Eat Your Fruits & Veggies! Top Tips for Kids

Are your kids getting their recommended daily cups of fruits and vegetables? If the answer is no, they are not alone. Obesity numbers tell the story of what’s on our kids’ plates more than any other statistic. According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three kids in the U.S. is overweight or obese and in Canada the figure is 26%.

Children’s weight is the number one health concern among parents, and it’s no wonder. Obesity is responsible for an array of health problems including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, elevated cholesterol levels, and a shorter life span than even their parents.

Healthy fruits and vegetables continue to take a back seat to sugary, fatty foods, and the battle to nudge kids toward more nutritious fare is in full swing. Recently, media reports show that adding a light mist of sugar makes vegetables more palatable to kids until they develop a taste for veggies. While a spritz of sweet may bridge the gap for kids whose veggies end up being pushed around the plate, there must be another way to help kids get their daily recommended cups.

In fact, there’s plenty of advice when it comes to increasing kids’ fruit and vegetable intake. But the best piece of advice for parents is to keep trying. It takes time for children to develop a taste for new foods, and a little culinary manipulation can be a good thing.

Here are 5 of our favorite ways to extend our efforts to give kids the nutrition they need and tip the scale in the right direction.

Help Kids Get Their Cups! Our Top 5 Tips

Tip #1: Exploit Fruit.

For kids over the age of three, USDA dietary guidelines recommend 11/2 cups of fruit per day and 2 cups of veggies. So if your kids are eating fruit, that’s nearly half the battle. Luckily, nature has provided fruit with their own appeal: sweet taste, bright color, easily edible packages – sometimes just taking advantage of fruit’s built-in charm is all that’s necessary.

For a great snack idea that ups the cups, go blue. Wild blueberries are our choice for a food kids always love. Wild blues are a perfect choice for every day munching because they are nutrient-rich food that adds important dietary nutrients without the “empty” calories that are important for kids to defy the obesity statistics. Eating them straight from the freezer is a popular snack for kids (parents, too), and while they are good by the bowlful, they also make duller foods better, thanks to their fun color.  Add blues to nearly everything to get an antioxidant punch (and an easy half cup!), including cereal, yogurt, salads, and even proteins for a sweet splash that appeals to young tastes.

Once you have your blues, keep tiny Tupperware® on hand so fruit salads can be used as an on-the-go snack to replace processed foods. You can also skewer fruit pieces for a fun, colorful way to snack, make a fruit pizza, or blend fruit together for much-loved Yogurt Fruit Pops. Or make fun recipes from fruit that mock their boxed counterparts, like these Blueberry Pop Tarts courtesy of Mogwai Soup, and consider the war against poor eating habits on.

Tip #2: Make Veggies Yummy.

Think your kids won’t eat vegetables? Put a kid-friendly twist on a dish and stand corrected. To appeal to younger palates, get creative by taking advantage of the ready-made sweetness of carrots by making Maple Glazed Carrots, or cook up some Zucchini Chips for an irresistible crunch kids love. Dips are also great for youngsters: slice up peppers, cucumbers, broccoli and cauliflower and pair them with a little dressing (one that’s not loaded with sugar and fat) and those veggies will disappear. Try these kid-approved dish ideas from My Recipes (including Maple Glazed Carrots and Zucchini Chips) to spark some ideas to take veggies from ho hum to yum.

Tip #3: Eat Just One Meal Together.

Finding it difficult to sit down to dinner every night? Take heart. The latest news about family meals is surprising, but for the time-challenged, it’s all positive. Eating a meal together just once a week will boost fruit and veggie intake, according to new research. The study, published in Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, shows that kids who eat together with their family consume more portions of produce than those whose families don’t share a meal. Whether it’s Sunday brunch or a single weekday dinner, that one visit to the family table could work magic in the quest for daily cups – among other benefits.

Tip #4: Be a Food Marketer.

The smarty-pants that changed the name of the Indian beetle to the “ladybug” must have known something about marketing. A simple name change, it seems, can turn yucky into yummy, and that’s a lesson in marketing that works as well in the kitchen as it does in the boardroom.

Consider the story of a mother that started calling Brussels sprouts “hero buttons” and changed the way her kids looked at this less-than-popular veggie. Could it be that simple? Sure. When spinach smoothies become green monsters and dinner vegetables become appetizer “snack plates” you’ll start counting up daily cups. In fact, researchers involved in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health study also found a link between fruit and vegetable intake among the kids and how the produce was presented on the plate. Simply cutting up fruits and veggies led to kids eating more. Presentation is everything, even when it comes to nutrition!

Tip #5: Get Kids Involved.

Of all the inventive, resourceful techniques to get kids to embrace healthy food, our #5 is a guaranteed winner. Parents and experts agree that when kids are part of the process of making meals, they are more likely to understand the benefits of whole, nutritious food, including fruits and vegetables. So let kids help with the shopping – have them choose a new favorite fruit or vegetable from the produce section, for example. And, involve them with meal preparation as well by enlisting them to wash, measure, toss, or add spices. Getting kids involved provides healthy eating lessons they’ll take with them forever. Try these 10 ways to get kids involved from Fruits and Veggies More Matters.

Get Kids in the Game!
Noticing more activity in your kitchen? It could be because school vacation is in full swing for kids around the country. It’s a perfect time for getting kids involved in games that teach them about fruit and veggie nutrition. Fruit and Veggies More Matters has “Food Champs” for just this reason!

New Generation = New Trends in Nutrition?

Our Kids Could Change the Course of Healthy Eating 

 

The news has been grim: one in three American kids is overweight or obese, according to the American Heart Association. In Maine, more than half of all adults will be obese by 2030, wreaking havoc on the state’s health and its economy. With spiking obesity rates come unprecedented rates of Type 2 diabetes, higher incidences of heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and many weight-related conditions. For the first time in history, the younger generation may have a shorter lifespan than their parents.

Lamenting the poor health and nutrition of our youth seems to be part of the cultural script. There is no shortage of blame. Scientists have uncovered evidence that everything from gut bacteria and antibiotic use to sleep deprivation contributes to a population destined to be larger and sicker. While new factors emerge, others remain culpable, including portion sizes and endless exposure to nutritionally-poor processed foods and their mammoth advertising budgets. Add factors like fewer families cooking at home (and fewer kids learning to cook), tight budgets that lead us to less healthy choices, and less time being active, and we have a recipe for a nutritional doomsday for today’s youth.

At the same time, according to a Generational Consumer Trend Report issued this year by the food industry market research firm Technomi, today’s millennials consider healthy eating important. Young adults, says the report, have greater awareness of and appreciation for food and health-related issues. It may be that the younger generation is primed for better choices: general opinion suggests they are more open to receiving health messages and they possess a healthy skepticism when it comes to advertising claims. As a result, messages about the importance of fruit and vegetables and research about disease prevention may be getting through, starting trends in good health for the generations that follow.

Here in the land of wild blueberries, the University of Maine reports that more students are enrolling in their food and science program, for example. According to the report, enrollment in the program has been nudged by the importance of personal health and wellness for a new generation that has been seeking out whole, natural foods in an effort to be and feel well.

The news may represent a single point of light in a world of nutritional darkness, but it also may indicate real generational differences in the choices we make about food – differences for the better. In the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, signs of a hopeful, healthier future can be found in many places in the nation and locally.

A New World of Healthy Eating

Much of the focus on our kids’ eating has been on the schools, where poor options have been the rule rather than the exception. Choices in the lunch line are improving as schools join the movement to eliminate veggie stand-ins and offer more whole foods. In fact, childhood obesity rates have declined slightly in some cities and states that have taken on the issue of school lunch nutrition. Close to home, Maine Harvest Lunch puts local foods on school menus across the state at certain times in the school year. The initiative has prompted schools to purchase food from Maine farms and other food producers year round, causing a virtuous cycle within the industry. And, when school doors close, summer camps pick up where they left off, exposing kids to local produce and diverse, whole foods. That’s true especially in areas around Maine and Canada, where what goes on in the lunch room at meal time is as important as the activities outside.

In addition to changes in the lunch line, educational programs for kids, legislation about food claims, and healthy eating role models are contributing to changing the food environment of young people and helping them develop a connection to their food sources. It’s these changes that make kids more likely to embrace diverse foods and eat more widely across the food, color, and nutrition spectrum and rely less on a traditional American diet full of fat, salt, and sugar.

Be Part of Positive Generational Change

Can a new generation change the course of our health? A case can be made that it can. Evidence of positive change can be found everywhere. And, the more we recognize the good nutritional choices kids and their families make – eating more fruits and vegetables, either fresh or fresh frozen and more whole, nutritionally-dense food – the more we can propagate good choices in our own families and communities.

Recently, a Wild About Health reader said she started using frozen wild blueberries and spinach in a “synergistic smoothie” every morning based on Dr. Daniel Nadeau’s recipe. She began making a little extra for her teenage daughter, a notorious breakfast-skipper, who loved them and started making them herself. Now, no matter what the rest of the day brings nutritionally, she knows they’ve both had at least 2-3 fruit and vegetable servings. We can all start being more aware of our own healthy eating, too, and model that behavior for our kids. We can challenge them to cook themselves, help them try new recipes, and enlist them to help us shop for whole foods whether local, fresh or frozen. We can let them stock the fruit bowl, or be in charge of buying their favorite frozen fruit to keep in the freezer for snacking. We can bake a fruit pie together, or involve them in picking up squash from local farmer’s market. We can learn not to dwell on the negative choices they make, and start noticing the positive ones, so we can nurture and build on them.

There’s no denying the perils that face the health of our nation’s youth. But a nutritional course correction could be just a generation away. The more we recognize positive change, the more we open the door for health and nutritional messages to get through so our kids can lead the way in the quest for a healthy future.

Get kids cooking. Try these 10 ways to get kids involved in cooking and shopping from Fruit and Veggies More Matters.

Let the healthy games begin! Make healthy eating fun with FoodChamps.org, a game that teaches kids about nutritional choices.

See evidence of healthy change in your family or in your community? Let us know! 

Apps for Healthy Kids: Bridging the Nutrition Gap with Innovative Tech Tools

When it comes to kids, what’s not to love about technology?

Wait, that was a rhetorical question.

Sure, there’s the hours of inactivity, the distractions of texting, the exposure to negative content…but there’s also the powerful way it exposes kids to positive messages in fun, innovative ways.

That’s the thinking behind the initiative from the First Lady and the USDA. They are inspiring developers to make games and apps that are truly useful (and truly cool) when it comes to health, and kids are getting the benefit.

Apps for Healthy Kids is part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign. The goal of Let’s Move! is to make a dent in the startling obesity rates of today’s kids – rates that have tripled in the past 30 years and are threatening the latest generation’s health and longevity.  The Apps for Healthy Kids competition hits kids where they live – smack dab in the world of phone apps and computer games. By creating apps and tools, developers and aspiring developers from all around the country are delivering the major concepts of health in a way that’s tech- fabulous.

It’s been called a “web-based intervention” – inspiring behavioral change through interactive content and social media. Submissions must incorporate certain concepts that will further this entertaining education, including things like increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, making food group education fun, and understanding calories. Through these colorful, whiz-bang, superfast tools and games, the message of health is expected to reach the ears of those who need to hear it.

Lots of people with a penchant for creating interactive tools (and a passion for health and nutrition) have gotten their game on. It’s worth it: there’s a $10,000 prize in it for the grand prize winners in both the Tools and Apps categories, and other cash prizes for honorable mentions and most popular, and some specifically for students. Judges are experts in the software and gaming fields, and winners get a trip to the White House as well!

The submission deadline has passed, but voting is in full swing until August 14th, so even if your app isn’t in the running, voting for your favorite is just as much fun. Simply browse through the robust selection of submissions, and cast your vote while the competition is hot.

Here are some apps and tools in competition that we think sound particularly downloadable:

“Habit Changer”

This tool makes you aware of your daily habits and guides you through change. It gives you experiences – your choice of email, web, or text – that lead you through the skills you need to solve the issues you face (like changing eating habits or incorporating good food and activity).

“Chef Solus”

This talking food label game brings the food label to life for kids. Kids scroll over different parts of the food label while Chef Solus talks (along with written text) to teach them how each part of the food label helps them make healthier choices.

“Smash Your Food™”

A realistic and surprising guessing game that lets children see and hear foods like a milkshake, or a burger, explode – while learning how much sugar, salt and oil their favorite foods are hiding.

“Work It Off!”

This mobile application for Android phones teaches children the correlation between the calories they eat and the calories they burn. The user verbally speaks a food name into the phone and is given options to “work it off”.

“Lunch Line”

This game mimics a real-life school lunch-line with a fast pace, categorized layout, and dozens of food choices, empowering children to increase their nutritional savvy as they play. Kids ultimately learn to choose foods quickly and intelligently and apply their knowledge to their daily life.

“Revolting Vegetables”

In this veggies-attack-themed game, episode 1 features The Uneatables: The villianous mobster, Al Capoche, has caused the farmers’ vegetables to come to life.  Now Capoche and his vegetable mob threaten to overrun the whole town.

“Balanced Meal”

In this app, kids enter information like age and gender, and then drag food around to put it on the scale and then see if you have the right amount of calories for the day, creating a great way to visualize a “balanced” meal.

Go ahead – embrace technology for health’s sake! Check out the apps, view the video, vote and show support at Apps for Healthy Kids.