If you have children at home, you must be aware of how arduous it can be to get them to eat fruits. This challenge may be a lot more difficult than you would have thought. We are aware of the critical role that consuming fresh fruits plays in general health, development, and growth.
Fruits offer a lot of nutrients in the form of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other components that are essential for your child’s healthy, all-around growth. They are a key component of a well-balanced diet. They are also a fantastic substitute for commercial confectionaries, which employ unhealthy amounts of sugar, artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, and food coloring to satisfy your child’s sweet tooth.
So here are the top 10 ways to make kids eat more fruits:
1. Involve Your Children In Food Shopping
Allow them to choose their preferred fruits at the shop or market, along with some never-tried ones.
2. Hit The Farmer’s Market Or Orchard Together
Children could start to view fruit selection as a special treat if you make it a fun activity.
3. Serve New Fruits With Old Favorites
When a new dish is served with something they are already accustomed to, kids are more inclined to try it. Mix bananas and berries, or slice apples and pears together.
4. Use Fruits To Top Cereal Or Yogurt
To add variation and make daily snacks more interesting, try using bananas, peaches, strawberries, or blueberries. Swap out the chocolate chips in pancakes for blueberries or bananas.
5. Use Stickers
Your toddler might be more eager to eat fruit if you decorate it with their favorite or well-known cartoon character. Researchers from Cornell University discovered this after giving 208 kids between the ages of 8 and 11 a cookie or an apple with their lunch. Children were almost twice as likely to take the apple when it had a sticker on it.
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6. Mix It Up
Present fruit in a range of shapes, textures, and forms. Jill Castle, MS, RDN, a specialist in pediatric nutrition, suggests experimenting with frozen, freeze-dried, canned, fresh, and dried fruit, as well as 100 percent juice and nectar.
7. Make Fun No-Cook Creations
Fruit may be easily spiced up in a few simple ways.
- Buy chocolate yogurt from the refrigerator area, stir it well, then freeze it for chocolate-berry frozen yogurt. Then, combine frozen raspberries or cherries with the mixture in a food processor.
- Puree fruits like berries, bananas, mangos, and peaches, then freeze them in squeezable silicon popsicle molds to make frozen fruit popsicles. Super yum!
8. Eat Together
According to a recent study published in Appetite, children are more likely to meet their recommended intake of fruits and vegetables if you munch on fruit in front of them. Children liked berries, but they were unwilling to try apples or pears. They finally became curious enough to want “what daddy eats” after seeing their father bite into apples.
9. Find Out The Taste Of Your Child
As each person is different and unique, they all have their own likes and interests. Children are similar in that; they are all unique people with varied tastes. It will be simpler for you to feed children the fruits that are vital for their health if you cater their fruit consumption to their tastes, and they will also genuinely enjoy the fruits more.
10. Try It Frozen
Berries, grapes, and bananas all freeze nicely, but you can also purchase packs of frozen fruit. Fresh and frozen foods are equally nutritious.
The Bottom Line
The fact is that less than half of kids consume even one serving of fresh fruit every day. This needs to change because fruit gives kids the energy they need for the day without having the negative consequences that other products in the market have. Hope these simple suggestions for getting your kid to like and regularly consume fresh fruit will be useful!
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