How to get your kids eating healthy food

Getting kids eating healthy food isn't just about buying lots of fresh fruit and veg.

I buy huge bagfuls of bananas, apples, pears, quantities of broccoli, carrots, salads, and loads of other fruit and veg every week, and it all disappears.

But who's eating it? I had a horrible suspicion that the adults in the house were consuming far more than the kids.

Five portions of fruit and veg a day? It's a nice idea, but getting my kids to eat healthy food takes an ongoing strategy on my part.

Getting your kids eating fruit and veg

It was time for an experiment. I decided to plot exactly how much fruit and veg my son, then aged 11 was getting, and plan a few ways to introduce more into his diet.

Day One

Breakfast Offer son sliced banana on his cereal. He says, 'Yuk!' My suggestion that he has a sliced apple afterwards falls on deaf ears.

Packed lunch Persuade him to have a good handful of grapes, and an apple. Insert 1/3 shredded lettuce into peanut butter sandwich. Later - find apple in bin, with one bite taken out. He says, 'It was so sour that my teeth hurt.' Problem: he loves Royal Gala, which are small, crisp, sweet - and South African. So if we're worrying about food miles as well, it's better to buy English. Which are small, crisp and in the bin. Sigh.

Dinner Revise plans for shepherd pie. Defrost small quantity of meat sauce and add to it masses of shredded spinach, lots of fresh corn niblets, chopped mushrooms and a can of butterbeans. That must be good for 2 portions of veg. Cook a vast head of broccoli, and arrange attractively around the plate. All is eaten, with happy smiles.

Result 5 portions, but only just, and only one of them fruit. This is even harder than I'd reckoned.

Suggestions

• Try other local varieties in bid to find sweet apple.
• Try plums, in season now - or perhaps substitute dried fruit, or fruits canned in unsweetened juice.

Day Two

Breakfast It's still school holidays, so breakfast has become a movable feast. Son appears bleary-eyed while I am working. I leave him to get his own breakfast. Result - no fruit.

Packed lunch Yesterday's English apples taste good to me, and I think it's possibly the texture that's putting him off. The flesh is softer than the Gala. I have relented though, and provide him with a Braeburn, but sadly it has come all the way from New Zealand.

Sandwich is again stuffed full of greenery, and I press it firmly together to make it harder for him to remove it when I'm not there. Cunning, eh?

Suggestions

• We parents have to be more pro-active to get our kids eating healthy food more often. Sorry, folks, but there's no way round it. Left to their own devices, kids tend to choose unhealthy.
• Cut fruit up, rather than serving it whole. It makes it more palatable.

Day Three
Interesting discovery. TALK to your kids about healthy eating, and you might just see a shift in their attitude.

Last night we were discussing food, what's in the unhealthy stuff, why fruit and veg are so important.

This morning, son announced he'd been thinking - he'd like to alternate his morning drink. One day he'll have the milk (he has been semi-skimmed milk for years, because the fat content is far lower than that of whole milk). On the other days he'll have fruit juice. I supervise this, and make sure he has a small glass, otherwise he could end up having too much sugar.

Another little trick - I chopped a peach and dumped some on top of his cereal without saying anything. 'Ah hah!', he said, 'thought I wouldn't notice, eh...?' It's become a kind of game, he thinks it's funny - and he ate it...

Suggestions

• Talk to your kids about healthy eating. Don't lecture them, but have a conversation about what's good, what isn't and why.
• Just do it. Add fruit and veg to their usual meals, don't make a big song and dance about it.