There’s no denying the fact that health and longevity of life are tied to what we eat. There really isn’t any way to get around this fact. While it’s fine to have balance, you certainly can’t expect to eat poorly your entire life and not suffer the consequences. The same applies to exercise. You can’t expect to avoid physical movement as an adult and be fit. It’s not about being small in size, it’s about overall wellness. Most doctors will tell you that longevity of life starts at a young age. The practices and lessons instilled into children are often carried throughout their life. If you feed a child junk food all week long, they simply won’t be as healthy as they could have been.

Given the importance of health and wellness, there’s often talk among parents about how they can get their child to love vegetables. It’s a common question asked when parents visit any pediatric doctor st paul mn. Doctors always recommend a balanced diet, but don’t always know how to cultivate an environment where children enjoy eating healthy foods. This is partially because there is far more marketing for unhealthy foods than for fruits and vegetables. Fortunately, there are ways to achieve your goal of helping your child choose healthy foods when they’re young and as they develop into strong adults.

For starters, children tend to eat foods that taste good. If you can make vegetables taste good, there’s a much greater chance that your child will eat them. However, you certainly don’t want to saturate the vegetables with ingredients that diminish the nutritional value. Instead, you can play around with the options that you provide to figure out which vegetables your kid naturally likes. For instance, some children really enjoy plain carrots without having anything added to them. You can simply cut them into carrot sticks and perhaps add a healthy dipping sauce. You might try Greek yogurt as opposed to a less healthy dressing. The key is to get creative.

Another option is to have a conversation about the different possibilities and actually let your kid choose which one they like. You might be surprised. Sometimes there’s an assumption that a child doesn’t like vegetables when the issue is simply that they were not given a choice. It’s good to provide many different options to see which one they want. Once you have that information you can incorporate their preference into daily meals.

The earlier you start providing vegetables as a normal part of your kid’s meals the better off everyone will be. Sometimes the problem arises when you introduce a new vegetable into a meal. If they have always been something that the entire family enjoys, your kid will be accustomed to the taste. This means it’s best to make homemade baby food that’s not processed because it will have the same flavor as raw vegetables.