10 Ways to Get Your Kids To Eat More Fruit

Be a trend setter – Make fruit an everyday food in your household. Kids will mirror your eating patterns.

Squeeze, freeze and please – Try stewing, juicing or grating fruits. Try chopping up and serving with complimentary foods such as cheeses. Keep fruit such as apples, pears and tropical fruits chilled and freeze juicy fruit pieces such as oranges, nashi and grapes for a cold treat.

Save the sweets – Save confectionary and high-sugar, high-fat snack foods for ‘treats’ or ‘party foods’ rather than using them as everyday foods.

Stick with the ‘in’ crowd – Try to buy fruits which are in season and therefore inexpensive. Buying fruit in season ensures you get better tasting, good value fruit. Good quality fruit has a better chance of being eaten and not being left in the lunchbox.

Bowl ‘em over - Keep the fruit bowl stocked up with a variety of interesting fruits.

Test their tastes - Try to discover what fruits your kids like and try introducing new types and new varieties. Some kids prefer the taste of Granny Smith apples, while others are Fuji or Red Delicious fanatics.

Reward and applaud - Encourage your kids to eat good, healthy foods. Get involved in their school curriculum’s nutrition programs and encourage them to learn as much as they can about the benefits of good eating. Let kids choose fruits in the supermarket.

Just desserts – For desserts, try creative low sugar, low fat fruit-based desserts such as baked apples, apple and pear crumble and fresh fruit salad instead of high-sugar, high-fat dishes.

Kids in the kitchen – Introduce your kids to new and interesting ways to eat fruit, like fruit smoothies, fruit pancakes and fruit muffins.

Keep ‘em active – Encourage kids to be active and participate in sports. Active kids eat more fruit than less active kids.

Source: Apple & Pear Australia Ltd, Professional Kit. Section authored by Rosemay Stanton