Kids And Fruit Nutrition Facts
- Benji And Fruits
Kids And Fruit Nutrition Facts I think kids instinctively know how nutritious fruits are. At least my son, Benji, can't get enough of them. Benji's first solid food was fruit, like most other babies first food. At 6 month of age Benji ate (in small quantities) apples, banana, strawberries and many kinds of berries. He wouldn't eat any other foods I offered him - besides breast milk... in LARGE quantities :) Now Benji is 8 years old, a little man already - who would become quite angry if he would find out I called him "little"! What made me think about the relationship between kids and fruit nutrition facts today was the following incident… Yesterday Benji refused to eat dinner, which was quite surprising as he is not someone who would go hungry by choice!
He said he won't eat because he wants REAL food.
"I want fruits! Why don’t we have any fruits at home? And where is the salad?" To my surprise he started crying and then he said: "I NEED fruits! I didn't eat fruits for weeks!"
The truth is he has been eating fruit every day for the past few weeks and the weeks before that. But I think what he meant was that we haven't lately been eating ENOUGH fruits. A few kiwis in the morning and a banana in the afternoon is not at all as much fruit as we should be eating! So he is totally right, and I am sorry for not having prioritized our normally healthy eating habits the last few weeks.
Kids And Fruit Nutrition Facts ContinuedSo, Benji was really mad at me, took his bike and biked around outside with tears running down his cheeks! It was too late for us to go to the store and buy fruits, so I was a bit perplexed about what to do next to make him feel better. Then I got an idea. I told him "Hey, if you want something healthy, why don't we go into the forest and check what nature has to offer us!" He liked that idea so we biked to a nearby green area and I showed him the plants that are edible and the plants that are not. Benji sat on the ground for many minutes eating :)
He really liked Wood Sorrel. In Swedish they are called Harsyra and in Latin Oxalis acetosella. They have a very nice taste, sweet and a bit sour at the same. Benji said it was the best "salad" he has ever had.Yei! He was happy again! After the wood sorrel he continued on eating a few dandelion leaves, blueberry leaves and a few Birk leaves. I had some Birk leaves myself, and wow, I was surprised at how good they taste. At this time of the year, late spring, they have a taste that I would describe as "perfumy". Later on in the summer the taste of them changes to quite bitter.
Eating wild food like this is actually not that uncommon. There are even websites dedicated only to this topic. On my resources page I have a link to one of those websites, go here to check it out if you like:
Resources - Foraging with the "wildman" Steve Brill
By going through that site and other similar websites, I learned that dandelion leaves all full of vitamins, including vitamin A, most B vitamins, vitamin C and E and even minerals like magnesium, potassium and zinc. Another thing I read is that it is supposed to be delicious and even healthy to chew on Black Birk twigs or bark, as it contains an oil that is anti-inflammatory. I also looked up Wood Sorrel on
Wikipedia
and there it said humans have been eating wood sorrel for ages. Some people have been eating it for the vitamin C content like sailors on trips, and others to relive thirst when on long walks in the forest and some even have even consumed it for medical reasons such as nausea or sore throat.
Today as soon as I left Benji at school in the morning, I went fruit shopping. So when Benji comes home there is a surprise waiting for him.
I took a picture of the surprise, here it is:
Would you like to leave a comment?
Go ahead and leave your comment below. Also... if you would happen to have a great story about this topic, feel free to share it! You can even upload a picture that goes along with your story.
Comments & Contributions
Click below to see comments and contributions from other visitors to this page...
Click here to go from Kids And fruit Nutrition Facts to the Home Page
You can also go back to the Fruit Nutrition Facts page
Or go from Kids And Fruit Nutrition Facts to the FRUIT LIST
Nutrition Facts for Kids
Teaching Kids About Fruits
If you are trying to teach young children about fruits and about eating healthier, you could take a look at this page: Nutrition for Kids. Another useful place to go to is the FDA's website where they have printable posters in lively colors. The posters could help hold your kids' attention as you explain the benefits of fruits. Here is the link (opens in new window):
Fruit Nutrition Information
Comments
Have your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below.
|
