produce recipes that make you salivate. Your children will love the results.
People with diabetes can eat great food. They can eat just about anything as long as the portions are appropriate. You don't have to go to vegetarian sources to find great vegetable recipes. Even restaurants that feature meat know how to cook vegetables. You'll be amazed at the creative ways that chefs prepare zucchini, carrots, squash, spinach, and so forth.
Try watching some of the cooking shows on TV as you exercise. Check the schedule and try to exercise when the vegetable cooking is being shown. The only problem is that you may want to stop exercising and start cooking. Resist until you have done your 30 minutes or more.
