Vegan Nutrition with Marty Davey

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• 1. Have them help put together a menu and cook it. Even if they don't eat everything, they will begin to experience the process of feeding a family. At age 5, my son could tear up lettuce he didn't want to eat, thrown in baby carrots he didn't want to eat. He could stir soup and push the buttons on the microwave for kale he didn't like. But it got him into the process and more interested in the food.
  
  
• 2. Try sauces on your veggies. Not just soy sauce, but nut butter sauces. I have a Walnut Butter Grapefruit sauce on my website, http://martydavey.com. I have been very successful with that one.
  
  
• 3. Have him shop with you, especially if you have a farmer's market nearby. Again, he may be interested in just seeing the different foods. I try a lot of veggies raw before buying. My son didn't try them at age 5, but he got very interested and would bring me samples. Also, having other people talk about the food made a big difference. He tried a few things from the farmers because the "Mom"pressure was off.
  
  
• 4. Mince it up. I hid greens in spaghetti sauce. I ran it through my food processor for 5 seconds. I put it in at the end, raw. He ate it without knowing. I did the same thing for burritos and soup.
  
  
• 5. Does he eat foods with onion or mushrooms such as soup or spaghetti sauce? After he eats something like that, have the 2 of you make it from scratch. If he sees that he already eats sauce made out of tomatoes it may take the edge off the "V"or "F"word.
  
  
• 6. There are dessert recipes that use veggies such as zucchini muffins, chocolate beet cake, carrot cake. Again, these might allow him to see that he eats this stuff in foods he really likes.
  
  
• 7. Does the evil vegetable world include potatoes and corn? Many times we forget that sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes and corn are great food sources. Again, he may eat some that you aren't thinking about. Also, does he eat vegetable soups, stews or chowders? My son was not a fan of squash until he tasted it as a bisque. I make my split pea soup with sweet potatoes.
  
  
• 8. Keep the sugars away. I'm sure you already do this, but for those folks who don't let me explain. I coordinated a family weight management program for 3 years. These were kids between the ages of 6-11 who had a weight management challenge and their parents or caregivers who also had weight management challenges. Most of these kids ate one piece of fruit a week. They ate other sweets multiple times during the week. Guess what? They didn't think fruit was sweet enough. Their palates were set for the incredible sweetness of high fructose corn syrup and table sugar. An apple just couldn't compete.
  
  
• 9. Don't worry. If you keep eating fruits and veggies around him, he will pick up what he likes. His palate will change again.