Child diet
At Oricieza frutas we think about people and about our consumers. And there are small consumers that need to grow strong and healthy by eating fruits and vegetables.
If an adult need to eat fruits and vegetables, it is even more important for a child. Fruits and vegetables should be present in your diet. In fact, some awareness campaigns as "5 a day" reminds us the number of fruits recommended.
But still, in the child diet, dads and moms may still have doubts. Here we will try to resolve the most commons.
5 a day of fruits or vegetables or both?
From the five recommended portions of these products, two may be vegetables and three fruits, of which the advice is that at least one should be a citrus fruit (orange) and the others any fruit of the season (banana, apple, grapes, fig, peach, melon, etc..).
From the two portions of vegetables one should be taken raw in salads (tomato, cucumber, onion, radish, endive, lettuce, carrots, etc.) and the others cooked as main meal or as a garnish for meat, fish or eggs (we suggest green beans, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, eggplant, artichokes).
Vegetables, where to begin?
Even if vegetables are low calorie, their introduction into the child diet is very important, because they provide fibbers, vitamins and minerals essentials for proper growth of the baby.
When the baby starts eating vegetables, we recommend starting with potato and carrot, continuing with green beans, onions, courgette, squash and tomatoes. Then you can gradually add other vegetables, except spinach and chard, which should only be inserted after the first year of life, due to possible high nitrate content. It is also advisable to avoid, in the first year of life, vegetables which may cause wind, such as cabbage (cauliflower, etc..).
How to eat fruits and vegetables easily?
Many times, children are reluctant to eat fruits and vegetables, so we have to make it fun and easy. Fruit juices may substitute whole fruits sometimes. In those times we sacrifice pulp containing fibber, but that way the child begin to get used to the great taste of the fruits. Also, if fruit juices are natural and non-industrialized, the other properties of the fruit, vitamins and antioxidants, will be a great contribution to the child's diet.
Cooked fruits (apple roasted, stewed) may be an alternative to the whole fruits. It will require a little more preparation time, but is a good alternative to consume.
In the case of vegetables, eating must become something fun for the children to want to consume. A trick can be incorporate vegetables for example in pizzas. Or use the vegetables to thicken soups and add more flavour.
Making sandwiches with colourful vegetables or even play with the vegetables creating fun shapes, like cubes of tomato, eggplant triangles, imagination!... Have fun making your dishes and the children will have much more fun to eat vegetables!