- Think veggies for the first meal of the day: don’t leave it to dinner to pack in five serves of veggies! Breakfast is an ideal time to get in at least one serve. Even toast can be made into a veggie-packed meal.
- Snack on veggies first: feeling peckish? Try making your first snack a vegetable. Pack a container with some sugar snap peas, cut carrots or celery sticks for snacks on the go to increase your daily veggie intake.
- Looks count: we eat with our eyes first: Present your vegetables in the most colourful, appetising way possible. Vegetable platters are a striking way to get even fussy kids, teens or other household members to eat their veggies.
- Serve veggies first at dinner time: making dinner a two-course meal sounds like extra work, but it just requires us to serve up a simple salad or vegetable dish before the main meal. Eating vegetables before protein and carbohydrates can mediate the spike in our blood sugar that occurs after eating.
- First impressions matter: kids can be finicky about vegetables. Getting kids involved in cooking or cutting their veggies themselves, along with these little tips and tricks can help to create enthusiastic veggie eaters from day one.
- Put your gut first: our gut microbiome is part of a big feedback loop which influences our food choices and is key to how our body extracts nutrients from food. What does a healthy microbiome need to be fed? Wholefoods that contain lots of fibre, minerals and vitamins, which all veggies deliver in spades!
- Visit the veggie aisle first: Planning your meals and snacks from the veggie aisle makes a big difference to what you buy. Many food purchases are ‘spur of the moment’ ones, so make more of them in the fresh food section!
References:
https://nutritionaustralia.org/resources/love-your-guts/
Gut microbiome and your health | healthdirect