How To Get The Kids On Board with JUICING!
We have raised two boys, who are now in their late 20?s. One of our children was so finicky, he would gag at the thought of eating cooked vegetables, or even if certain foods were touching other foods on the plate. This went on for years and years.
It was incredibly frustrating for us, but through ingenuity and patience, we have found a solution for even the finickiest of eaters!
Here Comes The Juice…
Since John wouldn’t eat cooked vegetables and was very particular about the kinds of foods he ate, we got him intimately involved with the process of juicing. This is something he had been doing since he was a baby. However, this time we had him help us purchase the produce, wash the produce, store the produce, and then juice it.
John loved the entire process and would drink anything we juiced together. He got a kick out of the process of making the juices, and of course, since he had been juicing since he was a baby, it came easy to him. And since he had such a severe aversion to eating cooked vegetables, we were just fine with that — as long as he drank 1 quart of heavy green and carrot juice with as many veggies inside of it as possible.
Cooked Veggies Taste Very Different Than Raw Veggies
It’s true! Cooked veggies taste different than raw veggies. Children need to know this straight way. AND, since your child needs to be juicing with you, it will be quite easy to get them involved in the process because children are naturally curious and they love kitchen gadgets.
Sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge to get your kids to drink the juices — depending on if you have a finicky child or not. But even John was VERY finicky when it came to eating vegetables, and he LOVED his fresh raw veggie juices!
If your child can drink 12-16 oz of veggie juice during their dinnertime, then we say don’t worry about forcing your child to eat their cooked veggies!
Get Your Kids Involved
Once they start to enjoy the veggie juices, they will start to have interests in creating different kinds of juices, which is exactly what you want them to do!
They will say, “Let’s try beets and celery and apple, mom, ok?” And you will say, “Of course!” Right? Let them experiment and make a mess. As long as they are drinking their juices with their meals, it’s okay not to force them to eat their cooked veggies.
Furthermore, once the juices have been made, and there’s a big mess in the kitchen, it’s also quite important they help clean the juicer, and learn to take it apart and learn to put it back together again.
Familiarity is quite important, as it only helps keep them emotionally invested as well as respectful of the juicer and all the health benefits it brings to them.
Our sons John and Jayson were both deeply involved in daily juicing, and even though they don’t live at home any longer, they still juice daily. Once you teach your children these beautiful habits of juicing on a daily basis, they will rarely go a day without it as they age. In fact, their friends will also become excited and want to get involved. This happened in our home with many of their friends, who now are in their late 20?s and still are juicing!
Here are some veggie juice recipes for you and your kids to try!
Veggie Juice Recipes for Kids
Green Juice Tonic
– makes 12-16 oz
Ingredients:
- 6 large carrots
- ¼ cup parsley
- ¼ cup spinach
- 1 golden or red delicious apple
- 3 stalks celery
Rawesome Red Reduction!
– makes 12 oz
Ingredients:
- 1 small beet root
- 1 red delicious apple
- ½ red bell pepper
- 1 small tomato
Directions:
For either of the above juice recipes, simply run the ingredients through your juicer. Serve immediately!
We suggest that children 3-6 years of age can drink 8-12 oz of fresh juice, while children 6-16 can easily drink 12-16 oz with or before dinner.
Juicing with Kids is Different than with Adults
Teaching children how to juice at the same time you are learning to juice on a daily basis will bring different results. Children love to learn and will use their natural inquisitiveness to become involved quickly with juicing, but their natural enthusiasm wanes quickly as well. That’s why it’s important to create the process from beginning to end and if they lose interest, they will come back into it.
With adults, it takes a bit of time to create the habits of juicing; there will be more initial resistance to forming the habit, but as the resistance dissipates — and the great results from feeling improvements in natural energy — then consistency takes over. So, as you grow into juicing, remember to involve your children in as much of the process of juicing as possible and they will, in turn, become more and more emotionally involved as you grow into the habits and dedications to juicing.
Each day that passes will bring on new challenges, and there will be some days where you feel euphoric, and some days where you feel nostalgic to go back to the old ways of eating, but when this happens, get into the kitchen and get juicing so you don’t make a poor choice to eat something you will regret. Once you drink your fresh raw juice, you will notice the desire to eat poorly will subside by at least 90%.
Happy Juicing!