A Dutch study concludes that giving kids choices about vegetables does not make a difference in the amount of vegetables they eat. However, on average out of hundreds of 4-6 year olds tested, most ate around 50 grams of vegetables, which is roughly 2 ounces. Sure kids don’t eat a lot, but 2 ounces is 14 calories of spinach. Any parent who doesn’t do something when their children only consume 14 calories of vegetables in a meal is neglecting their children’s health.
The story was reported by major media, and they didn’t mention the shockingly low consumption of vegetables in the study. In fact the coverage implies that nothing you do makes any difference in how children eat! If the researchers had given the children all healthy foods, and no unhealthy options at all. They would have made shocking discoveries about the amount of vegetables the children ate.
Hungry children, whos parents eat vegetables, will eat healthy! Even if your child is picky and “refuses to eat anything but french fries” he or she will eventually get hungry and give in. There’s almost no nutritional value in french fries. So, you need not worry about what they are missing out on by not eating their french fries. If you don’t have healthy foods in your house, your children will make healthy choices too.
It is harder to make healthy choices when unhealthy choices are in your house though. I still don’t feel good after last night’s french fries.
Related posts:
Did you enjoy: Getting Kids to Eat Healthy? Then subscribe to The Casual Vegan by Email or you should follow me on twitter here.
The Next Post: Still Pregnant
The Previous Post: Vegan Pregnancy
Comments About Getting Kids to Eat Healthy
// 3 comments so far.
Chandelle // January 09th 2010
I find it very frustrating to hear parents say that their kids won’t eat anything but French fries or chicken fingers. Does the kid have a job? Shop for him- or herself? Prepare his or her own food? No! The parents are the ones deciding what their children eat. Certainly, if you provide crappy food to children, that’s what they’ll eat. If you don’t, they won’t eat it (at least not in your house). It’s that simple. Maybe it’s tough love, but perpetuating a destructive cycle is no way to parent.
Our kids are 3 and 5 and they eat a heck of a lot more than 2 oz. of vegetables a day. They don’t eat a lot of food, given their age, but they get veggies in every meal, as a major part of the meal. It’s not always easy, of course. Sometimes it seems like they don’t want to eat anything but brown rice. But we just keep providing other foods, gently encouraging them, experimenting a lot, and in the end, they get quite a few vegetables every day.
Experimentation is really key. Leafy greens can be quite a challenge for kids because they may taste bitter, which is unfortunate since they’re one of our most important foods. We discovered that roasting kale for 10 minutes after tossing it with olive oil and nutritional yeast makes an amazing snack that’s hard to stop eating for all of us. My kids like raw carrots much better than cooked, chopped romaine and cabbage much better than baby greens or arugula, and they’ll eat just about any vegetable fermented. We know this about them because we just keep trying. If we just gave up whenever they refused a new food, or came at it with the attitude of, “I hated this when I was your age, and you probably won’t like it either,” then we’re really setting them up for problems, and we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
Many people assume that if my kids eat vegetables, it’s just because they’re not picky eaters. Actually, my daughter is a very picky eater. She would definitely be one of those kids who only eat white food (milk, rice, flour, sugar, potatoes, etc.), if she had the chance. But it’s up to us to provide her with better options and steer her away from those addictions. It might be easier to feed a child nothing but white food supplemented with the occasional Goldfish binge, but it’s definitely not better.
Greg // January 09th 2010
Thanks for reminding me about roasted kale Chandelle.
We honestly learned how to roast Kale from a Martha Stewart magazine. I simply LOVE roasted vegetables, and kale is by far my favorite. No one I’ve fed roasted kale to has ever complained. Yes I know steamed kale would be healthier, but roasted kale is a big hit with people of any palette. My father was hesitant at first probably due to the dark green color, and almost refused to eat it. As soon as he finished his first bite, he was ready to clean off the whole pan.
kristen // January 09th 2010
Amen, Chandelle!!
It’s also insane that parents expect to their children to eat vegetables when they themselves are not demonstrating that behavior. The strongest teaching is going to happen by example, not by a suggestion that seems to contradict reality!
You can follow any responses to this entry via its RSS comments feed. You may also leave a trackback by clicking this link.