7 ways to make nutrition FUN!

(from Precision Nutrition)

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• Play “two-bites” Bingo. Create a Bingo board with fun eating challenges in each square, like: Dip your least favorite veggie in peanut butter, chocolate, or whipped cream. The whole family must take two bites of any food creation. Once you do enough food challenges to earn a Bingo, award a prize.

• Award points for trying new foods. Maybe kids get 5 points for trying a new veggie, 10 points for trying it with another food (such as carrots on a salad), or 20 points for preparing and trying the new veggie. Once they get to 100 points, award a prize.

• Designate a “You’re in Charge” night: Each family member gets a night to be in charge and pick dinner for the whole family. If a kid picks pizza, that’s totally fair. (Hint: Parents can make healthier choices on their nights.)

• Make dinner a roll of the dice: Everyone works together to brainstorm six dinner ideas. Assign each dinner a number from one to six. Then, designate one night a week as “game night.” For that night, you pick dinner by rolling dice.

• Give fruits and veggies their own spirit days. On “red” day, you eat red produce. On “yellow day” yellow produce, and so on.

• Ask kids for help planning, shopping, and preparing dinner. Tasks from setting the table to flipping the pancakes helps to involve kids, teach them important kitchen skills, and, ultimately, makes them more likely to eat what you’ve prepared.

• Stage an experiment. While shopping with you, ask kids to find produce the family has never tried before. Agree to sample it as an experiment. You might even have kids “review” the food with a starring system.