Getting Kids To Eat Vegetables Can be Difficult. But There’s Hope!
It may not be what you’re serving, but what you’re serving it on, that can have the biggest impact on increasing vegetable consumption. Say, whaaa?
As you may suspect, most kids aren’t getting enough vegetables. But it’s worse than even we suspected. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 9 in 10 children aren’t filling their plates with the minimum of 3 servings a day. Note, a serving of vegetables for a child is only about a half cup and most nutritionists recommend kids eat more than 3 servings.
Urging Kids To Eat Vegetables Can Help In The Future
That lack of veggie love is impacting eating habits later in life. Just 9 percent of adults are getting at least two cups of vegetables a day, the CDC reports. This is not good news for all the reasons you may suspect including being a major contributor to obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In fact, recent research shows that adults should really be eating 10 servings a day to optimize health.
Want A Simple Tip To Eat More Veggies?
Whether you’re seeking to up the vegetable intake of a big or little kid, one recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics, offers a simple and surprising trick that may help.
After testing 235 preschoolers at daycare centers, researchers found that “kids using plain plates ate 20.63 grams of vegetables — the equivalent of about three packaged ‘baby’ carrots — per meal,” The New York Times reports. “Those who used plates [illustrated with vegetables ] consumed 28.17 grams, an increase of more than 36 percent.”
Wow!
“I don’t think we can say based on this that, yes, these plates will have a large effect,” co-author, Emily M. Melnick, of the University of Colorado Denver to The New York Times. “But this is an easy intervention. Even if it makes a small difference, it might be something to include in a larger toolbox.”
If you’ve got a picky eater on your hands, we say, why not give this a try? These kid-friendly plates are seriously too cute.
Kid Friendly Vegetable Recipes
And here are some kid-approved recipes to up the ante.
1. Butterfly Salad from Parents
2. Maple Roasted Carrots from Eating Well
3. Tart Cherry, Apple & Cabbage Slaw
If that picky eater is you, some new dishware may be just the thing to trick your brain into serving up more green for dinner. It would certainly be hard not to enjoy a salad on a plate like this.
