#FitFruitFriday - Back to School? Break the Kids Unhealthy Summer Holiday Habits!

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After a summer of eating out, ice cream vans and BBQ burgers, kids are hardly going to want to get back on the green stuff, especially at horrible ol' school! But try out these 5 easy tips to get your kids back on 5-a-day! Now they can be just like their mums and dads eating up their office fruit in a flash.

1. Get Rid of the Junk Food - You're the boss of the house and no matter how much you push fruit and veg onto your kids, they're hardly going to want it when they know the cupboard is stocked full of crisps, chocolate and biscuits. Lower the amount you buy and don't treat junk food as a treat they will receive if they eat all their greens, it will only encourage the child to think that fruit and veg is a punishment - try giving fresh strawberries or pineapple fingers as an after-school treat rather than a chocolate bar.
2. Persevere - If you haven't started your children on fruit and veg from a young age, it's really unlikely they're going to enjoy it straight away. Keep serving up veg at dinner and fruit in their lunchbox, eventually they'll eat it and hopefully enjoy it soon enough! But of course, not everyone enjoys the same taste so if your kids are adamant after the 20th helping of brussel sprouts that they hate them, maybe it's time to try something else!
3. Make it Fun - Kids are more likely to eat something if it looks more appealing so try cutting up fruit and veg using cookie cutters into fun shapes or arrange different pieces on a plate to make it look like a face or an animal. This can also work with sandwiches and pizza by giving your child different coloured veg, letting them decorate with it and then they can enjoy their hard work afterwards!
4. Change the Way You Serve it - Not everyone enjoys the texture or taste of different fruits or vegetables and neither do your children. With fruit, try blending them into a smoothie, freezing bananas or berries as a cold treat or make fruit sandwiches. With veg, blend them into a soup, serve raw with dips or just try different ways of cooking e.g. mashed, boiled, roasted etc.



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5. Grow Your Own - There's nothing better than watching your hard work come to fruition and if you let your children grow their own fruit and veg, they'll be more than willing to tuck in. Some of the easiest plants to grow include beans, peas, courgettes, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, apples, blackberries and cress.

How do you get your children to eat their 5-a-day at school? Tell us in the comments below!