by Carissa Leventis-Cox
Tip #1: Model Healthy Nutrition
Recently in Florida, our son helped Daddy choose exotic fruits to try.
The premise behind this tip is that if children are accustomed to watching their own parents eating and truly enjoying fresh fruits and vegetables, they will be more open to eating the same foods.
Being pretty much a raw vegan, I had thought that I was a great model on eating fruits and veggies. But while my son loves all kinds of fruit and his ‘Tastes Just Like Honey’ Pooh Bear Green Smoothie, eating salads has not been popular for the past 6 months. What I discovered the other day changed all that: my son ‘caught’ me truly enjoying my salad. And now Kale Salad is one of his fave foods.
Tip #2: Place Healthy Foods at Child’s Eye Level and Within Their Reach
The premise behind this tip is that children will gravitate towards the food that are at their eye level and within their grasp.
Son’s Dedicated Fridge Level: raw almond butter, green smoothie, raw yoghurt, dehydrated buckwheat cereal, flax seed crackers and kale chips, raw salted eggs, nuts and dried fruits
1. dedicate one level of the fridge to your child’s fave healthy foods (cut fruit or veggies, raw almond butter, dried fruits, nuts and seeds, dips, snack items)
2. dedicate one level of the pantry to your child’s fave healthy foods (honey, raw chips, raw cookies, dehydrated snacks)
3. make cut fresh fruit, cut vegetables, green smoothies and raw milk available at all times (we use our stainless steel lunch box and thermos with a straw)
4. keep fresh produce on the counter at all times
Tip #3: Promote Fruits and Veggies Using Favorite Characters or People
Yoda, Aunt Beru, Luke Skywalker, Michael Jackson
The premise behind this tip is that children will be inspired to eat what their favorite characters or personalities eat.
Our son loves:
1. Star Wars
2. Michael Jackson’s music
3. Winnie the Pooh.
How do we incorporate these three favorites with food?
1. Star Wars:
– We talk about Aunt Beru’s Kitchen being full of vegetables and that she uses her blender to serve Luke and Uncle Owen yummy Green Smoothies.
– We research the foods Yoda eats on Dagobah: berries, mushrooms, seeds…
– We create stories about other characters, for example the Jawas must eat carrots because they have amazing night vision.
2. Michael Jackson:
This was easy because Michael Jackson was a vegetarian. We found a story on Huffington Post about Michael Jackson being a regular at a vegetarian restaurant called The Golden Temple. He met a couple there and was very interested in the woman’s vegetarian pregnancy and her baby.
3. Winnie the Pooh:
Pooh Bear loves honey!!! Our fave breakfasts and snacks include raw honey (banana with honey, raw yoghurt with honey, raw oatmeal with honey…). And we discovered a Green Smoothie our son loves because It Takes Like Honey… thus we have renamed it Pooh Bear’s Smoothie.
Tip #4: Use Positive Imagery Associated With Eating Healthy Food
The premise behind this tip is that children will associate positive emotions, positive physical attributes and positive social relations with healthy food.
We know that the big companies are showing emotional, social or health benefits for kids who eat their unhealthy products. They use children’s insecurities in order to entice them to buy their foods with commercials showing:
– someone loves you more by buying ‘x’ for you
– someone is very popular for eating ‘y’, or
– someone is more physically fit for eating ‘z’.
As parents, we can counteract this heavy marketing ploy by using positive imagery in our homes. We can place the following in prominent areas of the kitchen:
1. photos of happy and loving families eating fresh produce together
2. photos of friends enjoying fresh fruit, fresh veggies and green smoothies together
3. photos of physically fit people eating fresh produce
4. a list of child’s fave fruits and vegetables with picture cut-outs of foods
5. photos of fave characters and personalities who love fruits and veggies.
Tip #5:Watch Helpful Shows On Fruits and Veggies
The premise behind this tip is that children are greatly influenced by what they watch. Here are some favourites:
Edu-Tainment:
Grocery Store Wars – a long time fave showing the on-going fight between Organic and Conventional Produce, this short video is not only for Star Wars fans.
Kids Prepare and Eat Kale Salad – maybe inspire your kids to make their own and eat it too
Music TV:
For young kids: ‘2 Fruits, 5 Veggies‘ song with dance movements kids can follow along
For older kids, a fun ‘rap’ song on Raw Foods by Sergei Buotenko of The Raw Family
Talks:
An 11 year old homeschooled boy tackles Organic Food and Farming on TED
Miscellaneous:
The Raw Family site has a lot of great videos too
The Raw Food Media has a few videos with raw food kids
Videos for older kids and adults:
The Cove on toxins in fish
Blue Vinyl on toxins in animal products
Food Matters and yes it does!
Food Inc on conventional and organic farming practices
And don’t forget, all this works for husbands as well as the kids! For more ideas, take a look at How To Transition The Family into More Raw Foods.