Energy-Boosting Fruits to Add to Your Child’s Diet

We as adults often find ourselves getting tired easily; however, as for our kids, the energy seems to be never ending. From racing through the house all day long to exploring new things and objects like little explorers, these tiny bundles of joy never seem to run out of power. Of course, as parents, we frequently struggle with the urge to preserve their lovely chubbiness while ensuring they have enough fuel for their never-ending adventures. Hence, it becomes essential to incorporate a diverse range of energy-boosting fruits into your child’s diet to maintain their health and vitality. Be it a delightful fruit bowl, an enticing plate of fruit salad, a refreshing glass of fruit juice, or simply a healthy fruit mix, fruits offer a rich source of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and crucial dietary fiber, making them a vital addition to a child’s diet.

Here are five energy-boosting fruits that are crucial for your child’s well-being:

Banana: Struggling with a baby that refuses to eat bananas? You are not alone. Majority of parents find it challenging to feed their child bananas and look for creative ways to include the fruit in their diet, given the healthy benefits it comes with. Primarily made up of sucrose, glucose, and fructose, bananas are regarded as a wonderful source of energy. In addition, since the delicious fruit is loaded with dietary fiber, potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin B6, it helps keep your kids’ hearts strong and healthy. And when it comes to unique methods to incorporate this beneficial fruit into your little munchkin’s diet, your search is over. Simply slicing a banana into fun shapes and including it in fruit bowls, salads, or just sprinkling it over dosas and pancakes would work wonders.

Guava: A powerhouse of nutrients, guava is certainly one such fruit that our grandmothers have always highly praised. Loaded with vital fibers, B vitamins (particularly vitamin B6 and folate), vitamin E, vitamin C, antioxidants, and potassium, guava improves heart health and digestion, boosts immunity, and promotes optimal brain development, making it a crucial part of a kid’s diet. Feeding your little one this healthy fruit in the form of a juice or simply a fruit mix that offers a perfect blend of essential nutrients would ensure their robust growth and healthy immunity.

Chikoo: Sweet-tasting fruits like chikoo are never refused by kids. This, as a result, enables parents to easily incorporate it into their diets, whether in the form of a puree, fruits bowls, salads, or simply by slicing it creatively and using it as a topping over their child’s favourite food with a motive to make their mealtime fun and something they look forward to. What makes Chikoo a must for a child’s diet is the plethora of health benefits it offers, including better gut health, enhanced digestion, improved constipation, stronger immune system, and robust physical and mental health.

Berries: Berries, like strawberries and blueberries, are not only delicious but also a terrific source of natural energy. Rich in antioxidants, including vitamin C and anthocyanins, berries prevent inflammation, improve the immune system, and enhance cognitive ability. Berry-based foods, according to NCBI, have positive benefits on resting brain perfusion, cognition, memory performance, executive functioning, processing speed, and attention indices. Therefore, adding berries to your child’s diet in the form of dips, jams or using it as a topping over pancakes or waffles is unquestionably important in order to boost their cognitive function.

Pomegranate: Due to its abundance in antioxidants, vitamin C, vitamin K, and fiber, pomegranate serves as a crucial fruit for supporting child growth and development as well as strengthening their immune system. And to make this scrumptious fruit fun and something your kids would absolutely adore and love, you can either use it as a colourful topping on oatmeal or pancakes, incorporate them into various dishes, or simply blend them into a juice. Furthermore, pomegranate juice with water creates a delicious and nutritious drink that your little one would never say no to. Apart from being delicious, pomegranate also acts as a great fruit for resupplying children’s bodies with the nutrients they often lose during fever and other diseases.

Fresh fruits: Fruitful addition to your child’s diet

Whether consumed in a mashed form or in the form of fresh fruit bowl, salad, juice, or a healthy mix, fruits provide essential nutrients that are vital to the healthy growth and development of a child. Thus, as parents, it is necessary we include fruits in the diet of our kids in order to shield them against contemporary health problems and provide them access to nature’s healthful goodness.

(The writer is a Head, R&D, Herby Angel)