Watch your garden grow
OK, so I am loving this new study out of Saint Louis University, which suggests that a good way to encourage children to eat their fruits and veggies is to plant a backyard garden. Researchers found that rural preschoolers are more likely to scarf down produce when it's homegrown (this is totally bringing back memories of growing up and my dad bringing in sun-warmed sugar snap peas and baby tomatoes from behind the house. Yum!)
In fact, kids who were almost always served homegrown fruits and vegetables were more than twice as likely to eat five-plus servings a day than those who rarely or never ate the homespun stuff. The children interviewed by SLU researchers said they like they way the freshly-unearthed foods tasted better than others. This is especially good news, considering the American Dietetic Association recommends all of us, kids and adults, take in 5 - 13 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. French fries and ketchup don't count, despite what the kidlets might have us believe.
So, what to do if you don’t have a sprawling backyard (or kids, for that matter?) Well, I have neither, so I'm right there with you. I still think we can use this info to our advantage. Summer is coming - maybe it's time to buy a potted tomato plant for the back patio. We can just pick a handful of juicy gems at night, wash and toss in our dinner salad. If you live somewhere sunny like LA, get a lemon tree and slice those babies up to make your water fancy and spa-like (bonus: you won't get scurvy.) And if you do have children and/or a backyard, take advantage of these results and start a new tradition. Plant some apple seeds. Watch grapevines creep up along the house. Grow watermelons!! It's a tradition your children will absolutely remember and their bodies will thank you for in the long run.
Have a healthy weekend everyone!
XO,
Leslie
Comments
Mmmm--juicy, lovely, sun-warmed tomatoes fresh from from our rich earth! My dad plants tomatoes every summer. When my sister visits from VA, we always sit outside in the warm sunlight--eating our tomatoes with salt. We once had a tomato-skin spitting contest. We tried to outdo each other and spit our tomato skins the farthest that we could. It sounds gross but at the time it was pretty hilarious.
Leslie,
You bring up such a diverse range of really cool, intelligent, and nice topics that are at the core of issues we experience everyday and the interests we have. I feel like everybody can say something and express their opinions about any of your blogs they relate to becuase your blog has something for everybody. I just wanted to commend you on carrying on with this really beautiful blog.
i hated veggies when I was young even though we had a garden in the back yard... Now I eat them (most of them) because I know they're healthy, not because I enjoy them..
