Table of contents:
- The benefits of eating vegetables and fruit for babies and children
- 1. Maintain healthy digestion of children
- 2. Increase nutritional intake
- 3. Reducing the risk of obesity
- 4. Support your little one's achievements in school
- 5. Tips for adding fruit and vegetables to your child's diet
Adequate fiber intake from an early age is one of the important factors to support the child's growth and development process. So, getting high-fiber foods for babies or children is not really difficult. You can start giving your baby or child fruits and vegetables if they can eat soft foods or handle solid foods. What are the benefits?
The benefits of eating vegetables and fruit for babies and children
Various kinds of nutrients in fruits and vegetables are needed for the growth and development of babies and children until they grow up.
1. Maintain healthy digestion of children
The digestive system plays an important role in the body of a child or baby. With a healthy digestive system, nutrients will be absorbed optimally to support their growth and development.
To maintain the health of the child's digestive system, mothers need to provide high-fiber foods such as vegetables and fruit. Mothers can also help meet your little one's daily fiber intake by giving them high-fiber milk for children.
With daily fiber consumption according to children's needs, of course it can support the health of their stomach. When a child's digestion is healthy, he can become more active, cheerful, and able to socialize with the surrounding environment.
2. Increase nutritional intake
Vegetables and fruit are rich in various vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other important nutrients to meet the nutritional needs of a baby or child.
For example, strawberries are rich in vitamin C to boost the immune system, carrots are rich in vitamin A to maintain eye health, and spinach is high in iron to prevent anemia. Meanwhile, apples contain 16 kinds of polyphenol antioxidants which are good for overall health.
In essence, eating colorful fruits and vegetables is beneficial for keeping your baby or child healthy and fit every day.
3. Reducing the risk of obesity
Start getting used to giving children healthy snacks in the form of fresh fruit and vegetables rather than sugary foods or "junk food"To avoid it from the risk of obesity or overweight.
Overweight children have the potential to experience type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, respiratory problems, depression and various other chronic diseases in adulthood.
Fruits and vegetables are rich in filling fiber, but low in fat and calories, so they are safe to snack on for babies or children every day.
4. Support your little one's achievements in school
The adoption of a healthy diet since childhood, including consuming lots of fruits and vegetables, can help children perform better in school later.
In fact, research published in the Journal of School Health also supports this theory. The study found that children who ate less vegetables and fruit tended to score worse academically than children who were used to eating fibrous foods every day.
Children who regularly eat fibrous foods have a 41% lower risk of having difficulty reading, compared to other children.
Indeed, there are many other factors that can affect children's performance in school. However, the fulfillment of nutritional intake is the most important to ensure better children's performance.
5. Tips for adding fruit and vegetables to your child's diet
In order for your baby or child to stay healthy and fit, you need to provide a balanced nutritious diet with fruits and vegetables every day. Relax, there are many, really, interesting ways to make a baby or child want to eat high-fiber foods such as fresh vegetables and fruits.
Here are some easy and interesting ways to apply at home:
- Give chopped banana, watermelon, strawberries, corn on the cob, or boiled broccoli as a snack
- Add chopped fruit or vegetables to the puree of the baby or child
- Make a smoothie with frozen fruit
- Try the vegetable kebab menu for a child's dinner
- Add chopped mushrooms, olives, or carrots in the omelette
Remember that eating fresh fruit is still better than juiced fruit. The reason is, the fiber in fruit is generally lost when juiced and the juice itself can sometimes be added up to 6 teaspoons of sugar as a sweetener.
What about dried fruit? Dried fruits like apricots, apple chips, or spinach chips are still rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber. However, dried fruit also contains a lot of sugar and can cause tooth decay. The sugar contained in dried fruit is often sticky and sticks to the teeth of the child.
If you want to snack on dried fruit and vegetables for your baby or child, give them small portions and make sure they drink a glass of water afterward.
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