Are you struggling to get your kids to eat more vegetables, especially with a vegan or plant-based diet?
It can feel like an uphill battle when your little ones push away the healthiest parts of their meals.
But what if I told you that you might be worrying too much about how many veggies they eat?
In this week’s podcast episode, I'm excited to share some enlightening insights and practical tips that will transform your approach to your kids' diet. Discover why vegan children might not need as many vegetables as you think, and learn how to seamlessly integrate nutritious veggies into their meals without the stress.
I'll explain the actual vegetable needs of vegan kids compared to omnivores, revealing why dinner might not be the best time for veggies and offering better alternatives throughout the day.
I'll also discuss how to make vegetables a natural part of every meal to reduce resistance and encourage acceptance. This approach helps children view veggies as a normal, unremarkable part of eating, which can significantly ease mealtime battles.
Ready to ease your mealtime battles and ensure your children are nourished and happy?
Listen in!
WithExtraVeg,
Gen
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Website: withextraveg.net
IG: @withextraveg
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Hi there, it's Gen and welcome to this week's podcast episode. This week, I'm going to be telling you my top three tips on how to get your kids to eat more veggies. Now before we start, I wanted to talk to you quickly about my brand new Super Boosted Snacks Recipe book that is coming out. It's going to be out in the next couple of weeks, I will have a firm date at the end of this week, because I'm just putting the last bits together and then I'll be setting it up for presale for a few weeks, which will be great. And we're looking at a launch by June. So that's going to be really great. The rest of the book is basically full of really nutritious snacks that I've put together, their recipes that your kids will really love.
But as a nutritionist, I have developed them so that they're really high in iron and zinc and calcium and protein as well. That one kind of goes without thing and they're really great recipes. There's going to be some recipes that have got lots of veggies in them, which will be really helpful for what we talk about today, recipes with beans as well. Yes, so they're going to be great and all the recipes have been tested by lots of kids who have all absolutely loved them. So I know that they're going to be recipes that your kids will love to eat. And they're going to be full of all the nutrition that they need.
You can sign up for the waitlist down below in the show notes. And I will have some firm dates for that of this week. So that is really exciting. All right, so let's talk about how to get your kids to eat more veggies. So, the first tip that I want to give you is reverse psychology one bit unexpected, I guess. The first thing is that, I want you to know that if you're a parent of a vegan child, or plant based child, your child doesn't actually need as many vegetables as omnivore kids do. Now, I know that that might seem a little bit unusual, because we're always trying to focus on getting kids to have more vegetables and adults. And everywhere you look when you follow anyone who's health focused. They tend to be focusing a lot on vegetables. But your vegan kids as I said, they don't actually need as many vegetables as honorable kids.
So, your kids vegan kids do need vegetables for some vitamins. So our kids can only get Vitamin C, Vitamin A, and Vitamin K from vegetables. You can get vitamin C from fruits as well. But vitamin A and vitamin K do need to come from vegetables. So, vegan kids do need to be having vegetables for those vitamins. But the other nutrients that come from vegetables actually come also in all of the other food that we eat as vegans. So some of the other nutrients are things like magnesium, which comes from fruits and vegetables, but it also comes from grains, whole grains, and legumes as well.
And even nuts and seeds have a bit as well. So, we are already getting those nutrients from the other food that we're eating, rather than just needing it from vegetables, the other one fiber. So vegan food all plant based food contains fiber, even vegan cheese actually has some fiber in it. Whereas for omnivores, meat and dairy and eggs don't have any fiber and fiber is so important. It's one of the most important nutrients. And so again, your kids are actually going to be getting that from all different foods that they're eating.
Whereas for honourable kids, they need to be eating fruits and vegetables and grains and things in order to get fiber because quite a lot of their diet doesn't have any fiber at all. As I said, your kids don't need to be eating as many vegetables as omnivore kids do. So, I guess the first tip is really to relax a bit about around vegetables and don't feel like your kids are needing to be eating heaps. So Vitamin K comes from greens. Kale is an amazing source of Vitamin K, and it's actually so high that your kids don't actually need to be having it every day. A couple of times a week would be fine and they'd be getting enough vitamin K and then orange vegetables as well for vitamin A, that's in anything that's orange.
So, you do need to be focusing on making sure that your kids are having some greens and some orange vegetables each day. But they certainly don't need to be having the huge amounts that omnivore kids need to be having as well. Now, I do want to put one caveat in here is the vegetables aren't bad for kids, it's just that they don't need as many as you may think. And so I just want you to relax a bit because you'll find that your kids don't need to be having five servings of vegetables a day. They need probably a serve of greens, and then one to two serves of orange vegetables as well. We'll give them the nutrients that they need. And then they will be using other foods that they're eating in their diet in order to pick up the other nutrients as well.
Alright, so number two, now this is a really big one. We often tend to focus on dinner for the meal where our kids get all of their vegetables. And my number two tip is, don't leave it until dinner for your kids to eat their veggies. And dinner is actually the hardest meal of the day because kids are really tired by then. And they've had a whole day of having to have self control and doing what they're told and everything. And we only have a limited amount of self control, before we run out. And so our kids really have a tough time with dinner.
And then if we're sitting there and trying to get them to eat their veggies at dinner, well then we're giving them a difficult food at the meal that they have the most trouble with. So, really try to use the other meals during the day to give your kids their veggies. And then that means that you're not having to rely just on dinner. The other thing with dinner also is that it's the last meal of the day. So, we definitely as parents can sit there and feel like if our kids haven't eaten the veggies all day, and then they're not eating their veggies at dinner.
Well, that's the whole day that they're not having their veggies. And so that can really add extra stress on to us as parents as well, which will make us try to make our kids kind of eat their veggies. Which just increases the stress levels in general around dinner, and just makes it harder and more unpleasant overall. And then you have also the flow on effects of if you have a stressful dinner, then kids are actually going to be stressed out and they might not sleep very well either. And then you kind of get into this really bad cycle where kids aren't sleeping very well. And then because they're tired, they're less likely to eat. So then they'll eat less the next day, and then they weren't so well and then it just continues.
So yeah, we really do need to stop using dinner for trying to get our kids to kind of eat all the veggies that they need. So yeah, tip number two, don't focus on dinner for veggies. All right, ad now my final tip, which kind of ties in with number two, is to just make vegetables part of all your meals. And just make them a totally normal thing that's around. Now, one thing that happens a lot is we put a lot of focus on vegetables, which then makes them something significant to our kids. And then they will be then weary of them or it demonizes them a bit as well. I know, it's really annoying. You see a lot on TV and in literature and stuff where it really focuses on kids eating vegetables.
And then I can't remember, my eight year old has a book where I think it's spinach or something. And it's it goes on a lot about how gris finishes. And I think that's not very helpful, really, because you're giving the child this idea without them even getting to decide themselves whether they like spinach or not. But yeah, so we tend to really focus on vegetables, which does make it more negative. And it makes our kids feel like there is something significant about them, and something that they maybe need to worry about and stuff. So instead just make vegetables part of everything. They're not a significant thing, they're just something you eat. So some really good ways of doing that.
Just put vegetables into every meal, and don't make a fuss about it. Don't make your kids eat them. Just have them there. And then your kids are going to get used to the idea of vegetables over time and they'll just be something that they eat. So some things that I do we often have spinach and sweet potato in smoothies for breakfast. I have a great smoothie in the recipe book which has got spinach and sweet potato in it. And so if you're trying has that, that's basically their vegetable needs for the day. I mean, if they're younger, older kids need a bit more.
Yes, just start the day and kids will often be a lot happier in the morning and more willing to try new things. Also, putting vegetables into snacks as well is great. Snacks are such a great tool. And I have quite a few snacks in the recipe book that do have vegetables in them. And then that works in two ways. One, it means that your kids just get used to the idea of vegetables. And it also means that they actually eat the vegetables, because they're within snacks that they like. So there's things like sweet potato muffins in there. As I said, there's smoothies with spinach in them.
There's also some ice cream ice blocks that have got spinach as well. So yeah, so really just try to make vegetables just an ordinary, not special sort of part of their day, so that your kids then get used to them more. So yeah as I said, first off, don't feel like your kids have to be eating a huge amount of vegetables. Vegan kids don't need to be eating anywhere near as much vegetables as omnivore kids, because they're getting the nutrients that omnivore kids need to get from vegetables from other foods. Don't rely on dinner to get your kids to eat veggies, it is not a good meal.
Lunchtime and after school snacks. After school is the best time to try to get your kids to eat veggies and stuff because they tend to be really hungry then. And so they're far more willing to eat snacks, eat veggies then than they are at dinner. And finally, just make vegetables a normal part of all meals and just look at ways of incorporating vegetables into everything that you have. So that your kids just get used to them and they stopped being a thing. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed that, and I would love to hear how these tips go for you. And don't forget my recipe book will be out next week and sign up for the waitlist down below so you can get all the information about it. I'll talk to you again next week.
