Here’s what you need to know about my family:

Just because I promote the veggies, encourage the veggies, and always provide the veggies doesn’t mean my kids always love or want to eat the veggies.

Can you relate?

It drives me a little bit crazy until I remember that when I was a kid about the only veggie I ate was canned green beans. I finally learned to like iceburg lettuce when I was in college. Somehow I survived until I learned to love many different kinds of veggies. I want better for my kids, and thankfully, they are getting way more veggies than I ever did, even if it isn’t always what I would consider “enough.”

Some tips I’ve learned through 19 years of trying to get enough veggies into my kids:

1. Provide them for every meal.

They can’t learn to eat them and love them if you don’t buy them and serve them.

2. Offer a variety.

I don’t love every single veggie in the world, so why would I expect my kids to? Not all of my boys like the same veggies, but they all like some. I try to serve more than one at each meal. That means that sometimes they’ll get more than one if they like everything I serve. But even if they don’t, they can at least choose the ones they like.

3. Sneak the spinach into (almost) everything.

You can’t even taste it. Check out this list of foods I tear spinach into while cooking.

4. Be a good example.

If the parents are whining about the veggies, so will the kids. Again, you don’t have to like them all, but you can be a great example to your kids when you take a nice portion of those you do love. I encourage you to try new ones every once in a while too. Our palates really do change through the years!

5. Relax.

I know we all want what’s best for our kids, so it can feel pretty awful if our kids hate vegetables and only want to eat gold fish crackers. Keep trying. Don’t nag. Don’t force. My kids have gone from eating very few veggies to loving many as they’ve gotten older.

By the way, after we had been on the road for so many days during our Christmas trip, ALL of my kids were begging for veggies and were even asking if we had spinach for salads when we got home. Their bodies have learned to crave the good stuff. Hallelujah!

Calling in for back up

I think our nourishment comes best from food. But supplements can help make sure we’re all getting what we need each day since most certainly, our diets are going to have gaps.

Our family was recently sent Juice Plus+ Orchard and Garden Blend Chewables for our kids to try. From their website:

Juice Plus+ is whole food based nutrition, including juice powder concentrates from 30 different fruits, vegetables and grains. Juice Plus+ helps bridge the gap between what you should eat and what you do eat every day. Not a multivitamin, medicine, treatment or cure for any disease, Juice Plus+ is made from quality ingredients carefully monitored from farm to capsule to provide natural nutrients your body needs to be at its best.

I personally found that the chewables are too sweet for me (it doesn’t take much!). I’m glad they are not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, and wish they weren’t sweetened at all. But, just like I don’t mind my kids dipping veggies in ranch dressing as a way to get the veggies down, I have to land on the fact that even though these have added sweetener, at least it’s getting the nutrients in. My kids really like the taste and don’t mind at all helping themselves get some extra nutrients in the form of a gummy! (Also, Juice Plus+ offers capsules in addition to their gummies – no sugar!)

If you are concerned that your kids aren’t getting enough nutrients from veggies and fruits, Juice Plus+ is a great option to consider. In fact, it’s not just for kids! Adults are also often short on getting enough veggies. Juice Plus+ has capsules for the grown ups, for the kids, for everyone who wants to get more necessary nutrients from fruits and veggies.

Want to try some for free?

Jennifer, a Juice Plus+ representative working with me here, is offering to give one of you a month’s supply of Juice Plus+ Kid Chewables. Warning: If your kids are like mine, they’ll need to be held back from eating the entire package at once. My kids thought it was cool I had gotten them some “healthy fruit snacks.” That’s how good these taste to them! I had to holler in, “Hey, whoa! One per day, guys!”

Juice Plus+ is definitely worth checking into as an option for supplemental nourishment for your family. Check out Jennifer’s Juice Plus+ site here. Enter to win the giveaway for a 2-month supply of chewables below! I’ll draw a random winner on Monday, January 9.
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