Rainbow foods and kiddos.

I have kids that love fruits and vegetables. They love them so much that they actually beg for them over things like donuts and treats quite frequently. If you ask them what they want for dessert, they're equally as likely to say "STRAWBERRIES!" as they are to say "ICE CREAM!" When they choose their lunches, they will equally pick bell peppers as they will pick crackers. Actually, they pick bell peppers more often than crackers.

In our home, we make a sincere attempt to daily eat at least one rainbow meal. A rainbow meal is a meal that incorporates every color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue/purple) on the plate.

I have had several people ask me how I get my children to eat healthy foods with such ease. I've had so many ask that I thought I'd write this little entry about what we do specifically. So here goes!

1. My children help me grocery shop. They come with me in the produce aisle of the store and they get to help pick out foods. Not just foods I've pre selected. They actually get to choose their own fruits and vegetables. I pay close attention to this and I try to incorporate those tastes which they naturally are drawn to (savory vs sweet) into their diets. 
2. I only make one meal and they all have to eat it. However, I try to use sensitivity to personal tastes. For example, I put sugar snap peas in the kids' lunch today. Lolli (my oldest) doesn't like them, but she loves bell peppers. So I bumped up her bell peppers, and gave her a little less sugar snap peas. Then she doesn't feel forced to eat an incredible amount of food she doesn't enjoy, but she's still exposed to the different taste. 
3. They participate in the making of lunch. For lunch, I'll say "What should we eat that's red?" Then they'll all chime in with their ideas: "Tomatoes! Strawberries! Radishes! Apples!" I usually go with whichever item more of them suggest, but sometimes it's just whatever I have most of as well. Then I'll ask about orange, and yellow and so on so forth, until all of the colors are represented. I have found that them having this say in what goes on their plates makes them so much more excited about eating them. They all eat the fruits and veggies that they don't even like that much, just because they had a say.
4. We talk A LOT about colors. Why do we want something green? What's in Spinach? Why do we want to try to eat spinach? Why is our entire plate almost all bright colors, and there's only a very small amount of brown (pretzels, crackers, etc)? You could make a plate of white bread and saltines and place it next to a rainbow plate of food and talk about which one looks more pretty. Which one is more appealing? 
5. I make a conscious effort to try foods I have never tried before. That means when one of my children pick out some vegetable that I've never heard of, and I can't really figure out exactly what it is, we all taste it and try it and enjoy it. So much of eating is the excitement of trying new things. How can I tell them they have to try something new if I'm unwilling to do so?
6. Make it a positive experience. If one of my kids wants celery and everyone else really doesn't want celery, try to talk about it in a positive way. Sometimes that translates to: "Guys. Charchee really wants celery today, so do you think we could eat celery instead of spinach just for today? We can have spinach tomorrow!" and sometimes that translates to: "Charchee. I only have one stalk of celery. How about we chop it up so everyone can have a little bit and put it with our spinach?"

So that's about it. I have found that when the kids don't have rainbow foods, it changes their behavior. They are grumpy and cry a lot. The healthier their diets, the healthier their brains, and the healthier my sanity is. :)

Hope some of these tips help you. Do you have any tips you'd like to share?