health and wellbeing
Aussie kids are fed, but are they nourished?
words by
lee teusner // go vita tanunda
Ensuring your child gets the right nutrients is hard, especially if they’re a picky eater. Try these tips from Go Vita’s Naturopaths.
You’ve lovingly crafted the perfect, nourishing meal for your child, but they merely pick at it and nibble a bit before pushing it away, declaring, “I’m full.” Aaaahhh…. the dinnertime stand-off.
Children are prone to taste neophobia, the fear of trying new flavours.
Wary of yet another stand-off, parents may pander to their little neophobes, offering familiar bland foods like plain pasta, rice and bread that they know will at least be eaten.
Unfortunately, bland foods are typically rather bland on the nutrition front too, lacking the protein, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals that growing bodies and brains need.
Thus, munching on bread and plain pasta may leave a child feeling full, but it leaves their little body hungry for nourishment.
The benefits of healthy habits
Ensuring adequate nutrition for children is a battle a lot of parents feel like they’re losing.
Less than 1% of Australian children aged two to three years consume the recommended serves of vegetables.
Only 78% eat enough fruit; while four to eight-year-olds eat just one-third and two-thirds of their vegetable and fruit requirements, respectively.
The benefits of adequate childhood nutrition will have on wellbeing throughout life cannot be underestimated.
Apart from their substantial vitamin and mineral content, fruits and vegetables provide valuable phytochemicals and antioxidants.
These substances reduce inflammation and oxidative stress while improving immune function and bone strength.
Healthy habits instilled during childhood have been shown to persist into adolescence and adulthood, reducing the risk of diseases including obesity, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis
and dementia.
The good news is that Go Vita can give parents a secret weapon to help win the battle and ensure when children eat, they are nourished.
Yummy and nutrient-dense wholefood greens providing the antioxidant equivalent of six serves of fruit and vegetables per one single serve and our brain boosting chocolate formulation developed to support your pint-sized prodigy’s neurological function are nutritional insurance for parents of picky eaters.
Top Tips
- Try these easy ideas to sneak more nourishment into your children:
- Put a fruit bowl where children
can see and reach it. - Fortify juice, smoothies and milk with wholefood supplements; sprinkle them onto yoghurt and cereal, too.
- Store carrot and celery sticks in easily accessible containers in the fridge.
- Chop soft fruits into fun shapes with cookie cutters.
- Hide vegetables in food, such as carrot and zucchini in bolognaise sauce
- Lead by example – replace ‘sometimes’ food with healthier alternatives
Hidden Greens Breakfast Balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup (110g) rolled oats
- 1 cup (150g) frozen blueberries
- 1 tbsp peanut or almond butter (or coconut butter for nut-free schools)
- 1/3 cup (25g) desiccated coconut, plus extra for coating
- 2 serves (12g) Morlife Greens Kidz powder (available at Go Vita)
Method
- Place oats, blueberries, Greens Kidz powder and nut butter in a food processor and blitz to form a thick paste. Stir through the coconut.
- Form mixture into balls and roll in the extra coconut.
- Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to three days.
