A healthy future often begins with a healthy childhood. This post will explore how to get kids excited about eating healthy by getting them more involved in food prep. Gardening with kids is a great first step!
Unfortunately, most American children have an inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables (F&V) and an unbalanced diet often high in fats and sugars, causing childhood obesity (17% over the past decade), increasing the probability of heart disease and Stroke at older ages.
Fortunately, there are numerous research-based practices and activities families can incorporate to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables in children, and reduce the risk of childhood obesity and help insure a healthy future.
It All Starts in the Garden!
Gardening with kids will develop their curiosity and love to learn how fruits and vegetables grow from seeds, in pots, with soil, and water, then slowly growing into those marvelous, colorful, delicious, produce.
Benefits of Gardening with Kids
A study published in the Journal of American Dietetic Association supported that garden-based nutrition education programs, such as growing a garden, positively impacted children’s consumption of F&V (Heim et al., 2009). There are many ways a garden can incentivize a child to make healthier choices. For example, being involved in the process of growing a plant from a seed to harvesting the fruit is an intellectually-stimulating activity and also a lot of fun!
The child will experience seeing a tiny seed turn into something she can eat. She also grows up with the knowledge and appreciation of what it takes to bring food to the table. Lastly, she experiences the joy of picking which fruits from her garden she wants to put on her plate. Rasmussen University of Florida shows that other evidence-based benefits of a garden include opportunities for exercise, mental focus, building analytical skills, and a positive impact on the mood (Flavin, 2016). All these benefits lead to a healthy future!
Empowering Kids to Select their Own Fruits and Vegetables
Gardening with kids is a fun activity but if you do not have access to a garden there are still other ways to keep your little ones involved and excited to make healthy food choices. An activity anyone has access to is teaching kids to be involved in selecting their own produce at the grocery store. A fun activity my family does is to let the kids go to a co-op and teach them about different fruits and vegetables. Afterwards, we let the kids choose a couple of fruits and vegetables to take home with them.
This leads to a good opportunity to cook healthy dishes or yummy snacks with the produce they picked, making them excited to eat the things they picked. Involving a child in the cooking process needs to be done with supervision. But there are simple things they can do to feel involved. For example, you can allow them to wash the produce through fresh water, assist in measuring or weighing ingredients. You can also just let them watch you prepare the meal. (Find tips on how to eat and more veggies here.)
Immersing children in a world where consuming fruits and vegetables can be a fun activity empowers them to learn to make healthy choices from a young age. Teaching them to eat healthy from an early age increases their chances for a healthy future. More importantly, it lowers their chances of developing diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Want more great eating advice?
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Here is info on the benefits of gardening for kids.
References:
Flavin, B. (2016, April 11). Gardening for kids: 7 reasons planting seeds enriches their lives. Gardening for Kids: 7 Reasons Planting Seeds Enriches Their Lives | Rasmussen University. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/gardening-for-kids-benefits/
Heim, S., Stang, J., & Ireland, M. (2009). A garden pilot project enhances fruit and vegetable consumption among children. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 109(7), 1220–1226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2009.04.009
Flavin, B. (2016, April 11). Gardening for kids: 7 reasons planting seeds enriches their lives. Gardening for Kids: 7 Reasons Planting Seeds Enriches Their Lives | Rasmussen University. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/gardening-for-kids-benefits/
Heim, S., Stang, J., & Ireland, M. (2009). A garden pilot project enhances fruit and vegetable consumption among children. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 109(7), 1220–1226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2009.04.009
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