The war between a delicious plate of healthy vegetables and your child is one that’s consistently being waged at dinner tables across Australia. Often, it’s the plate of vegetables that loses the battle.
According to the , only 20 per cent of children aged two to three eat enough vegetables every day. Meanwhile, only five percent of all children living in Australia, aged 18 and under, are regularly eating the recommended five serves of vegetables a day.
So how do you get your children to like vegetables so they eat them without too much fuss?
The easiest thing to do is to start with vegetables that have a simple, sweet taste, such as carrots or peas. Then slowly work your way up.
1. Start with sweet
Senior lecturer from the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Dr Gie Liem says children are born with a preference for sweet tastes and an aversion to bitter tastes.
“This makes sense because sweet tastes often relates to energy, which young children need for growth and development,” says Dr Liem. “Bitter tastes on the other hand often predicts toxicity.
“The easiest thing to do is to start with vegetables that have a simple, sweet taste, such as carrots or peas. Then slowly work your way up."
2. Exposure is key
Dr Liem also suggests exposing children to a diverse range of vegetables early on, when they are developing their food preferences.
“This is because majority of children’s food preferences are learned through exposure," he says.
“In children’s first year of life, there is a sensitive period in which it is easier for children to learn to like different foods. the So get in there early and exposure children to a variety of vegetables.”
The unborn baby continuously consumes this fluid and, in this way, learns to accept the flavours of the mothers’ diet.
3. Consider your culture
If your cultural cuisine features a range of vegetables, then encouraging your children to eat grown-up dishes filled with native or traditional ingredients could help them to become familiar with healthy food.
For example, if you’re Mediterranean and eat a lot of baked eggplant or stuffed zucchini, then feeding your child these vegetable-based dishes will enable them to become accustomed to eating vegetables.
“Logically, parents often offer children vegetables that are common in their culture. Children who get the most exposure to culturally accepted vegetables are most likely to develop a liking for them.”
4. Eat lots of vegetables during pregnancy
Children can learn to appreciate different vegetable flavours even before they are born.
“Flavour components get transmitted from the mothers’ diet to the amniotic fluid,” says Dr Liem. “and, in this way, learns to accept the flavours of the mothers’ diet.
“The flavours of the mothers diet represent the food culture in which the mother lives. So in a way, the food culture is handed to the unborn baby. When the baby is born, he or she is already a little bit prepared to face the flavour culture of their mother.”
5. Try snacking on carrots in front of the TV
New research from Deakin University’s Centre for Advanced Sensory Science, this year, shows that children will eat a few servings of whole carrots if presented to them in a box while they’re watching television.
The study, led by Dr Liem, involved 60 primary school-aged children and two separate film visits. On the first visit, half the children were given diced carrots to eat and the other group was given whole carrots. On the second visit they swapped carrot types.
This shows that children’s vegetable consumption can be increased by serving carrots as a snack food during entertainment.
The results revealed that more whole carrots were consumed than diced carrots, with the trend being higher after 90 minutes. On average, the consumption of carrots was 75 per cent greater when the vegetable was presented whole and not diced.
“This shows that children’s vegetable consumption can be increased by serving carrots as a snack food during entertainment,” he says.
“So instead of something like popcorn during a movie, you could try carrots, or another vegetable. This is really the optimal time for serving vegetables too, as previous research shows we eat a lot more when we are distracted.
“The most important thing is that the child has a balanced diet. Vegetables in general are far less energy dense than regular snack foods. So from that point of view, it doesn’t matter which vegetable they snack on: it will be healthier than regular energy-dense snack food.”
