Train your children to eat healthy meals and love veggies

Variety in our diet is important for our health

Nowadays, due to the science and technology evolution, our understanding about diet and healthy eating habits has improved. Doctors and scientists highlight that diets like the Mediterranean and the Cretan, include a big variety of foods that help us take all the necessary vitamins and nutrients that we need to maintain a good health, prevent diseases and hopefully live longer. It is astonishing however, that children even in developed countries suffer from several nutrient deficiencies (2015, 2008, WHO data), which affect their health, due to a diet poor in variety. So, why not training our children to develop healthier eating habits, eat more vegetables and be able to make the right choice of what to eat?

12 useful habits to develop

1. Start as early as possible

Infants usually start eating solid food at the age of 4-6 months old. At this stage parents are recommended not to add any salt or other spices or taste enhancers in their food. If you think about it, this is not only good for the health of the child but it also helps to develop a taste for vegetables and get used to them.

As a mother, I tried not to add any salt to my children’s food until they were 1 year old, but I was always adding olive oil. Like that, they had the opportunity to try many different vegetables, get used to their taste and start liking their natural taste. At the same time they were also taking the important omega 3 fatty acids and unsaturated fats, from the olive oil that they needed for their healthy development. If you cannot find olive oil, raw canola or soy oil is also good. Later, I started adding a bit of salt and other spices but never omitting at least one tablespoon of olive oil in their vegetables.

So, start training your children as early as possible. Try to make them taste different vegetables (cooked in different ways) and add olive oil in them, before serving, to make them healthier and tastier. You will be surprised how much they will enjoy eating simply boiled vegetables with a bit of olive oil!

2. Get them involved 

Let the children touch the raw vegetables, wash them and if possible peel them. While getting them involved in cooking, they can develop a feeling about their food, sense the natural smell and touch of the vegetables and spend some time with you, building beautiful memories. You can also encourage them to taste one or two raw pieces while doing it. Like that cooking and eating healthily will become a cognitive process for them.

3. Be prepared

Plan every meal including snacks or have something healthy always ready. I understand that planning every meal of the week can be too much of work and stressful. As a working mother, I always try to spend some more time in the kitchen one weekend per month in order to cook something healthy in bulk and store it in the freezer. Like that there is always a healthy choice available for every member of the family. Building this habit not only contributes to the good health of your family members, but also saves you some money from ordering junk food at home. If you can sacrifice a bit more time from your weekends and have a bit extra space in your freezer, cook one or two more dishes in bulk. This will take away some stress regarding dinner and you will only need to worry about lunch.

4. Talk about the next meal

Planning the next meal does not have to be a stress and a daily problem for you. It can be fun. Ask your children what they would like to eat or what you could make with the ingredients that are in your fridge. If they are older, let them search for a recipe that they like. You may even compare different recipes and vote for the winning one. Talk with them about the recipe and how the outcome may taste or look like. Like this, you will make them crave for the next meal and look forward to it. Who knows? They may even help you to cook!

5. Present the food with enthusiasm and only 1 main dish per meal

I remember while growing up, my parents were most of the time planning the food of the next day or even of the whole week, either discussing between them in front of me and my sister or even getting us involved. In that way we were looking forward to the day that we will eat our favorite food and we could more easily tolerate the ones that we did not prefer. Apart from that, usually the weekends that they had more time, they were also discussing about lunch or dinner half an hour before we sat on the table. For example, saying how good it smelled or how tasty it could be. This would make us feel hungrier and eat with more appetite. So, the way you present the food to your child matters a lot. Another thing that I noticed with my children is that if I give them more than one choice they will chose the one they prefer and do not touch at all the other one. So, I try to give them only 1 main dish for every meal and never an extra choice or a side dish, apart from salad.

6. Eat something different every day

As I grew up in Greece, in a family that was mostly cooking and occasionally eating out I consider myself quite spoiled with food. In my family we were not only eating cooked food but also something different for lunch and dinner and also a different dish every day. Many people may consider this a luxury, but according to scientists this is called a diet with variety. If you try to eat and cook something different every day, you ensure that your child follows a diet with big variety, takes all the nutrients and vitamins that it needs and does not get bored eating the same thing every day. You may think that this is a lot of work, but with good planning it is feasible. Here, I should note that keeping your dinners simple and light helps a lot. So, a colorful salad with some bread, a toast with lettuce and tomato, dakos or simply some boiled vegetables with lemon and olive oil, are some quick and easy choices.

7. Eat together

Nowadays, the rhythms that we follow do not always allow us to eat together as a family every day. However, making the time to eat together with your children is really important. In my family, we try to eat dinner together every day and for sure lunch and dinner on Sundays. I even try to prepare a special dish for our Sunday lunch so as we all feel that we are going to take our time, discuss and enjoy our food. Building this habit, not only will help you to share a nice and healthy food with your beloved ones, but will also create beautiful memories for your children and give you the opportunity to discuss with them school matters or even your problems. In that way you will have the chance to train them to eat at a fixed time point during the day, as well as take teach them how to deal with problems or other difficulties.

8. Give them the good example

I find this part the most difficult one. Eating healthily and preparing healthy and tasty dishes has to start from you. However, who can resist  a nice ice cream, a creamy or full of chocolate sweet or some crunchy bacon and fried French fries? What I try to do is to avoid all these unhealthy habits during the week but allow some of them even to myself on Sundays that are supposed to be the days of pleasure. Of course, always keeping in mind moderation and never eating all these unhealthy things before going to bed. Keep in mind that children love imitating adults and research has proved that “Modeling behavior for children has long-lasting effects”!

9. Choose carefully what to shop

What contributes a lot to building healthy eating habits is what you shop. The greener is your shopping cart the healthier you are going to eat. Try to buy a lot of colorful and leafy vegetables and fruits and avoid sweets, salty snacks, ready-made and processed foods. Working on this habit and resisting to temptations increases your chances to eat healthier meals. While shopping get your children involved. It is a great opportunity to educate them and explain them why you should not buy certain things and how bad eating habits can harm your health.

10. Never force them and keep trying different recipes

Here in Switzerland, after giving birth and taking your baby at home a midwife or a nurse visit you to help you and train you to take good care of your child. A golden tip that I learnt during this time was to never force my children to eat. If you do not force them to eat, they will simply eat enough when they are hungry. Sometimes though, depending on the age of the child, it happens that it may not like the taste of a certain vegetable or food.  In that case, I follow the Greek way. I cook the same vegetable in a different way and I try again after some days or weeks. Believe me, it works!

11. Talk to them while eating

Now that my children are small (almost 2 years old), apart from trying to eat with them, I also tell them how tasty is the food and I combine this word with a gesture that shows how much I like it. Like that, their curiosity to try the food and like it increases, plus they remember this word and gesture and they even use it when they like the food. This even works with older kids or even adults. Of course with older kids you can try some more tricks. You can make links with books, films, videos, explain to them why what they are eating is good or distract them by discussing something else while eating. Discussing about your food while eating helps your children develop conscious habits of eating nutritious and healthy meals.

12. Expose them to the right habits

One day I saw my children (less than 2 years old) fighting over the raw bell peppers from the salad that I had prepared for our dinner. I was astonished! I had never given them a raw bell pepper to try before! How did they start liking them? I was looking at them open-mouthed thinking that most of the children that I have met don’t even want to try a raw bell pepper. Then I understood. Every afternoon, they have snack time at the nursery, where they serve them several raw vegetables and other healthy snacks. That moment it clicked to me. If I expose my children to healthy habits they will develop healthy habits.

Trying to serve healthy things at home or buying healthy snacks for them is not always enough, but if they see other children eating healthy stuff, they will also do. One way to achieve that is of course school, but another way is imitation. We all know how much children love to imitate other children. Invite their friends over and while they are playing, serve them some healthy meals or snacks and explain to them how tasty they are and how colorful they look. Let them play a bit with their food, talk about it, compete who will eat more and enjoy it. Who knows you may even help their friends to develop healthy habits! Another thing that you may want to try is to talk to their friends’ mothers. Ask them to do the same when your children go over for a visit. Like that, they will realize that this is a normal thing that happens at their friend’s house too.

Extra tips

• Physical exercise and drinking water regularly opens the appetite.
• If the weather and other responsibilities allow it, enjoy a meal in the nature. Plan for it, prepare it together, talk about it some days before and do it altogether including some physical activities.