By Emily Barr, MS,RD,CNSC 

A recent post in Medical News Today highlighted the practice of hiding veget

By Justin Henry

ables in our children’s foods to help them reach their goal of 5+ servings of vegetables per day.  Their conclusion was “that it is more important for parents to openly feed their children a variety of vegetables instead of constantly trying to hide them.”  But the real question is – Why not do both?  

Teach your children healthy eating by exposing and encouraging them to eat a variety of vegetables with every meal time.

• Pair vegetables with foods they like such as broccoli and cheese, celery and peanut butter, or cucumber, carrots, and peppers with ranch.
• Be sure to add veggies in where you can, such as adding lettuce, spinach, tomato, or avocado slices to a sandwich.
• Add fresh tomatoes to spaghetti sauces.
• In addition to serving veggies, make veggie based entrees to maximize their nutrition, such as spinach enchiladas, vegetable (broccoli, carrots, cabbage, spinach, bean) soups, veggie kabobs (alternate onions, mushrooms, peppers, potatoes, and squash), mushroom burgers, veggie pizza (top with tomatoes, onions, peppers, olives, spinach), or  veggie pastas (add spinach, broccoli, mushrooms, or zucchini).

Not only is our job as parents to make the veggies taste good, but we also have to set a good example with our eating habits.

Be sure to include something green with every meal!

Petra Rattue. “Vegetables And Children – Openly Showing Them Is Better Than Hiding.” Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 2 Mar. 2012. Web.  

11 Mar. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/242436.php>