Want to increase your family’s veggie intake?
Did you know that the current recommended dietary intake (RDI) for vegetables is 5-6 serves per day?
If you’re way off this amount, you are not alone!
According to the most recent ABS National Health Survey, only 7.5% of adults meet the guidelines for the recommended serves of vegetables*
While 73% of children aged 2-17 years meet the guidelines for fruit, only 6% meet the guidelines for both fruit AND vegetables.
The statistics are even worse for teenagers, with only 2% of males aged 15-18 years and 7.2% of females in the same age group meeting the RDI for vegetables.
The vegetable RDI varies depending on age:
2-3 years: 2.5 serves
4-8 years: 4.5 serves
9-11 years: 5 serves
12-18 years: 5 serves for girls / 5.5 serves for boys
women 19-70+ years: 5 serves
breastfeeding women: 7.5 serves
men 19 - 50 years: 6 serves
men 51-70 years: 5.5 serves
men 70 years +: 5 serves
What is a serve of vegetables?
One serve = 75g = ½ cup of cooked vegetables or 1 cup of raw vegetables
Why are vegetables so important?
Vegetables are highly nutritious and an excellent source of fibre, folate, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron.
Most people find it easy to eat enough fruit each day but meeting the vegetable guidelines can be tricky, especially when it comes to children who are picky eaters and not keen on vegetables.
There are three strategies I recommend focusing on when it comes to increasing your family’s veggie intake:
Increase the number of times vegetables are eaten each day, e.g. eating veggies with breakfast and lunch, not just dinner
Increase the variety of vegetables eaten each day, e.g. “eating the rainbow” and consuming a mix of raw and cooked veggies
Increase the amount of vegetables eaten with each meal, e.g. serving a pasta dish with a side salad rather than on its own.
The following suggestions incorporate all three strategies:
Breakfast:
· Mix chopped baby spinach and mushrooms through scrambled eggs and serve with avocado slices, cherry tomatoes and sliced baby cucumbers
· Make a green smoothie with frozen banana, baby spinach, celery, avocado, frozen pineapple/mango, chia seeds and water (this smoothie has the approval of my picky eater!)
Lunch/Snacks:
· Make a soup with a variety of different vegetables, e.g. broccoli, zucchini, carrots, sweet potato, pumpkin (bonus points for using bone broth as the soup base!). Season it well with salt and pepper (note: children are often more likely to eat a soup like this if it is blended and the vegetables aren't so obvious!)
· Put veggie sticks and dips in your child’s lunch box (let them choose their favourite type of vegetable, e.g. carrot, cucumber, capsicum, celery)
· Add grated carrot, sweetcorn and cherry tomatoes to a chicken and pasta salad
· Add vegetables to baked goods, e.g. carrot cake, brownies made with hidden sweet potato or zucchini
· Get creative with salad vegetables, e.g. make mini veggie kebabs with cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices and cubes of cheese
Dinner:
· Make homemade hamburgers by mixing beef or chicken mince with finely grated carrot and zucchini, Italian herbs, lightly beaten egg, salt and pepper. You can further boost the veggie content by serving the patties with lettuce, beetroot, sliced tomato and avocado
· Add finely grated vegetables to tomato-based sauces, e.g. spaghetti bolognese
· Serve every meal with a salad or side of vegetables. A good idea is to put a salad bowl in the middle of the table and invite the kids to serve themselves. If you are serving cooked vegetables, steaming is the best cooking method as it minimises loss of nutrients. You can make the vegetables more tasty and appealing by adding a little bit of butter (not margarine), salt and pepper just prior to serving (the fat in the butter improves absorption of nutrients from the vegetables)
I'd love to know how you're going with getting vegetables into your family so feel free to comment or share your favourite veggie meal ideas!
* ABS National Health Survey 2017-18