10 Best Kids Books About Healthy Eating and Nutrition
Choosing healthy snacks can be tricky when kids are surrounded by candy and fast food. Not only in the kitchen, but also in books, too. That’s why children’s books about healthy eating can help make fruits, vegetables, and whole grains look like normal and fun options. When caregivers read nutritious books with their kids, they can learn tips for the whole family! Feeding specialists and occupational therapists can also use books about healthy eating during appointments with children.
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Nourishing foods are important for keeping your digestive system happy. Check out these helpful children’s books about healthy eating with realistic and relatable illustrations!
Best books about healthy eating for toddlers and preschoolers
These sturdy books are a fun and lyrical way to introduce healthy foods to little ones. Eating the food in these books can also help kids poop more easily!
Rah, Rah, Radishes! A Vegetable Chant
With beautiful photographs and catchy rhymes, this book celebrates the joy of eating vegetables. The vibrant pictures were taken at farm stands and markets and show how raw veggies really look like! Each simple chant encourages little kids to chime in with grown-up readers.
To encourage delicious fruits, also check out Go, Go, Grapes! A Fruit Chant written by the same author.
N is for Nutrition: Rhymes by the Alphabet
This sweet board book features simple rhymes and positive language about plant-based foods. With each letter in the alphabet, kids learn about vegetables, herbs, and spices. Children also learn about the power of vitamins and minerals from natural, colorful, and healthy food.
How We Eat
What does healthy eating look like? This board book with photos that breastfeeding, pumping, bottle feeding, tube feeding, forks, spoons, utensils, and using hands are all healthy ways that children can eat.
Best books about healthy eating for children
Children learn so much from the stories they love! These tasty tales can spark curiosity and conversations about common eating situations.
Every Night is Pizza Night
Like many kids, Pipo loves pizza and wants to eat it every day. Her neighbors challenge her to scientifically test whether pizza really is the best food ever. Pipo takes on the challenge and goes on a culinary adventure. As she explores food from different cultures, the food journey develops into a beautiful sense of community.
Written by a chef, the end of the book concludes with a homemade pizza recipe.
I Will Never Eat a Tomato (Charlie and Lola)
Based on the popular Charlie and Lola cartoon, this book can help kids get curious about trying new foods. Lola insists that she will never eat carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes. But with creative and silly convincing, brother Charlie convinces Lola to give new foods a chance.
Our Food – A Healthy Serving of Science and Poems
This sweet picture book uses haiku poetry to teach kids about the science of food and healthy eating. It also encourages curiosity and answers common questions like “What’s the difference between white and brown bread?”
The colorful illustrations feature diverse children, and the science information follows the Harvard’s Healthy Eating Plate guidelines.
The Seven Silly Eaters
This light-hearted rhyming story explores a big family full of “picky” eaters. Tired parents can relate to the chaos of the various demands as each new kid is born! One kid just wants milk, another only craves applesauce…the mother caves to their wishes and make separate meals for each of the 7 children.
Best books about nutrition for tweens and teens
Older kids in elementary school and middle school can delve into more detail about the history and science of food.
Super Foods for Super Kids Cookbook: 50 Delicious (and Secretly Healthy) Recipes Kids Will Love to Make
Kids learn best with hands-on activities, and this cookbook is a wonderful way to invite kids to make their own meals and snacks.
Recipes include superfoods like avocado, black beans, broccoli, kale, lentils, peas, tomatoes, and walnuts. Nutrition facts are also listed for each meal and snack.
Are You What You Eat? A Guide to What’s On Your Plate and Why!
This browsable nonfiction book will catch your eye with gorgeous graphics and food photography. Each page has different sections filled with interesting facts about nutrition, including how food works and what food does for us..
This book is perfect for kids to jump around at their own pace and absorb what they are curious about in the moment.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma – The Secrets Behind What You Eat
From farms to factories to fast food joints, this thought-provoking book takes young readers on a behind-the-scenes look at the production of modern food. With photos, graphs, and other visuals, tweens and teens learn about the impact that food choices can have on personal and global health.
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