Kids: best reason ever to eat your veggies

Below, you’ll find a video for the children in your life – maybe your own or others you know. It’s about helping kids to make a connection between their microbiome and their lifelong health. The earlier they do this, the better. Children deserve to know that they’re a super-organism hosting trillions of microbes that are meant to go about their daily business in service to the body they inhabit. But that’s only if they’re happy, feel welcomed and are well fed. Instead of having a fight with the children in your life about why they need to eat their veggies, now you have a video to show them instead. Happy gut bugs, more chance of a happy, healthy child!

It’s no secret that today’s 24-hour smorgasbord of processed and ultra-processed foods are putting kids at risk of obesity, as well as a later life plagued by ill health. But what’s less talked about is that one of the more simple antidotes is good nutrition to feed the gut microbes, as well as the entire microbiome.

Our new video – that you’ll find a link to below – is designed to help younger children understand why it’s important to eat a diverse range of rainbow coloured vegetables to keep their gut bugs happy and healthy.

Gut health isn’t just for kids, so in case you missed them, here are our last 2 videos for grown-ups’ gut health:

• 6 Reasons why you should care about your gut health
• 6 Easy ways to improve your gut health

And some practical veggie tips, because even if you don’t love them, our gut bugs can’t live without them!

• Aim to eat four or more portions of raw or lightly cooked above-ground (non-starchy) vegetables, with minimal fruit, a day as recommended by the ANH Food4Health and Food4Kids guidelines
• If you’re adding more fibre to your diet increase your intake of vegetables slowly to reduce the possibility of experiencing problems such as bloating and cramping
• Because soluble fibre dissolves in water ensure you drink enough plain (clean, unfluoridated, preferably chlorine-free) water every day
• Eat as wide a diversity of plant foods as possible
• ‘Eat a rainbow’ including all 6 phytonutrient colour groups every day
• Add fresh herbs and spices as often as possible or choose good quality non-irradiated dried versions to flavour your foods. Try out different home-made herb sauces and salsas to add interest and flavour.
• Drink herbal teas – they’re a calorie-free source of phytonutrients needed to help balance countless metabolic and physiological processes in the body – as well as facilitating detoxification along with microbiome and immune health
• Incorporate vegetables into all your meals including breakfast!
• Stick to whole unprocessed foods and don’t be fooled by promises of ‘fibre rich’ ultra-processed foods with a laundry list of ingredients. You never know what may be lurking inside!
• Fresh, organic, seasonal produce is best, but some frozen veggies and fruits can make useful standbys
  Experiment with fermented foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut or kombucha – your gut bugs will thank you for it. If you’re not ready to experiment and make your own, watch out for products that are pasteurised or have vinegar in as they won’t contain beneficial bacteria.
• If your pocket doesn’t stretch to organic produce, don’t despair, the US Environmental Working Group keeps updated lists of the Clean Fifteen and the Dirty Dozen vegetables and fruits. We strongly suggest that if it’s one of the Dirty Dozen, you choose organic or go without. 

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