subject: Use Your Smoothie Maker, Nutritious Smoothies Introduce Children To Healthy Eating [print this page] As adults, it is still quite difficult to achieve a change to a more healthy diet containing the additional fruits and vegetables that nutritionists, scientists and the government are telling us, almost daily it seems, is what we must do to ensure our long-term health. We can understand the reasons why we are being told to make this change, but for our children, it is much more difficult when there are so many temptations and so much more pressure from friends to choose things that really are not good for them. You might not think of a smoothie maker as a tool in your arsenal to educate children into eating more healthily but smoothies are so delicious and full of goodness that they are a great start in getting children to eat more fruit and vegetables.
Most children arrive in the house after school, like a small, hungry avalanche, descending on the biscuit barrel or the cake tin to refuel before disappearing off again to play. Unless you make it easy for them, they will not make healthy choices so providing a delicious smoothie, made in a home smoothie maker and perhaps encouraging them to help make the drink themselves as it only takes a few seconds, will ensure that they get a healthy drink packed full of nutrients without even realising it!
Fruit juice is enjoyed by just about everyone, all children seem to love it. By giving them fruit juice instead of a soda, you know they are getting all the vitamins from the fruit. It does not matter how fresh the juice is though, it does not contain all the goodness of the fruit as so much of this is left behind in the juicer to be disposed of.
The whole fruit goodness in smoothies provides us with vitamins, minerals, essential fibre and antioxidants. However, smoothies bought pre-prepared from supermarkets, will be prohibitively expensive if bought regularly. Making them at home in a smoothie maker will save you a great deal of money - even if you have to buy a smoothie maker initially, you will very soon cover the initial purchase price with the savings that you make.
Insoluble fibre is vital and consuming insufficient in our daily diets could have serious effects on our health. Initially this may only be the problem of constipation and perhaps the discomfort of developing piles (haemorrhoids). In the long term, we may be storing up much more serious problems for ourselves by becoming more prone to very serious diseases such as cancer of the colon or bowel.
If you find that you suffer from that 'slump' of energy in the middle of the afternoon when all you really want is something sweet as a 'pick me up', then the soluble fibre in a smoothie will really help. It has a regulating effect on blood sugar levels and also has a lowering effect on cholesterol levels.
A smoothie maker probably does not sound like a valuable weapon in the war against unhealthy eating. By making good, healthy food taste so delicious and therefore making it popular and eaten without any fuss or bother, even by the pickiest children, we are going to be setting them on the path to eating more healthily and we can all avoid some of the major medical problems that cause so much distress and heartache in later life.
