Getting Kids to Eat Their Vegetables

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

Raising children on a vegan diet, what problems do parents face in everyday life? One challenge is fear of the pediatrician judging or opposing their choices for their kids. Most Italian parents responding to a survey didn’t even ask the pediatrician about their vegan diet, but when they did, half of them thought the quality of information was insufficient. Despite this barrier, most parents were regularly offering diverse food groups and a regular B12 supplement. They had sought information from dieticians, nutritionists, and scientific websites about vegan diets, and were well aware of the importance of implementing a well-planned vegan diet for their kids. One of our favorite resources for raising plant-based families is Nourish, by Shah and Davis.

Other studies have shown that parental knowledge is key to ensuring healthy nutrition in young childhood, and parents should be educated about risks of nutritional deficiencies along with principles of a healthy plant-based diet.

In discussing the appropriateness of vegan diets for kids, there is a recurring concern that nutrient deficiencies may occur if children do not accept nutrient-rich food groups such as nuts, legumes, and whole grains, which are required to reach a balanced nutrient intake. But remember the VeChi study of German children and adolescents that I highlighted in a previous video. The vegan kids had a more diverse and healthful plant-food pattern, consuming the highest amount of vegetables, whole grains, and beans compared to vegetarian and omnivorous kids, while the adolescent omnivores tended to exceed the maximum recommended meat intake for adults as recommended by the German Nutrition Society.

Low vegetable consumption in children is a concern in many countries. Fewer than one-fifth of children in Europe consume the amounts recommended by the World Health Organization. In the United States, adolescents have relatively low consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, posing risks for micronutrient adequacy and potential implications for later chronic disease risk. And for green leafy vegetables, the picture is even worse – only about 10% reported eating any on dietary survey days.

Is there any good news? It is possible to get your kids to eat the rainbow! Systematic studies show that exposure to a variety of vegetables early in childhood can promote later consumption into adulthood. And this is also true for green leafies – check out this study where they got preschoolers to drink their GREENS! I imagine for many parents of young kids this is hard to believe!

Preschoolers provided smoothies with dark green veggies drank about a 3/4 cup (180 ml) serving of spinach, kale, or collards. And caregivers can even start earlier – introducing bitter-tasting vegetables to infants and toddlers. In this study, cups of kale purees—hmmmm—admittedly not my favorite way to eat kale, were served one of three ways: plain, with added sugar, or with added salt. The younger the kid, the more likely they were to take multiple bites of the kale; 100% of six- to 12 month-olds took two bites of the plain kale, while only about 50% were willing to take two bites once they were 18 months and older, suggesting a sensitive period exists in which it is easier to introduce foods to children. And just because the child doesn’t try it when you first offer it doesn’t mean they won’t try it later during the same meal. And, in contrast to expectations, adding sugar and salt did not result in better acceptance!

What other tips might help? For the youngest of eaters, introducing vegetables-only as their first solid foods for a few weeks, instead of a combination of fruits and vegetables, resulted in infants consuming more vegetables at nine months of age than the control group, who received a combination of vegetables and fruit––including double the intake of broccoli and spinach. And, not to worry, they still liked fruits once they started eating them. For those wondering if you can introduce recommended iron-rich foods at the same time––yes! Parents whose children started the study at six months-old, when infants start to need iron from a food source, were encouraged to include those foods, too.

Up through about age five, the consistent factor that helps increase vegetable consumption is repeated taste exposure, and this can take a minimum of eight to 10 exposures to a vegetable. So, don’t stress if your child doesn’t immediately want to eat a new veggie.

A so-called “picky eating” phase occurs in about half of children at some point between 1.5 and six years old. But what factor was positively associated with daily fruit and vegetable intakes in this age group? Regular family meals.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

• Bivi D, Di Chio T, Geri F, et al. Raising children on a vegan diet: parents’ opinion on problems in everyday life. Nutrients. 2021;13(6):1796.
• Shah R, Davis B, Katz DL. Nourish: The definitive plant-based nutrition guide for families. Boca Raton, FL: Health Communications, Inc.; 2020.
• Kostecka M, Kostecka J, Jackowska I, Iłowiecka K. Parental nutritional knowledge and type of diet as the key factors influencing the safety of vegetarian diets for children aged 12-36 months. Nutrients. 2023;15(10):2244.
• Alexy U, Fischer M, Weder S, Längler A, Michalsen A, Keller M. Food group intake of children and adolescents (6-18 years) on a vegetarian, vegan or omnivore diet: results of the VeChi Youth Study. Br J Nutr. 2022;128(5):851-862.
• Ahern SM, Caton SJ, Bouhlal S, et al. Eating a rainbow. Introducing vegetables in the first years of life in 3 European countries. Appetite. 2013;71:48-56.
• Jenkins M, Jefferds MED, Aburto NJ, Ramakrishnan U, Martorell R, Addo OY. What do united states adolescents eat? Food group consumption patterns and dietary diversity from a decade of nationally representative data. Curr Dev Nutr. 2023;7(8):101968.
• Rollins BY, Stein W, Keller KL, Savage JS. Preschoolers will drink their GREENS! Children accept, like, and drink novel smoothies containing dark green vegetables (Dgvs). Appetite. 2021;162:105148.
• Johnson SL, Moding KJ, Grimm KJ, Flesher AE, Bakke AJ, Hayes JE. Infant and toddler responses to bitter-tasting novel vegetables: Findings from the good tastes study. J Nutr. 2021;151(10):3240-3252.
• Rapson JP, von Hurst PR, Hetherington MM, Mazahery H, Conlon CA. Starting complementary feeding with vegetables only increases vegetable acceptance at 9 months: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2022;116(1):111-121.
• Nekitsing C, Blundell-Birtill P, Cockroft JE, Hetherington MM. Systematic review and meta-analysis of strategies to increase vegetable consumption in preschool children aged 2-5 years. Appetite. 2018;127:138-154.
• van Vliet MS, Schultink JM, Jager G, et al. The baby’s first bites RCT: Evaluating a vegetable-exposure and a sensitive-feeding intervention in terms of child health outcomes and maternal feeding behavior during toddlerhood. J Nutr. 2022;152(2):386-398.
• Noiman A, Lee SH, Marks KJ, Grap ME, Dooyema C, Hamner HC. Factors associated with daily fruit and vegetable intakes among children aged 1-5 years in the United States. Nutrients. 2024;16(5):751.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

• beans
• children
• collard greens
• kale
• legumes
• nuts
• salt
• smoothies
• spinach
• sugar
• vegans
• vegetables
• vitamin B12