Veggie Madness!

If you’ve been keeping up on Rianne’s output, you’ve got some great ideas for getting kids to eat veggies. I want my son to eat lots of vegetables, but he doesn’t like many of them, and his resistance can be fierce. I recently began to look into their importance in the diet; when he says “Why do I have to eat my vegetables?” I’ll have the answer.

Why not blend and season it?

For one, they’re packed with vitamins. And I mean packed! I think of vegetables as a vitamin delivery system. I should say vitamin and mineral, because vegetables also have safe and absorbable doses of many minerals. For example, just one cup of cooked bok choy contains 158mg of calcium, 631mg of potassium, and 19mg of magnesium.

The fiber content of vegetables also makes them good for you. Beans actually contain a lot of fiber, as well as protein, making them an important, healthy food also. Fruit, depending, also contains a lot of fiber and vitamins.

Kids have many more taste buds than adults. Vegetables have strong bitter flavors and inspire equally strong resistance from kids. Developing a taste for veggies can take repeated exposure. In fact, some research suggests that kids require an average of 17 “introductions” to a vegetable to begin accepting it. A parent should look for vegetable recipes that are mild in flavor and put a small amount on their child’s dish, encouraging them. Fights and force make children more resistant.

I recently spoke with Shannon Gregg, who left the Co-op to pursue a career in nutrition. I asked for her thoughts on veggies, considering it’s so much easier to get kids eating fruit. She brought up the diabetic point exchange system for selecting food.

Best enjoyed in moderation.

Fruit has a lot of simple sugars. It’s better than candy–with vitamins, fiber and enzymes–but it’s still sugar. A point in the diabetic diet refers to a food’s effect on blood sugar. Fruit points add up quickly, while you can eat an almost unlimited amount of veggies. Lower, steady blood sugar levels mean better energy, behavior and mental function. Vegetables deliver their goods without pumping up blood sugar, causing crashes, or affecting behavior.

I’m not naïvely that these answers will convince a 10-year-old to eat something he doesn’t want to. But at least now, I’m prepared with a better answer than “Because I said so.” So pay your Co-op’s Produce dept. a visit and fill your basket with all the veggies you can cook, many of which are routine Smart Buy specials. And couple them with Rianne’s clever vegetable tactics, several of which I have plans to implement this Fall.