Do you have to nag your children to eat fruit and veg?

[ThirtyAll]

Well I try not to ‘nag’ as in go on and on about it but my teen dc avoids eating any fruit or veg at all except perhaps peas. They won’t take anything from the fruit bowl or if I put out fruit for dessert eg strawberries they will have one and then waste the rest.

They have known about healthy eating and 5-a-day since primary school but it’s meaningless. I try to reinforce how important it is but it makes no difference. I have tried not mentioning it. I have tried having no snacks in the house like crisps or biscuits so they have to have fruit. They still won’t have it. I put veg they supposedly like with their dinner. Then I find it in the recycling bin.

They are the kind of person who picks up every bug going and they have had lots of antibiotics in the last few years so they are not in the best of health. They are also barely active at all.

I don’t know what to do for the best as nagging doesn’t help and neither does ignoring it. They still have a rubbish diet! Anyone in the same boat or any ideas what would help?!

Leave them to it. I was a bit like this (eating wise at least) as a child but as an adult eat most things - you won’t win by trying to force it.

My older one needs his fruit and veg or he gets bunged up so he’s actually very good at having plenty. He has fruit with brekky, some salad veg with lunch and veg with dinner.
My younger one is more of a veg dodger although he likes a lot of fruit. He just eats the veg first to “get it out of the way” and then has the rest of his meal.
I’ve always stressed the reason for different fruit and veg and maybe it’s sunk in a bit? But it’s probably just luck really.

It can be frustrating but I've tried to make veg in a variety of ways to see what works - and also because I used to hate veg that was boiled/tasteless or not part of the rest of the meal.

I do a normal beef curry with veg diced, roasted and put in the curry at the last minute. Meaning lots of texture and flavour. Usually with legumes too - as they are one of the healthiest things you can eat.

Or sweet pickling veg to put in burgers or in wraps and pancakes.

I listened to an interesting documentary about Blue Zones (areas with great diets where people generally live much longer). The reason they tend to eat much more veg is because they know how to make it taste nice - seasoning it, cooking it correctly.. something which I had always failed to do.

Fruit - isn't as important if you're eating enough veg.

No. My kids always loved their vegetables and fruit. Of course they had preferences and that's what I gave them, though they liked most.
I gave them a varied diet from the off, very rarely did the 'nuggets and chips'. My assumption was they would like to eat what we (parents) did, and more often than not that was true.

Dd11 is constantly asking me for veg. I keep frozen cauliflower and broccoli so she can have it when she requests. Obviously I buy fresh 3/4 a week but sometimes we have hidden veg in like pasta etc and she still wants it on the side. She prefers veg to fruit however eats fruit everyday I don’t nag ds16, he literally eats whatever I give him, you ask him what he wants and he just says I don’t care I just want food.

I think it really helps if you regularly serve meals made of veg rather than with a side of veg. Things like veg curries, casseroles, vegetable chilli, vegetable lasagne, stuffed peppers, stir fries, shakshuka etc it's then harder to just leave the side.

Tough but you must preserve, you can’t just give up as PP suggested because this is an essential food group. Why are they ‘barely active’?