How to make organic vegetables fun for the little ones in your house

One of the biggest clichés when we think about feeding our kiddies is the assumption that they don’t like vegetables. We often find it in series and movies, but it can also cause major headaches in our own homes. Therefore, the Naturcharc family  wants to share some tips that can help children dare to taste those veggies, so we can emphasise the importance of a healthy diet from childhood.

The key is to educate the palate. If children are not used to enjoying different flavors and textures from a young age, it can be very difficult to maintain healthy lifestyle habits later on. A recent survey by the Spanish Association of Pediatrics yielded a worrying fact: only half of adolescents meet the World Health Organization’s recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption. We have a long way to go in this regard, but the good news is that it is never too late to start eating well. Here are some useful tips that we can incorporate into our day to day.

Start small

It is perhaps the most basic advice of all. You have to start including these foods from an early age. Choosing mild-flavored vegetables to accompany main dishes is a good way to start. There is a great variety of organic fruits and vegetables that we can gradually incorporate into our dishes to achieve this goal. The goal has to be to reach those five pieces or servings of fruits and vegetables by the end of the day.

Have healthy snacks accessible

A good way to get children and adolescents to eat fruits and vegetables on a daily basis is to make them as easy as possible to snack on. Sometimes sweet or unhealthy snacks are used because they are the easiest option to munch between meals. But if we have fruit prepared to consume quickly, already cut and peeled in the fridge, we make it much easier for the kids to mix into their daily routine. For example, now that the heat is coming we can have watermelon ready to eat at any time of the day.

Variety in the kitchen

One of the great advantages of vegetables is their versatility. They can be prepared in so many different ways and the end result can be a very tasty surprise for the little ones. Therefore, we encourage you to prepare vegetables in new ways, taking advantage of different cooking techniques. Baked or au gratin aubergines might be more appealing than when sauteed. Or a good barbecue of vegetables such as courgettes or peppers is an excellent side dish for meat or fish without resorting to the usual chips.

Ask the kids to help decide on weekly menus

Starting from a certain age, it is also a good idea to have older children and teens participate in the design of their meals. Taking into account their preferences and listening to their ideas for the kitchen will not only give them greater responsibility, it will also teach them the benefits of eating a careful and healthy diet. Among all the variety of vegetables available in the market, we can surely find the ones that appeal to the kids the most, so we can make them a regular part of our meals.

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