Commercials and television programs have often reflected this universal question by making jokes about it, but most nutritionist isn’t laughing. Vegetables contain many necessary vitamins, including A, C, beta carotene, and trace elements. They also contain a great deal of fiber, which helps combat constipation and digestive disorders plus is low in calories, which helps with weight control.

So what is a parent to do when faced with a child who will devour anything as long as it did not grow in the ground?

The younger the child the easier it is to change an attitude, and this is especially true with nutrition. Contrary to how it may seem, children are not born disliking vegetables; it is a learned behavior. Somewhere, somehow, their instinctive taste for vegetables has been lost. What can be done to alter this behavior?

Start from Birth

The first step to a good nutrition begins with you child’s first foods. Try to delay giving your infant to solids until at least 3 to 6 months of age. When you do begin solid foods, make your own. Some brands of commercials baby foods add salt, sugar and other flavor enhancers, so right from the beginning a child is taught that a carrots are sweeter or corn is saltier than it really is. To become attuned to a vegetable’s natural taste instead of a processed one, a baby needs to know how it tastes in its natural state.

Set a Good Example

As in all things, don’t expect your children to do as you say, but as you do. It essential that you and your spouse set a good example for your child and eat all your vegetables too! Even if your son refuses to touch his lima beans, devour yours with gusto. For many children this is incentive enough at least to try a nibble. Be satisfied when your child tastes a vegetables—it can be the first step toward liking it.

Vegetables as a Main Dish

Most meals revolve around an entrée, with the vegetables served off to the side. When this is done regularly, children may get the indirect message that vegetables are not important.

Try serving vegetables first, before any other part of the meal, taking advantage of your child’s impatience to eat. Also try making the vegetable the main dish occasionally.

No Distraction, Please

When you want your child to eat broccoli, do not serve it at the same time as French fries. (Everyone knows what will get eaten and what won’t!) On the same note, don’t put out a plate of cookies or a cake for a dessert at the beginning of the meal. If there is dessert, don’t offer it until everything else is served—and eaten.

Some Attractively

Try to make your servings of vegetables of both varied and attractive. Look for different vegetables such as artichokes, or a real potential favorite—spaghetti squash. Make a big production out of serving them, displaying the same enthusiasm and excitement you would with any other exotic dish.

Many vegetables come in beautiful colors and can look very festive when served. Purple cabbage and red pepper, for example can add exceptional color and nutrition when sprinkled through green beans, peas, and other “boring” vegetables.

Keep Trying

If your child doesn’t like peas cooked, try serving them slightly frozen. Put asparagus in casserole. The name of the game is creativity without completely disguising the vegetable. After all, zucchini bread is not zucchini- it’s bread. You want to entice your children to eat vegetables; you do want to deceive them.

Finger Foods

Children are perpetually hungry and always looking for yet another snack. Young children are especially interested in foods that they can handle by themselves. Vegetables are perfect in this case. Keep a bowl of carrot and celery sticks, broccoli florets and cauliflower chunks available in the refrigerator for quick, easy snacks that even the littlest fingers can grab. Of course, don’t stock the same refrigerator with doughnuts, cupcakes, or other unhealthful snacks or the vegetables will likely go untouched. Having a variety of low fat vegetable dips or salad dressings can also increase the chance of your children enjoying these healthy treats.

Grocery Shopping

Take your child along with you to the grocery store, especially open air markets, where the temptation to buy other things is not strong. Children love being including of most adult activities, and shopping is no exception. Point out the vegetables, and then ask, “Of all these vegetables, which one would you like?” (Not “Do you want any of these vegetables?” It’s too easy to just say no!)

Teach your child how to recognize when a vegetables is a fresh and when it is about to spoil, then give them the responsibility for selecting certain ones each time you go to the store. Follow this up with a lesson on the different ways to prepare the vegetable, and then let your child cook and serve it in a mealtime.

Gardening

One of the best way to generate an interest in a vegetables and all growing things is to have your own garden. Children involved in planting, watering, watching and picking are apt to be more interested in the tasting also. You might let your child have a personal area of the garden for easy-growing vegetables like cherry, tomatoes or zucchini.

Forced Feeding

No matter what route you decide to follow in trying to persuade your children to eat vegetables, never forced them into eating anything. When your child enters their toddler years, they tend to become more stubborn and independent—even when it comes to what they eat. Many times their refusal to eat something has a little to nothing to do with the food but everything to do with their mood. Forcing a food can result in frustration and anger for both parent and child and cause the children to develop a negative attitude toward vegetables in general.

Be Persistent

Vegetables are essential for good nutrition in growing children, but sometimes even the most dedicated and ingenious parents cannot convince their offspring to partake of that food group. In that instance, the best course to follow is a combination of persistence and patience. Continue to offer and encourage without forcing. Try to fortify your child’s with diet with fruit since it contains many of the same nutrients and fibers as vegetables. Don’t be surprised if, over time, your child suddenly stars to eat some previously unloved food. Young children go through many phases of like and dislikes.

Keep up of all your good work. The day will come when the cauliflower goes into your child’s mouth and not into the wastebasket.

Lots of research has been done on fruit nutrition and all of it indicates that eating high quantities of fruits and vegetables as part of your daily diet is beneficial in reducing the risk of many types of diseases. The nutrients in fruits and vegetables have been shown to decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke, to prevent many types of cancer, and to help stop such eye health problems as macular degeneration and cataracts.

Among the many nutrients in fruit are potassium, vitamin C, dietary fiber, and folate. Potassium can help lower blood pressure, aid normal heart function, and stop fat from building up to clog arteries. Potassium is also linked to maintaining bone density and may even reduce the risk of acquiring kidney stones. Potassium-rich fruits include bananas, dried peaches and apricots, prunes and prune juice, orange juice, cantaloupe and honeydew melon.

The dietary fiber in fruit helps to maintain good bowel movement, reducing constipation and diverticulosis. It also plays an important role in reducing blood cholesterol levels and helping lower our risk of heart disease. These advantages are from whole and cut-up fruits–the same fiber content is not present in fruit juices. The most fiber content found in juice is in those containing a large amount of pulp.

Vitamin C is one of the most important vitamins for human health. It is essential for the health of body tissues, strengthening the immune system, having healthy gums and teeth, and it aids in the body’s healing of itself should we have wounds or cuts. Vitamin C is an antioxidant, and as such it can protect us at the cellular level from free radicals that can cause all types of cell damage. Research has even shown that vitamin C may help reduce the risk of heart disease and some forms of cancer. Vitamin C is present in such fruits as strawberries, blackberries, bananas, apples, kiwi, oranges, cantaloupe, watermelon, lemon, grapes, tomatoes, peaches, and lime.

Folate, or folic acid is another component of fruit–nutrition essentials gained from folate are the production of red blood cells. These are especially important to pregnant women as the fetus needs lots of folic acid during the first trimester as it reduces the chances of certain birth defects. These include tube defects–spina bifida, a spinal cord defect, and anencephaly, a defect where the fetus doesn‘t develop a brain and usually dies in the womb or shortly after birth. Folate is the word used when this vitamin is found in fruits, and folic acid is what it’s called in supplements. Fruits having folate include kiwi, cantaloupe, blackberries, oranges, tomatoes, bananas and strawberries.

Vitamin A is present in blackberries, tomatoes, oranges, cantaloupes, kiwi, watermelon, and peaches. We need vitamin A for several different purposes, including strengthening the immune system, cell reproduction, and aiding in the growth of some hormones. It also helps us have healthy skin, hair, and mucous membranes. Research shows vitamin A can help prevent acquiring measles.

Eating adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables is the number one thing you can do stay healthy. Everyone should eat a minimum of 2 cups of fruit and 2-½ cups of vegetables every day. The most fruit nutrition benefits are obtained from having at least 5 servings every day–5 to 9 servings is ideal. Fruits are low fat, contain fiber, essential vitamins and minerals, phytochemicals, and antioxidants. They also have fruitose, a natural sugar, which is better for the body than the processed white sugars found in so many popular foods. So, add as many fruits as you can to your diet and you will live longer and be healthier.