Vegetables are edible parts of plants, such as their seeds, roots, leaves, or fruits. They are low in calories but high in nutrients and are recommended to be consumed daily. One scientific study states that a balanced, rotating diet of the different varieties of vegetables is one of the best ways to source nutrients from your food to your body.
Vegetables are full of essential minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants that provide many important health benefits to the body. For example, carrots are known for having very high vitamin A content, which plays an important role in eye health as you grow older.
Here are some of the benefits you can get from vegetables:
Lower risk of Heart Disease
Green leafy vegetables contain vitamin K, which prevents calcium build-up in your arteries. This lowers the risk of arterial damage and helps prevent many heart complications in the future.
Improved Digestive Health
Vegetables are a good source of dietary fibre, a type of carbohydrate, which helps pass food through your digestive system.
Control Diabetes
Vegetables have a low glycemic index, which means that your blood sugar won’t rise quickly after having a meal filled with vegetables.it is recommended to have at least 3 to 5 servings of non-starchy vegetables like carrots, cauliflower, or broccoli per day.
Lower Blood Pressure
Green leafy vegetables like spinach, chard, and kale contain potassium, which helps your kidney filter sodium out of your body more efficiently. This results to your blood pressure to be reduced.
Even with all these benefits, your children may still be picky on the food they eat, especially with vegetables. Some children are naturally more sensitive to taste, texture, and smell. There are children who develop picky eating habits by modeling their parents’ eating habits as well. Picky eating habits are more likely to develop when parents punish, reward, or bribe their children’s eating behaviors.
Disadvantages of Children Who Do Not Eat Vegetables
Vegetables contain important nutrients that is needed for a child’s proper growth and development, such as vitamin A (protects against infections, and good for the vision; is found in orange- yellow vegetables), Vitamin C ( aids collagen formation for healthy skin, hair, and joints, protects against infections; can be found in most vegetables), folic acid (important for red blood cell formation; found in dark, green leafy vegetables), and dietary fiber (aids in bowel regularity, reduces excess weight; found in most vegetables). These are mostly found in green leafy vegetables, but are also found in orange-yellow-colored vegetables like carrots and yellow capsicums.
Here are some of the health risks and problems that a child may face if they have low or no daily vegetable intake:
· Obesity
· Infections
· Constipation
· Poor growth and development
6 Tips to Get Your Child to Eat Their Vegetables
1. Mix Veggies into their favorite meals
Add the veggies to dishes that your kids already like, like pizza, tacos, or spaghetti. Vegetables are also versatile, you can use cauliflower as pizza crust, or add shredded carrots and chopped spinach to pizza, or adding zucchini noodles into the pasta mix. There are a lot of ways for you to mix your veggies into their favorite meals. Make it fun!
2. Change the food presentation
You can try oven-frying, it makes tasty and crunchy vegetables and can entice picky eaters. You can also add cheese on top, as kids love cheese!
3. Continue to introduce and re-introduce vegetables into their meals
It is important to make it clear to your child that when the food is served, it is their responsibility to eat it. Be consistent and intentional in taking control over mealtimes. This will help them self-regulate their food intake and grow to love a variety of foods.
4. Let eating veggies be more interactive
Kids love it when they have a flavorful dip or sauce when eating veggies. You can make a guacamole, ranch dip, nut butter, fruit salsa, or a hummus along with their veggies.
5. Make vegetables more appealing
Learning about where their food comes from connects children with what they eat. Make them engage in the whole process of growing vegetables from the seed to the table.
6. Cook with them
The more kids are involved in the cooking process, the more willing they are to try their creations. Making sure that your kid is eating healthy is important for their growth and development. There are a number of ways for you to let your kids eat vegetables, sometimes you just have to outsmart them. You can also find recipes online of foods with vegetables that your kids may not be able to notice. For more inquiries about your kid’s health and nutrition, visit online doctor Vancouver. In this site, you can also book an online appointment for a more convenient medical examination and checkup.