Eat the rainbow! Hey, we know it's overused, but honestly, like the pyramid and the plate, if we did it, we would all be so much better off.
When people advise they eat two-three pieces of the same fruit each day, praise is well placed for eating two pieces of fruit consistently each day. Of course, that is better than how many Australians are faring on the fruit intake front.
But variety is equally as important.
According to the last national stats from 2017-2018, only 51 per cent of adults are eating enough each day and 7.5 per cent are getting their vegetables serves. Children do much better on fruit in volume with 73 per cent hitting targets, but only 6 per cent on vegetables*.
These national surveys however don't take into consideration variety, they only look at volume.
Benefits of variety
It's easy to get into a routine on the shopping run, buying our ‘Safe foods’ that we know will get eaten with no fuss. However limiting food variety each day is not helpful to your palate, your exposure to nutrition generally and quite specifically to your gut health – which is essentially your immune system among many things.
Fruits and vegetables on their own, provide daily vitamins that wash through our bodies, hence why they are needed daily. Minerals, hydration, fibre, antioxidants, and polyphenols (which have antioxidant properties), which help reduce risks in cancers, heart disease and diabetes; along with carbohydrates for energy, are some of many additional benefits.
But not all foods are equal, and having too much of the same thing is never going to be good for you. Having a variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet provides a higher possibility of getting all you nutritionally need from these foods over the day, week and month.
Variety is key
Getting variety into our children’s day can undoubtedly be tricky for some. Our kids can quickly develop preferences. But persistence is so important to ensure that they are open to food variety later in life. Studies have shown that babies who are first weaned on a large variety of foods including vegetables in the first 15 days of weaning are more likely to have a wider variety of foods later on in life.
Increasing variety is about repeated exposures** with magical repeated exposures being 8-10 times with a few days between repeating those exposures of previously rejected foods. Studies are also showing that the gut needs around 30 different plants each week to get a healthy balance of helpful microbiota, helping all facets of your overall wellbeing including weight management, immunity, gut/brain interactions and really importantly, being able to regularly go to the loo!
But ‘plants’ is broadly herbs, nuts, fruit and vegetables, beans and lentils. 30 per week is a helpful goal and reminds you how big of a part plants play in our body health and longevity. With up to 50 per cent of adults experiencing gut issues, we need to think more about helping our microbiota in our daily lives.
What is a serve?
The two fruit and five vegetables recommendation has different portion sizes for children, but it basically follows the ‘what can you fit in the palm of your hand at your age and size’ theory for a serve.
Image, Tanya Nagy: Our 3 kids prepared the platter in these images and honestly, I was so surprised at the reactions. “That was more fun than I thought it would be” they loved it and also ate it all within the day! With some adult help.
Things can get better
There are plenty of ways to encourage your child to eat more fruit and vegetables and the most obvious place to start is positive role modelling and exposure. How are you going with your intake of fruits and vegetables?
Others ways to increase their exposure and likelihood of trying and eating include:
- Giving them a choice over which fruit and vegetable to have, ensuring they have the required amount each day and they have variety.
- Involve them in meal planning and meal or snack preparation, such as having them wash the fruits and vegetables.
- Avoid negative emotions around eating and mealtimes – as anxiety associations may reduce the likelihood of a child wanting to eat.
- Eat together as much as possible.
- Prepare fruit and vegetable platters together.
You will find more tips and tricks are available on the Better Health Channel.
The increased cost of healthy food
There is no doubt that being healthier is getting harder with the fluctuating and increased costs of food. Buying in season fruits and vegetables will certainly help combat this. So when your child asks for something out of season, it's ok to say no and give them an in season replacement option. Kids need to learn that not all food is available all the time or always able to be fit into the family budget.
But even frozen vegetables, tinned fruits without the sugar syrups, tinned vegetables like tomatoes and dried fruit options remembering serving sizes, are more than fine to include in your daily fruit and vegetables intake. Fresh is best if you can, washed and skin on where it's edible, but frozen, tinned and dried are great alternatives. Fruit juice however is not necessary, so keep that in mind.
If you have any concerns over your child’s intake, be sure to speak to your GP.
*National Health Survey: First results, 2017-18 financial year | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au)
** Effects of repeated exposure on acceptance of initially disliked vegetables in 7-month old infants - ScienceDirect
This article was written by Tanya Nagy, founder of Bite Nutrition.
Care for Kids is excited to invite Tanya to our panel of experts, sharing recipes, up-to-date information and her extensive knowledge around all things parenting, nutrition and keeping us creating beautiful food with minimal fuss!
For more information on Tanya and Bite Nutrition you can head to the website, and follow their Instagram and Facebook.
