Diet & Fitness 

Advertisement

A fruitful endeavour

One in five children never eats fruit. Here's how to make sure yours isn't one of them

It's hard enough ensuring that you get your five portions of fruit and vegetables a day without having to worry about your sprout-hating child.

But a recent government survey on the diet and nutritional habits of children between ages four and 18 found that on average, children ate less than half the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables per day and that one in five children didn't eat any fruit at all.

Given that fruit and vegetables are an important source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre, the government has now recognised the need to encourage children to increase their intake of this food group.

That's why it recently set up a National Health Service Plan, which includes funding and promoting activities, such as the National School Fruit Scheme (currently in its pilot stage), which aims to provide every child in nursery school, and infants up to the age of six, with a piece of fruit a day. In addition, it has also pledged to collaborate with industry and food producers to increase the provision of, and access to, fruit and vegetables.

Some primary schools, which have already replaced traditional crisp and sweet tuck shops with fruit tuck shops, have even reported an improvement in the results of their standard assessment test (SATs) scores.

Whether fruit and vegetables can have this direct effect on concentration and indeed IQ, is still to be proven. But we do know that fruit and vegetables are excellent sources of antioxidant nutrients such as vitamins C, A and E and other phytochemicals such as flavonoids, which work together to protect against heart disease - the origins of which can be early on in life.

So how can we get our kids to enjoy more fruit and vegetables? Here are my top tips:

Start them young
Introduce your children to a wide variety of tastes as soon as you begin weaning. Humans are born with an innate liking for sweetness and many fruits and vegetables are naturally sweet which helps the process.

Don't push it
Don't worry if your child hates broccoli or sprouts, it's not the end of the world. If they refuse to eat it, take their plate away and try again in a week's time, perhaps serving it in a different way. For example, mash broccoli with potatoes and pat into large burger shapes. Next dip them in beaten egg and breadcrumbs then grill or fry them in a small amount of oil.

Another idea is to add a can of creamed sweetcorn to a pancake batter and fry in a little oil. If your child or children still refuse to eat it, just accept it - there are plenty of other veggies that are just as nutritious.

Delicious     Digg     reddit     Facebook     StumbleUpon

  Get the latest iVillage news on your desktop    Sign up for more iVillage RSS feeds

© iVillage Limited 2000-2008. All rights reserved. | © iVillage inc. 1995-2008. All rights reserved.
iVillage Ltd is a UK company registered in England & Wales (3837269) at 80-110 New Oxford Street, London WC1 1HB