How To Encourage Healthy Eating Habits and Teach Children To Love Vegetables

It’s hard enough to remind ourselves to eat enough fruits and veggies each day. So teaching our kids healthy eating habits is a whole other story.

For kids, it can be tricky to grasp exactly why healthy eating is so important. For them, nutrition doesn’t matter. It’s all about what tastes good.

And let’s be honest, sometimes chocolate tastes a whole lot nicer than a carrot.

But there are loads of simple ways to teach your kids to eat healthily. And being armed with a long list of yummy recipes certainly helps, too!

Read on to discover the best ways to encourage healthy eating habits in your kids. They’ll be eating up those vegetables in no time.

The importance of developing healthy eating habits early in life

Throughout childhood — and even their teens — kids are always growing. You blink once, and they’re five. You blink again, and they’re 15! Before you know it, your “little one” is taller than you… and possibly stronger, too.

And that’s great. That’s exactly what we’re after (even if it feels like time is flying by too fast).

In developmental terms, childhood is a crucial stage for establishing strong bones and muscles. Kids need calcium, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, fiber, and protein to fuel their growth. And where do they get those nutrients from? A healthy diet, of course!

But you can’t always be around to tell them what to eat — especially as they grow older and more independent. Developing healthy eating habits early in life has a massive impact on our food preferences and eating habits as a teen and adult.

So much so, that researchers have found a link between childhood obesity and health problems later in adulthood.

Encourage your kid to eat their veggies now, and your words of wisdom will continue to benefit them throughout their life — decreasing their risk of developing serious health issues, further down the line.

5 tips for encouraging healthy eating habits

We all know that, even with the best intentions, getting your kid to eat the right foods can be something of a struggle.

Our tips for encouraging healthy eating habits should make mealtimes a lot easier for both of you.

1.   Family mealtimes

Make your mealtimes a chance for the whole family to get together. Kids will love the predictability and comfort of having all the family together at least once a day.

This will also give you a chance to introduce new foods to your child — encouraging them to try things they’d otherwise push to the side of their plate. If they can see their parents and older siblings modeling healthy eating, then even better! We know some kids are fussy and will reject a food simply because it’s unfamiliar or “gross”, but turn it into a learning opportunity by bringing up judging a book by its cover, or perhaps a first impression they had about a friend of theirs. 

The structure of a family mealtime will also help your kid to develop a healthy relationship with their food. Children are less likely to skip meals later in life if they are already used to having regular and planned mealtimes.

2.   Be a role model

We touched on this just above, but it’s worth spending a little more time on.

As a parent, your kids will naturally look up to you and mirror your behavior. If they see you regularly eating unhealthy snacks and not prioritizing a healthy diet, they are likely to follow suit.

So try to model healthy eating habits at home — certainly while you’re in front of them at least! Asking your kids to eat an apple while you snack on a packet of chips is just not going to go down well! Especially since kids generally don’t like being told what to do!

Endeavor to do this outside of the house, too. If you’re out on a day trip, make sure you actively go in search of healthier options wherever you can. When faced with an ice cream parlor or a whole foods shop as a mid-afternoon pick me up, go for the latter. A little treat every now and then is fine, but ice cream won’t be seen as a treat if you have it all the time!

Remember: your own attitudes towards healthy eating will stay with your kids for years — so make a positive impact! Instill the belief that your body is your temple, it’s the only one you’ve got after all, and should be powered by clean goodness and not junk devoid of nutrients. Second to that, don’t be obsessive about nutrition either – live a little, let your hair down with delicious treats, and try avoid associating eating with stress, control, decision paralysis, and anxiety.

3.   Stock your cupboards with healthy snacks

The foods you have in your house are the ones that both you and your kids will be eating.

This sounds like common sense. But sometimes we forget that stocking our cupboards with unhealthy snacks is just encouraging bad habits. After all, you can’t eat it if it’s not there!

When your kid wants a snack, it’s great if there are lots of healthy options available to them. This helps healthy eating feel like standard practice for kids — and not a punishment!

So try to stock your fridge and cupboards with lots of colorful fruit and vegetables (and keep the candies and cookies to a minimum). You’ll quickly notice your kid eating more healthy foods than they ever have before.

And remember, this is a good time to instill good understanding of whyyour child wants to snack. If they’re hungry, teach them that their body needs fuel, and what is better? A hit of sugar or a long, slow release of energy? If they’re snacking because they’re bored, it’s important they recognize this through self-reflection to prevent mindless eating in the future.

4.   Try healthy foods more than once

Your kid might have refused to eat a particular fruit or vegetable once, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try again.

Many children are a bit unsure about new foods, which often means they won’t even try them. But if they see that same food appear on their plate a few times, the sense of familiarity might just convince them to give it a go.

So what happens if your kid tries a healthy food, but isn’t a big fan?

Our sense of taste tends to change as we get older, so give it another go a few months later. Or try prepare the food in a different way. Straight up broccoli won’t be very appealing to most kids, but if it’s with a cheesy sauce or buried in a stir-fry, it might be just the ticket in giving it another go.

Pro tip: ask them to have just two mouthfuls of the food they’re not keen on and, over time, they might just start to change their mind. And ask them to be mindful about their reactions. Are they just making a knee-jerk “yuk” response? Perhaps it’s the texture they don’t like, or the flavor is bitter. Having your child be more expressive in their descriptions will help you, the chef-in-chief, navigate veggie-ville, and find creative solutions.

5.   Adapt traditional family recipes

Chances are, many of the recipes you’ve already tried at home could stand to have a few more veggies thrown in there.

A simple spaghetti bolognese can be made even healthier by adding in finely diced carrots, celery, and mushrooms. Chopped finely, they won’t even know they’re in there. Or you could even replace the beef mince with lentils to create a super healthy vegetarian dish.

The most important bit? Get your kids involved!When children have invested time and effort into the preparation of the food they’re going to eat, they’re far more likely to want to try their creations, even if they’re beetroot brownies. So get them in the garden growing veggies and salad ingredients, and draw them into the kitchen with age-appropriate tasks like rinsing, grating, mixing, measuring, cutting and cooking (for older kids).

Bon Appétit!