QUESTION: My 8 year old child is very resistant to trying new vegetables. Can you give me some ideas on how I can get him to eat more vegetables?
ANSWER: It’s great that your goal is to introduce more vegetables into your child’s diet. The important thing to remember is that it may take multiple attempts to get your child to try a new vegetable – so don’t give up! There are a few ways that you can go about getting your child to taste (and hopefully enjoy) new vegetables.
1. Shopping: Take your child to Ingles with you when you shop and let them pick out a new or unfamiliar vegetable and research a little bit about it including how to prepare it.
2. Sneak it in:
• Smoothies are a good way to add in vegetables. You can put spinach, kale, cucumber and even cooked butternut squash and pumpkin into smoothies.
• Soups, Stews, Casseroles, Lasagna – Add additional vegetables like butternut squash, sweet potatoes, kale, spinach, broccoli celery or celery root (celeriac).
3. Dip it: Often children respond better to raw, crunchy vegetables than cooked. Make a dip or let use their favorite salad dressing to dip snow peas, grape tomatoes, radish, yellow squash or zucchini.
Lastly, make sure YOU set a good example by trying new vegetables and not making faces!
Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN
Ingles Markets Corporate Dietitian
facebook.com/LeahMcgrathDietitian
800-334-4936