5 ways to get your kids to eat veggies & fruit

Let Connie Carrot capture your child's heart

Without doubt, if your kids develop a taste for fruit and veg while they are young, they will find it easier to eat healthily as they grow up. But it can be hard to convince a child to try new foods - and to ignore the many outside influences that push other less nutritious menu items. Here are five tried and tested ways to encourage a love of plant-based meals and snacks...

1. Lead by example

It's human nature to want what other people have - and this rule applies ten-fold to kids! If you visibly enjoy a plate of veggies they are bound to be curious and want to try your meal. The upside of seeing you enjoy fresh fruit and veg with your meals and as snacks, means you are consciously being healthy too! You can even try some reverse psychology and tell them it's probably a bit 'grown up' and too special for them...

2. Teach them all about healthy food choices

It's important your kids
know why plants are powerful!

Don't underestimate your kids intelligence. Rather than tell them little white lies as encouragement - or bribe them with other less healthy stuff - allow your kids to learn about why we need to eat a wide range of fruit and veg. A great aid to this is a new series of books by Sam Bourne that combine nutritional facts and figures, a character-based story, recipes and tips to help kids 'grow their own'. Sammy Spinach for example wants to grow strong enough to carry his toy box around, while Ava Avocado turns to the 'brain' fruit to help her remember her school spellings. Head over to the NutriKids site for more info on the books, info on kids' nutrition and activity sheets - created by nutritional therapist Sam.

3. Take a back seat

As hard as it is, never fall into the trap of making meal times a battle ground. Forcing kids to eat foods they don't like - or creating table time stress - should be avoided at all costs as it can lead to emotional problems with food and eating. Ignore the negative - and praise the positive. A middle ground solution is to agree with your child that they will take one bite of a new food item (or one they are not keen on), and then if they really don't like it they needn't finish it. Think of it as playing the long con, you'll need the patience of a saint, but forming long-term healthy eating patterns is your goal. Head to the NutriKids site for certificates to print out when your child deserves a healthy-eating accolade!

Introduce healthy eating in a way your kids will love

4. Experiment

Variety is the spice of life - and serving a wide and colourful array of fruit and veg could peak your kids interest. Unusual colours and textures - or even less well-know varieties of a common item (like black tomatoes and yellow beetroot) can stimulate interest. Also try to use veg and fruit in unexpected ways - popping spinach into chocolate muffins or dried cranberries into bread for example.

5. Let them help

As well as keeping them out of trouble and away from screens while you're cooking, letting kids help with food prep, basic cooking and dishing up can further encourage them to be more open to new tastes. You can also involve them by planting seeds together, caring for and watching their food grow.  tomatoes and potatoes can be very rewarding - and spinach plants are particularly hard to kill! Try including them as you meal plan too (allow them to flick through recipe books) and take them shopping with you so they can touch and choose their fruit and veg.