Top 10 ways to get your family to eat more 5 a Day and move!

Katie Bogue, R.D.

    1. Go shopping with your parents and find one new fruit or vegetable to try. This is how I discovered some of my favorite foods, like pomegranates, summer squash, and blood oranges.
    2. Challenge your family to eat fruits and vegetables from all colors of the rainbow. Think of a fruit or vegetable for each of these colors:
      • Red
      • Orange
      • Yellow
      • Green
      • Blue
      • Purple
      • White
    3. Snack on vegetables. Help your parents wash and cut up sweet vegetables like carrots, grape tomatoes, jicama, green peppers, and broccoli to dip in low-fat ranch dressing. Or try my favorite recipe, the edible veggie bowl!
    4. Track your 5 a Day as a family. Who ate the most fruits and vegetables in a week? Compete against one another! Print out this tracking sheet (http://www.5aday.com/pdfs/kids/track/serving.pdf) or just use a calendar.
    5. Grab a fruit that is just ripe for the summer! Watermelon, apricots, strawberries, and cantaloupe are in season during the warm summer months! These bright-colored fruits are filled with vitamins and minerals.
    6. Grill some veggies! Instead of just grilling hamburgers or chicken for dinner, add vegetables! Check out these great-tasting veggies that can be grilled:
      • fresh corn, husked, each cut crosswise into 4 pieces
      • eggplant, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
      • red onion, cut into 3/4-inch-thick wedges
      • red bell pepper, seeded, cut lengthwise into 6 strips
      • yellow or green bell pepper, seeded, cut lengthwise into 6 strips
      • zucchini, trimmed, quartered lengthwise
      • asparagus spears, trimmed
      • carrot, peeled, cut on deep diagonal into 1/4-inch-thick slices
    7. Drink 100% juice or water instead of soda. Challenge your family to not drink soda for an entire week! Can you all do it? Or make family members pay $1 into a “family fun” fund every time they drink a soda!
    8. Get outside and be active as a family. Go to the park and shoot hoops. Play tag. Go on a walk. Ride your bikes together. Head for the beach and swim. Throw a Frisbee. Choose your verb and do it as a family!
    9. Turn off the television for an entire day or even week. Or, you can track how many hours each family member spends watching television. Think of all the fun things you can do instead of watching television!
    10. Eat a healthy dinner together as a family at home. Think of a question for everyone in your family to answer. Choose one of these questions, or think of your own!
  • If your family won $10,000, how would you like your family to spend it?
  • What kind of food do you think would describe you and why?
  • What is the best thing for you to do when you feel angry?
  • Complete this sentence. The best day of this past week was…….
  • Share something you have always wanted to try but never have.
  • What is the best way for people to show you they love you?
  • What is your favorite time of day?