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The Best Foods Your Kids Aren’t Eating
Emily Lynne Ion
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tara Parker-Pope of The New York Times recently compiled a fantastic blog entitled “The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating”. It appeared on The Times’s list of most-viewed stories for 2008, confirming my belief that people, and especially parents, are hungry (pun intended) for tips to improve their daily nutrition.
Tara adapted a list by Dr. Jonny Bowden of top health foods. Some of his recommendations were a bit obscure and not readily available in grocery stores, so she modified and expanded them to make them more actionable. I decided to put my own Healthy Child spin on it, making Dr. Bowden’s suggestions more appealing to a child’s appetite.
BEETS
Beets are a rich source of folate and the natural red pigments may indicate potent antioxidants. Beets have acquired a negative reputation because of the pickled, slippery form often found in jars. But raw, peeled beets tossed into a salad or lightly cooked with a bit of onion, olive oil and fresh herbs are surprisingly sweet. The color may even trick kids into thinking they’re not eating vegetables! Don’t forget the leaves and stems – they’re packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
Getting Your Kids to Love It: Try this recipe for Beet Hummus from Serious Eats for a colorful and healthy after-school snack.
CABBAGE
A staple in European and Asian diets, cabbage is loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to fight free-radicals and boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
Getting Your Kids to Love it: Replace lettuce on your child’s cheese, veggie, or salmon burger with cabbage for a crunchy, healthy alternative.
SWISS CHARD
Swiss Chard is a Mediterranean vegetable with a salty, bitter taste. A member of the leafy green family, Swiss Chard is packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes. How to get your children to eat a slightly bitter, dark green super-food? Better make it invisible.
Getting Your Kids to Love It: Health counselor Melissa Rosen suggests adding a few leaves of Swiss Chard to a smoothie, the green taste cleverly hidden by nature’s sweeteners. Blend up strawberries, a banana, rice or soy milk with some hidden Swiss Chard.
CINNAMON
Cinnamon helps control blood sugar because of its spicy active ingredients, which increases your cells ability to metabolize sugar by up to 20 times.
Getting Your Kids to Love It: Sprinkle cinnamon on oatmeal, hot chocolate or chai tea.
POMEGRANATE JUICE
Though now touted as a super-food, pomegranate juice has only recently become widely available in the US. A staple of Middle Eastern diets for decades, pomegranate juice is said to lower blood pressure and increase blood flow to the heart.
Getting Your Kids to Love It: Easy! Pomegranate juice is naturally sweet, with a wonderful flavor. Make sure to avoid synthetic sweeteners or preservatives. The pure juice itself is quite expensive, so add a bit of water or combine with another juice to make it last longer.
PUMPKIN
Pumpkin has a hearty taste that reminds kids of a certain fun-filled holiday. The seeds are the most nutritious part because they are packed with magnesium. But the rest of the vegetable is low calorie but very high in fiber and Vitamin A.
Getting Your Kids to Love It: Celebrate Halloween year round by roasting the seeds as a snack, sprinkled on salad, or made into a yummy salad dressing. Heat up the rest of the pumpkin with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg for a warm afternoon snack.
FROZEN BLUEBERRIES
Blueberries are packed with nutrients like protein, complex carbs, fiber, folate, antioxidants, vitamins, and more. They’re great for your body and very good for your brain as well. Frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil.
Getting Your Kids to Love It: There are so many ways! Blend them with organic yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkle with crushed almonds Janelle recently suggested making blueberry yogurt popsicles by blending blueberries, yogurt, and a touch of agave nectar or maple syrup.
Send us your feedback on how your kids take to these foods. What are their favorite recipes? What works and what didn’t?
Posted by Acai on 08/13/2009 at 10:56 AM
Really, I would definitely add the acai berry to the mix. It’s natural, and it’s good, too. I find that little kids like anything that’s fruity really. Try a mix of pomegranate, blueberry, and acai. You’ve got a definite winner there!
Posted by Acai on 05/25/2009 at 02:27 PM
Yep, fruits and veggies are a prime source of vitamins and antioxidants, which are important for our children’s growth.
Posted by Acai Berry Diet on 05/16/2009 at 08:59 AM
Speaking of superfoods, I would definitely add the acai berry to the mix. It’s natural, and it’s good, too. I find that little kids like anything that’s fruity really. Try a mix of pomegranate, blueberry, and acai. You’ve got a definite winner there!
Posted by Beth Nateghi on 04/20/2009 at 11:07 AM
I just read this article as I am a couple months behind on emails, but thanks for some great suggestions. My 4 year old and 1 year old LOVE frozen blueberries and eat them plain right out of the package. Both my kids liked beets as babies and my 1-year-old still does, but I am trying to reintroduce to my 4 year old.
Posted by Jaimelee on 04/16/2009 at 05:41 AM
My kiddo, and hubby for that matter, like raw beets that have been coated with balsamic vinegar. Just peel a raw beet cut into matchsticks or finger food sizes depending on the fingers and sprinkle with the vinegar. Make sure to completely coat. I add this top salads or just side snacks to sandwiches or crackers and cheese.
Posted by Caroline on 04/03/2009 at 10:59 AM
Wow! These are such great ideas for new foods. Often times, I will see these at the store and even I do not know what they are, how they taste or how to cook them for Pete’s Sake! I never want to spend the money on a new item in case our two children do not like them and then it becomes wasted money. Our four year old has had severe food allergies and Eczema for his whole life (up until recently! yay!) He has really “healed” and for someone who could only eat chicken, peas, and rice for months and months, he is now able to find pleasure in a “normal” diet thanks to God and this awesome kids probiotic he LOVES. So we really had to learn a different approach with basically just fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Now he is able to eat most anything and looks and feels great…as does our whole family because of this “switch” on our diet. I am really learning as I go here with more veggies and less meats etc…..so thanks again for helping those of us who are beginning on this journey and making sense of all the choices and varieties :)
P.S. Sometimes I make popsicles with orange juice instead of the “corn syrup” varieties. BLAH.
Posted by Sandra on 03/04/2009 at 06:26 PM
Adding steam pumpkin to brown rice works great for my 2 year old. He also love having blueberries in pancakes and waffles.
Posted by Annie's Organic Baby Blog on 02/24/2009 at 03:31 AM
My three year old son loves cabbage! I use red cabbage to make natural food coloring… by adding a pinch of baking soda and cabbage juice to icing sugar you can make blue icing the same color as Thomas the Tank Engine! You can make it red by adding a pinch of citric acid. It only tastes faintly like cabbage ;-)
Posted by Jenni at My Web of Life on 02/22/2009 at 07:05 AM
Great post! I’m going to have to give beets a second try. Like you say, I always associate beets with the pickled red variety that come out of a can. That was what I was given as a child and it turned me right against them. Hopefully I can keep my children from following in my footsteps. They already like hummus…
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Posted by Acai Berry on 09/04/2009 at 01:43 PM
Just peel a raw beet, cut into matchsticks or finger food sizes depending on the fingers and sprinkle with the vinegar. Make sure to completely coat. I add this atop salads, or just as side snacks to sandwiches or crackers and cheese.