Tastebuddies for Life

we know veggies can be a tough friendship to crack with little ones, sometimes it feels like your playing a game of hide + seek!

We’re here to help you spark a veggie love story that lasts a lifetime. Because when little ones fall in love with veggies early, they building a lifelong friendship. Beau-pea-ful! Those first spoonfuls don’t just fuel them, they spark a relationship that lasts a lifetime!

So let’s make it fun and easy-peasy. Ready to begin their veggie love story?

Why are veggies and fruit so important for little ones?

Why are veggies and fruit so important for little ones?

We all know that we should be eating more fruit and veg and the same is true for little ones, even from the very first taste! Helping babies accept vegetables early on and throughout weaning can help them to establish a lifelong love of veg. But why is it so important to encourage a liking of these foods? And should we only focus on veg or is fruit important too?

What’s so good about fruit and vegetables?

• Nutrition – veg and fruit contain lots of different vitamins and minerals and the more variety your little one eats, the wider the range of nutrients they’ll consume. Eating a rainbow of colours is the best way to get alll the nutritious benefits of veg and fruit. For example, orange carrots provide vitamin A, leafy green veg provide folate (a B vitamin), magnesium and often calcium, red berries contain vitamin C, and yellow bananas provide potassium.
• Taste – veggies are naturally more savoury, so helping your baby to accept less sweet tastes throughout weaning can help guide their taste preferences as they get older. But just because fruit tastes sweeter doesn’t mean you should avoid it. Deliciously naturally sweet fruits still provide nutrition and are a deeeliciously healthy alternative to cakes, biscuits and sweets.
• Variety – Eating a wide variety of fruit and vegetables isn’t just a route to a wider range of nutrients; the greater the variety of tastes and types of fruit and veg eaten, the more willing little ones might be to accept new foods as they get older.
• Long-lasting love of good food – the Government’s Eatwell Guide encourages adults to have a third of their plate covered in veggies or fruit, to help benefit long term health, reduce risk of non-communicable disease and provide positive nutrition. Helping little ones to accept veg and fruit early on in and throughout weaning can help set up healthy food preferences from the very beginning.

Offering plenty of vegetables AND fruits during weaning doesn’t just offer nutritional benefits, they can help influence taste preferences and create a long term love of good food.