How to Eat More Fruit….or at Least Make your Teens Eat More Fruit

Fruit is one of those things we need in our diet. Not only because of the deliciousness but also due to the marvelous nutritional benefits. It’s no wonder why it has been on every nutritional guideline ever! Currently, the standard recommendation is 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. It’s sometimes a struggle to try to consciously eat the recommended amount, but here are a few tips and tricks that might help.

1. Slice the fruit

Apples, oranges, pears, plums, peaches, mangoes, melons and so many more fruits can be sliced up into pieces. The pieces are easy to eat and are less messy than just biting into the fruit. I usually use a plain old knife but if you want to get fancy you could get an apple slicer, they even have strawberry slicers shaped like a strawberry. (Click on the links if you want to get a fancy slicer and help me out since I get a few dimes and nickels from each purchase.)

Slicing the fruit makes it a more accessible food that you can just eat like chips or popcorn. It makes fruit more snacky (if that makes any sense). It also reduces waste since that “core” of the fruit is mostly edible but I know many people who don’t eat it when they bite into the apple rather than slicing it up.

You could also slice mangoes in half and just score the flesh in a criss-cross fashion. Opening that up will get you an easy to eat mango.

I find that the ease of eating something makes me want to eat it more and sliced fruits are the greatest invention (sorry sliced bread, you come pretty close though).

2. Eating bite-sized fruits

Bite-sized fruits are also a great way to make fruits more accessible, just stick the bunches of grapes, berries, cherries and again so much more in a bowl, wash them and you’re good to go. Eat them as your snack while watching a movie or TV show in place of packaged or processed snacks. I remember when my mom used to bring grapes to the movie theater when we were growing up and I sometimes still have that habit of sneaking other foods into the movie theater to get more fruit in my diet. It’s definitely better and healthier than nachos and hot dogs.

3. Sprinkle with a little Tajin or salt

Tajin might be a Mexican thing but I have noticed quite a few teens and myself liking the contrast of the salty chili-lime flavor against the sweet taste of fruit. This might not be the healthiest trick due to the addition of some sodium but it’s still better to eat more fruit so the negative is cancelled out. Since the Takis and Hot Cheetos craze among teens has been so prevalent, it is nice to be able to offer that flavor with something a little more wholesome than chips. Tajin is great on oranges, apples, pineapples, watermelon, mangoes and anything you decide. If you don’t have Tajin, you could always buy it with my link or adding a little salt to the fruit works well to make the fruits taste sweeter too.

Those are my tips to eating more fruit or making your teens eat more fruits. I hope you enjoyed reading and I’d love to hear what your favorite way to eat fruits is or what your favorite fruit is. Leave a comment and let me know!