Carrot juice has a ton of healthy benefits for your kids. The science behind why these little orange veggies are so good for us is out there, but communicating that message to our kids can often times be a bit tricky. Some parental marketing must come into play and we have a few tips that we made just for you! First, let’s talk about what you will need to make this wonderful carrot juice!
Ingredients For Your Kids Healthy Juice:
- A juicer of your choice. We use the Omega BMJ330 Commercial 350-Watt Stainless-Steel Pulp-Ejection Juicer
at our house. (that’s an affiliate link with Amazon, where they will send us some loose change if you decide to purchase).
- Eight washed, organic carrots. You can buy them in 5lb. bags at your local grocery store.
- Three apples OR a bottle of your favorite cold-pressed apple juice. This little extra sweetness is the secret to helping your kids drink their juice right up!
How To Get Your Kids To Drink Carrot Juice:
Having your kids make their own organic fruit and vegetable juice does two things at once. First, it will allow them to have fun by putting the fruits and veggies in the blender and watching the juice come out (with parent supervision of course). Second, your kids will be around fruits and veggies and the more you are around something, the less scary they become. I like to say that healthy food choices are “all about the marketing” because our kids look to us as parents to help them make their own decisions on certain things in life. Food is one of those things. If your kids need some motivation, check out our little Lean Green Kid making her own juice:
Sweeten With Apple Juice:
Adding a little bit of sweetness, like mentioned above, is very important for your kids to really enjoy and look forward to drinking their juice. My ratio is usually around 1/4 cup of sweet apple or tangerine juice per 2 cups of carrot juice. Remember, whether you juice the apples yourself or grab some organic apple juice.
Marketing Tips To Help Get Your Kids To Drink Carrot Juice:
-Let them juice with you. With parental supervision, sit one of your kids on the kitchen counter with you or have them get a stool so they can reach the top of the juicer to the put the fruit and veggies in. By them getting a chance to make the juice themselves, they are already more likely to drink it.
-Show Your Muscles. Associate the food that you are making with healthy things like eyes, muscles and jumping high. Tell your kids that the carrots will give them better eyesight and that you want to measure their muscle before they drink the juice and then after as well. Make a big deal out of it. Have them jump in the air and tell them it was a carrot juice jump. Anything that associates fun with drinking this healthy juice is a win!
-Carrot Juice Competition! Do you have multiple kids? Usually, we don’t like to have races in our house because someone always gets hurt (physically or emotionally), but this competition is Lean Green DAD approved! Make your carrot-apple juice and pour it into two child-safe cups with a good amount of ice. When you say go, have each child drink their carrot juice as fast as they can. The winner will get a prize! Perhaps you have a sweet treat laying around that you can give them like a small cookie or something. I don’t know about you…but I would trade a full glass of carrot apple juice for one small cookie any day of the week as a parent! It’s all about incentives.
In closing, it is our responsibility to help our kids make healthy decisions in their lives, whether it be at home or out to eat or at a friend’s house. Since we can’t be there with them every second to help them make those healthy decisions (like picking some healthy organic fruit or veggie juice instead of a coke), we have to teach them at home. By developing a strong love of healthy food for your kids at an early age, you will be fueling them with the knowledge they need to make healthy decisions as they grow older.
