Easy ways to 5-a-day

Children who eat a healthy, well-balanced diet are much less likely to become overweight. The number of obese children has doubled in the past decade, and because scientists have now identified a direct link between childhood obesity and overweight adults, it’s never too soon to introduce good eating habits.

Roughage is a great reason for encouraging children and adults alike to eat more fruit and veg. Not only does it help the digestive tract to work properly in processing foods and encouraging the elimination of unwanted matter, it also slows down the absorption of carbohydrates and sugar, which in turn helps to squash hunger pangs.

FACT: Tomatoes are packed with lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that gives them their redness. Lycopene is also found in watermelon.

Fresh is best
A good start is to up the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables children eat. Fresh fruits are a naturally rich nutritious source of many essential vitamins and minerals, as well as antioxidants, which everybody needs to help protect against disease and natural ageing processes. Your body produces anti-oxidants naturally, but not enough to combat the levels of free radicals (byproducts of our reaction with oxygen through breathing) we’re all exposed to, particularly in areas of higher environmental pollution. Everyone has heard of ‘five-a-day’. Perhaps less well-known is that unless the portions of fruit and veg are varied, there can still be a shortfall in the vitamins and minerals that are being eaten.

Easy to swallow
Making sure children enjoy what they eat is key. Try cooking a vegetarian stir-fry as a regular family meal. Invent smoothies with the kids using one or two unusual fruits like mangos or papaya, and always include fresh or dried fruit with packed lunches to satisfy sweet cravings.

From time to time, you might want to treat your little ones to a Castus All Natural Fruit Bar too. Made from nothing but sun ripened fruits, each bar costs just 35p and with a choice of apricot, strawberry, fig or banana, there’s something for even the pickiest little eater to enjoy.