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Give your vegetables more kid appeal

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Originally published in Today's Parent March 2006

When my kids say “yuck!” at the dinner table, I long for the days when I fed their compliant baby faces mouthful after blissful mouthful of puréed vegetables. But they grew up and learned to revolt at the sight of spinach and call warfare over cauliflower.

Experts, like Toronto mom and author of Cook Once a Week Eat Well Every Day Theresa Albert-Ratchford, tell me to steer clear of conflict. “Avoid arm wrestling over vegetables,” she says, “because the moment kids sense eating veggies is a forced thing, it will become a resisted thing.”

Albert-Ratchford tallies with a “disguise and conquer” approach when serving vegetables to her 10-year-old daughter, Jameson. “I hide sweet potatoes and zucchini in home-baked muffins and grate carrots into spaghetti sauce or cheese quesadillas,” she says.

That kind of subterfuge might be in order since Canadian kids just aren’t eating their vegetables. According to studies by the Heart and Stroke Foundation, only 14 percent of Canadian tweens (aged nine to 12) are eating four or more servings of fruit and vegetables. Younger kids aren’t faring much better. Just 20 percent of six- to 12-year-olds eat the recommended amount — five to 10 servings a day. Problem is, when Junior doesn’t dine on dark leafy greens and orange-coloured vegetables, he’s missing out on a powerhouse of nutrients. Iceberg lettuce, celery and cucumbers — while better than nothing — don’t rack up a lot of points in the vitamin-mineral department. So go for colour when choosing veggies (see The Colour of Health).

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