Eat Like a Pro is a global campaign to encourage families to eat healthier.
Every year, stats show that children are eating worse – less fresh vegetables, less fruit and fish, and more fat and sugar and I have been concerned about what my children have been eating for some time.
Working part time, with the kids doing after-school clubs every evening after school, I find it tricky to ensure they get a healthy, balanced diet and trying to get the kids to eat five portions of fruit and veg daily can be a real challenge, particularly as I have a fussy eater at home.
It seems I am not alone, Beko commissioned research of 2,000 UK mums and dads, parents of children aged 5-8 years and it seems many parents in the UK have simply given up on trying to get their children to eat five portions of fruit and veg daily.
For decades, mums and dads have been plagued with the challenge of getting fruit and vegetables into their minor’s mouths (my Mum can vouch that she struggled with getting me to eat certain fruits and vegetables as a child), and so the quest for five-a-day continues.
The poll of 2,000 parents of children up to age 10, also found that 41 per cent will abandon attempts of getting greens into kids’ diets because they are more concerned about ensuring they eat full stop.
29% have lost their patience trying to get their youngsters to eat a healthy diet, with
one in five saying they have given up because they were tired or in a rush.
And shockingly, five per cent confessed they simply don’t think it’s important for their children to get their five-a-day.
Scary Stats Alert: By the year 2025, it is estimated that there will be over 70 million children in the world suffering from obesity according to the World Health Organisation.
What is the answer?
Beko has launched Eat Like A Pro – a series of recipes working with the FC Barcelona nutritionist – that help families eat healthier, and inspired by their heroes, encourage kids to eat better.
Why are Beko doing this?
As one of the biggest home appliance companies in the UK, Beko has always been focused on families e.g. making everyday family life easier through time saving, energy saving – or cost saving!
Through this new campaign and the recipes, they’re hopeful that they can help take some of the stress away from cooking healthier meals but also help make a positive difference to a wider issue.
How to introduce a varied diet to kids
I am no stranger to the struggle of getting healthy foods into my kids and until now I have resorted to trying to hide the vegetables in their meals.
Beko have a fabulous food styling page, filled with fun ideas to make food look as well as taste appealing.
I won’t pretend that I have the time to be as intricate as the fruit salad above, but even I can see that making food seem more fun with make it more appealing to kids. In fact Sebby has demanded fruit light sabres for his party after spotting them on Pinterest.
I tried my hand at my own attempt at a styled dinner, after a full day at work, and the kids loved my attempt. I didn’t use any extra ingredients, just served spaghetti bolognese in a slightly different way, using the spaghetti as hair and cheese to create a face.
Of course there are other daily battles that us mums and dads face with the kids, such as tidying up, screen-time allowance and doing chores around the house, but winning one of them is always a bonus!
Do you struggle to get your kids to eat their 5-a-day?
Disclaimer: I am working with Beko to help highlight their Eat Like a Pro Campaign.
I’m very lucky that both my daughter’s love fruit and vegetables, but they do also love it when I display food in fun way 🙂 Such a great campaign for Beko to run!
this sounds like a really great campaign – i completely believe it when it says kids are eating worse than ever. So many cheap convenient foods that a re just full of junk
I do struggle on some days with my kids but we usually get them to eat as close to 5 a day as possible.
What great fun ideas, we’re trying to incorporate more fresh fish into our diet as this is proving tricky! Going to pop over and have a look x
I’m quite lucky that whilst she’s always been a bit of a picky eater my daughter loves her fruit and vegetables! I see so many parents who give up at the first hurdle when it comes to getting their kids to eat healthily which makes me sad! Great campaign from beko!
I have become much healthier since becoming a mother. I’m slowly losing weight, eating better, moving more and I want to share all of this with my daughter. What a great campaign!
I must admit I hide Veg too as my son won’t eat onions, mushrooms, tomatoes or things like courgettes. He does love fruit, raw carrots and cucumber so by hiding the others I’m pretty sure he’s eating as well as I can get him to. He is getting a bit better at trying new things and at 4 years old that’s all we can ask of him.
For a mother to a 3 year old like me, this is some absolutely fantastic information that you’ve shared here. Glad that my son likes fruits but he’s not too eager to drink cow’s milk.
Such lovely ideas, that rainbow is just so cute. I know my youngest would think it was too sweet to eat! 😀
Some interesting and slightly worrying stats here. Love the pics of the food – especially the spaghetti smiley face!
Mine love fruit but I find it really hard to get them to eat vegetables. They will have broccoli but that is about it for veg. A salad this time of year they will occasionally have but that’s it. What a great idea.
It’s so important to raise awareness, good health starts with eating healthy food. Both of mines are pretty rubbish – but I’m not giving up, nor will I be disheartened again. We will keep trying.
This is a brilliant campaign, I love anything that helps getting kids eat healthier. My daughter is 15 and I still struggle to get her to eat some vegetables, or even try new ones.
Really scary stats! This is such a fun and creative way to get kids at least interested in healthy foods 🙂
It’s a great campaign to be highlighting. I need to get my son eating a more varied and healthy diet
Oh I love these ideas! I always find the more colourful my children food, the more likely they are to eat it!
I’m all for campaigns that helps people eat healthier! Love the idea of making healthy food look fun and playful x
Love some of these ideas! The fruit kebabs are always popular here and seem to be more fun than fruit not on a stick!