Herbs and Spices: Familiar Flavors Help Your Child Like New Foods

By Julia Moravcsik, PhD, author of Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food

Herbs and Spices -- High in Antioxidants

Herbs and spices are very healthy.  They are extremely high in antioxidants -- after all, many of them were originally used to preserve food.  Some spices have useful phytochemicals that help us fight viruses, bacteria, and even prevent cancer or heart disease.

Using Herbs and Spices to Make Unfamiliar Food That Tastes Familiar

As healthy as herbs and spices are, they are also an extremely helpful tool in helping children learn to like healthy food.  In almost every culture, a time-honored way of getting children to like a new food is to flavor it with a familiar taste.  Greek children will happily eat a new food if it tastes like oregano and lemon.  Indian children will love any new food that tastes like curry.  Your child may eat anything as long as it has ketchup dumped all over it!

While your child is still young -- even a baby -- introduce him to a wide variety of herbs and spices.  Sprinkle cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg on your child's apple slices.  Add some fresh chopped garlic to your child's spaghetti.  Put a little turmeric in your child's macaroni and cheese. 

Once your child learns to love these flavors, you can introduce another food by sprinkling the same familiar herbs on it.  Feeding your child pomegranate for the first time?  Sprinkle the same cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg on this new fruit. It will seem familiar and comforting.

Herbs and spices are not only healthy, they're also a great tool for introducing new foods!

Would you like a simple, easy-to-follow program that will teach your child to love healthy food? See my new book Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food on amazon.com.

Related Links

Cure Your Junk Food Kid in 6 Weeks

Let Your Child Smell Flavorful Foods 

See the Latest Article...