Statistics Netherlands shows that 18 percent of young people between the ages of 4 and 25 were overweight in 2019-2020. In the period between 2015 and 2018 this was still 16 percent.
The percentage is even higher in the age category 18 to 25 years. A quarter of these are overweight, according to the new report.
Sensory experience
Something must be done about this, says Ingrid Keller-Cayet, founder of the children’s food brand Magada. In her eyes it is very important to introduce children to fruit and vegetables from an early age. “I grew up in France. As a child I really enjoyed picking fruit and vegetables from my grandmother’s kitchen garden, which we then used to make dishes”, she tells EditieNL.
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In this way she got to know all vegetables in a playful way. “When I became a mother myself, I wanted my children to be able to discover it in this way too. But what I found in the supermarket in terms of infant nutrition did not meet that sensory experience.” For this reason, she decided to get started herself and founded her company Magada.
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The company cooks fresh and healthy childcare meals with an abundance of vegetables. “We have also developed the Taste Safari Box. It is a kind of picture book box and it tells a story in which you can take the children on a vegetable adventure. With activities such as reading, blind tasting, games and crafts.”
Learning to eat healthy
This stimulates the children’s taste development, which is very important according to Keller-Cayet. “Because by nature all children have a preference for fat and sweet food. And vegetables don’t have those flavors, that really has to be taught.”
Parents could do this by having their children associate healthy eating with positive and fun things. “For example, a king who eats a carrot in a story, they are more likely to want to taste that carrot.” Repetition is also very important. “They have to taste that vegetable ten to sixteen times repeatedly so that they get used to that taste and appreciate it. Because: healthy habits do not come naturally.”
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Jaap Seidell, professor of Nutrition and Health at the VU Amsterdam, fully agrees with this. “You can already see that people have a preference for sweet and fatty food in babies, who absolutely do not like sour and bitter”, he tells EditieNL. “Only when children eat vegetables repeatedly do they start to appreciate them and learn to like them.”
Repeat
Still, that preference for sweet and fat will not go away. “Even if we have learned to eat vegetables from an early age. Especially if you are a bit older and can go to the supermarket yourself during the break.” But forbidding young people to eat sweet and fat is also not the solution. “Teach them to eat in moderation.”
It is also important to stimulate healthy eating at every stage of life, according to Seidell. “In high school, at the sports club, but also especially at home. Parents play an important role in this. So by teaching children to eat vegetables at a young age, you cannot completely prevent obesity. That is a much more complex problem, but it is an important part of it. “
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