Worried Your Child is Becoming a Junk Food Vegan? How to Get Your Kids to Eat Less Processed Foods

One of the biggest goals for most vegan parents is how to get their kids to eat less vegan processed foods, and make sure their kids aren’t turning into “junk food vegans”. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as simply not giving your kids processed snacks anymore. But with the steps I outline in this post, you’ll be able to give your kids more veggies, fruits, wholegrains and beans, and set them up for a lifetime of health.

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Why Do Kids Love Vegan Junk Foods?

The first thing to understand is that it’s not your child’s fault that they prefer processed foods to fresh foods. There is a LOT of money invested into making processed foods as addictive as possible. The sugar, fat and salt content of foods are manipulated to make us want more, so it’s no wonder your kids prefer them to fruits and veggies.

Not only are the foods themselves developed to be as addictive as possible, they are also heavily marketed to kids. They have bright colours, and use fun characters to sell them. Plus your child’s friends are probably eating a lot of them, too – and one of the ways we love to fit in with our peers is to eat similar food to them.

Another thing to consider about vegan processed foods is that they are made to all taste and feel the same. This is especially important for neurodiverse kids who may struggle with the texture differences in fruits. Consider a punnet of blueberries – you’ll find some that are plump and sweet, some will be squishy, and some won’t be quite ripe and will taste very tart. If you compare that to a cup of cheerios, where every cheerio will have the same taste and crunch, it’s easy to see why kids with sensory issues would prefer the processed food!

To top it all off, processed foods are far more convenient than other foods. So we parents are a lot more likely to opt for then when we’re feeling busy and stressed.

Are All Vegan Processed Foods Bad?

There are many different views on processed foods and so called “vegan junk food”. Some people catagorise anything that has been processed as “bad” for us, including foods like tinned tomatoes, pasta and flour. A recent study has found that the types of food we eat are more important than the level of processing of the foods. So rather than banishing all foods that aren’t fresh fruits, veggies and beans, it is better to focus on the types of foods that we’re eating. Another benefit of processed foods mentioned in the study, is that while their health benefits could be the same as unprocessed foods, depending on the food type, they were cheaper and lasted longer. So that’s definitely a win for busy parents!

When considering foods for your kids, it’s important to look at the nutritional content of the food, rather than how processed it is. For example, a cup of softdrink has very little nutrition content. On the other hand, a cup of soy milk will give your child 1/3 of their daily calcium needs, some iron, protein and even a little bit of fibre, but both are considered to be processed foods.

So when I’m talking about removing processed foods, I am referring to vegan junk food with low nutritional value like lollies, chips and soft drinks. I’m not talking about foods like wholemeal bread, wholemeal flour and pasta.

How to Get Your Kids to Eat Less Vegan Junk Food

Crowd Out Rather than Take Away

In order to get your kids to eat less processed foods, I recommend focusing on adding in more nutritious food options to crowd out processed foods, rather than just taking the processed foods away. That way your child isn’t feeling deprived and like you’re taking food away from them. Rather they will just be eating less of the processed foods because there are other options to eat as well.

Replace Vegan Junk Foods with Foods Your Kids Love

When you’re trying to replace processed foods, you need to remember that they have been designed to be addictive. So you need to be giving alternate options that your kids really like. There’s no way that a slightly brown banana is going to be able to compete with the research and money that has gone into developing those potato chips!

You need to be giving your kids foods that they really like, but are highly nutritious as well. If you need recipe ideas, my book Super Boosted Snacks is a great place to start. All of the recipes have been specifically developed to be foods that your kids will love like brownies, chocolate pudding and cookies, but packed full of iron, zinc, calcium, protein and fibre. So make sure you check out my book here for recipe ideas.

Make Healthier Options Easy to Access

If you want your kids to eat more fruits and veggies, then make them easy to access. I like to wash and prep my fruits like watermelon and berries so that they’re easy to grab. I keep them in a container in the fridge so that my kids can easily grab them anytime.

At the same time, make processed foods harder for your kids to access. The best option would be to not have them in the house at all – that way you’d have to go all the way to the shops to get them. But if that isn’t an option, you can also keep them up high or somewhere else that’s harder for your kids to get to them. Instead, have more nutritious snacks available at the front of the pantry or fridge for your kids to grab instead.

Keep Things Quick and Easy

One trap that we often fall into when trying to improve our diets is to try to make everything from scratch. This very rarely works. You’ll end up with a fridge full of ingredients, and nothing to eat when your kids come home from school starving. Then you’ll invariably end up opting for take away or something quick from the supermarket.

Instead, start by getting less processed snack options that are still easy. You can get snacks like muesli bars and protein balls from the supermarket, or you can make some of the 10 minute snacks in my recipe book, Super Boosted Snacks. That way you’ve got something quick and easy to throw together. Plus you’ll always have something on hand when your kids are hungry.

Final Tip

It is important to remember that the first thing you want to do when trying to get your kids to eat less vegan junk food, is break their addiction to those foods. As I said earlier, those foods have been specifically developed to be as addictive as possible. So get your kids eating foods they still love, but with less sugar, salt an oil. Then, as your kids get used to the newer foods, you can start to incorporate more fresh foods like fruits and veggies.

And if you’re looking for great recipes to get your kids eating less processed foods, then make sure you check out my recipe book, Super Boosted Snacks here.