A Smooth Way to Increase Vegetable Intake in Your Child

If you are a parent, you have probably found difficulties introducing vegetables to your child. It doesn’t matter if you have an infant starting solid foods, a toddler learning to self-feed, or a teenager just resistant to anything green. The vegetable struggle is real.

The challenge often doesn’t end in adulthood. Even us adults (who should “know better”) have struggles eating vegetables and being good role models for our children.

The hesitations are many:

• Vegetables are too bitter, too hard to chew, or just don’t taste good
• Vegetables may be hard to find
• Vegetables are more costly and tend to go bad too quickly

I think we’ve all tried ways to encourage increased vegetable intake:

• Offering vegetables before fruits to infants
• Playing the game of more colors and shapes on the plate with pre-school children learning colors and shapes
• With older kids and adults, emphasizing the nutritional importance of vegetables including multiple minerals and vitamins, fiber, and good sources of fluids
• Using salad dressing, cheese, and peanut butter as “dips”
• Having to finish a serving or tasting of vegetables before finishing a meal or leaving the table

To try and get a “win” in the vegetable battle, many have even resorted to a bit of trickery – “hiding” vegetables in other foods or beverages.

Well, we aren’t above some well-intentioned games of “hide and seek” to encourage vegetable intake.

So, let’s introduce our favorite Vegetable Smoothie recipe:

• 1 cup baby spinach
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 banana
• 1 cup frozen fruit “yellow or orange” (mango, pineapple, peaches, etc.)
  Small handful of ice
• Blend in a Vitamix or similar high-performance blender

• • The yellow or orange fruit options make for a more pleasing and acceptable color

Please feel free to share this smoothie with friends and family members (it’s okay not to share with young children until they’ve come to enjoy this special smoothie).

Now that you’ve learned a smooth way to increase vegetable intake, ActiveKidMD would like to share some unique, and probably surprising, ways that certain vegetables (and fruits) can increase overall health and exercise performance.

Did you know that:

• Tart cherry juice can relieve inflammation and muscle soreness on a level equal to ibuprofen and other medications?
• Putting tomato juice, sauce or ketchup in your hair can reduce green streaks from chlorine and other chemicals in swimming pools?
• Beets can help you beat your competition by increasing oxygen delivery to working muscles?
• For pre-exercise meals, bananas are not only full of good nutrition but also are easy on a nervous or sensitive stomach?

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON UNIQUE PRODUCE CHOICES THAT CAN HELP EXERCISE AND PERFORMANCE

Looking for other good nutrition tips for your young athlete?
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With their team, dual board-certified pediatric and sports medicine specialist Dr. Chris Koutures offers a comprehensive blend of general pediatric and sport medicine care with an individualized approach that enhances the health and knowledge of patients and their families in Orange County, California. Contact us at 714-974-2220 to schedule your next visit.

When selecting ActiveKidMD, you will join a team that:

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• Respects that the best course of action may be different for each family- we do not dictate treatment plans, rather we discuss options, alternatives, and risks/benefits so you confidently share in the decision-making process
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• Specializes in unique areas such as dance medicine, injury prevention, exercise promotion and nutritional guidance that are not readily found elsewhere
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