Wish your children would eat more vegetables? Try filling their plate with a mix of different veggies. This is according to Australian and Dutch researchers, who found that repeatedly offering multiple vegetable options encourages children to eat more vegetables.

Getting your children to eat vegetables is every parent’s struggle. With their sometimes bitter taste and weird texture, vegetables can be very difficult to like. Picky eaters often push veggies aside to give way for meats and sweets.

Unfortunately, avoiding vegetables can have ugly consequences on children’s health. For one, vegetables provide a host of nutrients that protect them from disease. Carrots, for instance, are rich in eye-healthy vitamin A while the oft-reviled spinach is chock-full of iron, a mineral that helps prevent anemia.

Eating fruits and veggies instead of sugary and fatty foods also helps prevent childhood obesity, which is a major health problem in developed countries today. Refusing to eat veggies means missing out on these health benefits.

Offer variety to get your children to eat more vegetables

For their study, the researchers wished to determine whether offering a variety of vegetables increased children’s veggie consumption. To that end, they recruited families with children between the ages of four to six who ate small amounts of veggies.

Under the researchers’ instruction, some of the parents introduced their children to a single vegetable variety while others served three different vegetables three times a week for five weeks. Another group of children, on the other hand, maintained their eating habits.

Families that introduced one variety only served broccoli while those that tried multiple varieties served broccoli, zucchini and peas. They also received instructions on portion size and cooking preparations, along with tips on how to offer the vegetables. Meanwhile, the children received a sticker as a reward for eating veggies.

The study found that children that were offered a variety of options increased their vegetable consumption from 0.6 to 1.2 servings. Meanwhile, those who were introduced to only broccoli or maintained their eating habits ate the same amount they consumed at the start of the study.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that offering a variety of vegetables is more effective at getting children to eat more vegetables than offering only a single vegetable variety.

More tips to get more vegetables into your children’s diet

Nutritionists recommend a number of tips to get your children to eat more vegetables. Here are some:

1. Serve veggies when they’re hungry. Waiting until your children are hungry before serving veggies might just do the trick. Nutritionists themselves swear by this strategy. Just make sure to keep other snacks out of their sight to avoid temptations.
2. Let them pick their veggies. Nutritionists recommend letting your children choose their vegetables. When children help decide what they will eat, they usually don’t object when it ends up on their plate.
3. Try a veggie dip. Studies show that children are more likely to eat their veggies if they’re served with a dip. Make your own veggie dip and avoid store-bought ranch dressings since these contain unhealthy ingredients like MSG.
4. Show them other kids eating veggies. Have your children’s friends over for dinner every now and then. Watching their friends happily gobble up their veggies just might compel your children to take a bite.
5. Play a video. Look for videos online that encourage children to improve their eating habits. Nutritionists recommend planting your children in front of such videos during mealtime.
6. Make the “two-or-one” deal. Offer two vegetable options and ask your children if they want broccoli or carrots or both. Children usually opt for both when they feel the decision is theirs.
7. Be a role model. Sit down to a plate of veggies yourself when it’s your children’s feeding time. Seeing you eat your veggies gladly can encourage them to take a spoonful of their own.
8. Serve veggies as appetizers. Put a bowl of sliced carrots and other colorful veggies on the table while your children wait for you to finish cooking. Starved, your children will most likely grab a handful of those. Make the appetizer more appealing by serving it with hummus or a homemade sauce.
9. Ignore them. Anecdotal evidence shows that children are more like to eat their veggies if they receive less pressure and attention from their parents when it comes to their vegetable consumption.
10. Cook with your kids. Getting your kids involved in the kitchen can make them more willing to eat their meals.
11. Make it festive. Turn meal times into festive events by hanging decorations and setting the table with colorful plates. This can help your children view eating vegetables as a fun experience instead of something that they are forced to do.
12. Puree. Serving pureed veggies can entice your children to eat vegetables. Besides the different look, blending veggies with other ingredients also mask these foods’ bitter taste.

Many children have a tough relationship with vegetables since these are not the most appetizing foods out there. But there are several ways to get your children to eat more vegetables. Try the ones listed here to ensure that your child eats a balanced, nutritious diet.

Sources:

ScienceDaily.com

HealthEating.SFGate.com

EatThis.com