Foods To Eat To Lose Weight For Picky Eaters

You want your child to eat nutrient-packed foods that will help them grow strong and healthy, but it feels like all picky eaters want to eat are chicken nuggets and French fries. Don’t worry. I’ve compiled a list of healthy food for picky eaters that may surprise you.

If you have a picky eater at home, you might be frustrated with how challenging it can be to get them to try different foods.

Kids reject food for a variety of reasons–the color, texture, or just because it’s new to them. While it’s true that some picky eaters only want ultra-processed or very bland foods, that doesn’t mean that all kid-friendly foods lack nutrition.

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Here are 15 of my favorites that picky eaters can choose from. Some are homemade, and some are store-bought. Let’s dive in.

Vegetables are a great source of vitamins A and C, B vitamins, and fiber. But getting your picky eater to eat veggies can be a challenge.

Pumpkin puree is an excellent source of vitamins A and K, fiber, and antioxidants. And banana is an excellent source of potassium and fiber.

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French fries are made from potatoes–starchy veggies packed with potassium and a good source of iron. Yes, believe it or not, French fries can be healthy, depending on how they’re prepared.

Whipped frozen banana has a similar consistency to ice cream. Bananas are a significant source of potassium. And this banana “ice cream” is a healthy alternative to traditional ice cream!

Adding fruit or vegetable purees packs in more nutrients but the flavor doesn’t overpower the bread (it’s a great way to add some extra nutrition into your child’s diet).

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Zucchini is a good choice because savory zucchini bread doesn’t have added sugar. So, it’s a perfect breakfast or after-school snack with staying power!

Cut chicken breast into a nugget or tender shapes, coat in breadcrumbs, panko or oats (or a combo of the three), and bake instead of frying. Or, use chicken breast tenders.

You might have the time to make homemade chicken tenders, especially if it’s one of the few foods your little one will eat daily. However, there are some frozen chicken nugget brands that are better options for kids, too.

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Popcorn is a whole grain that’s packed with fiber and antioxidants. And it’s one of the healthiest snacks you can give your child!

Just make sure you avoid the kinds loaded with sugar and unhealthy oils. And, of course, skip this snack for young children.

Pizza can actually be a healthy food for picky eaters. The National School Lunch Program considers this a complete meal with vegetables (tomato sauce), carbohydrates (crust), and protein (cheese).

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But if you make it at home using low-fat cheese and whole wheat pasta and mix in a vegetable puree like cauliflower or butternut squash, it can actually be quite nutritious.

Even if you stick to plain mac and cheese, it’s a source of potassium (cheese), B vitamins and iron (pasta) and vitamin D (milk).

Like macaroni and cheese, this kid-friendly meal is an excellent source of potassium. It has protein, carbohydrates and fat, so it has some staying power.

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Why do parents think it’s unhealthy? Well, there are no veggies and it’s usually made with American cheese–a processed cheese high in sodium.

Kids won’t notice the color when it’s grilled. Also, you can use white cheddar if it entices your child more than the yellow version.

Cereal is often considered unhealthy, but it can be part of a healthy diet if it’s not loaded with sugar. Breakfast cereals are a good source of B vitamins, calcium and fiber, and are usually fortified with iron.

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Most picky eaters prefer plain and even dry cereals. But they lose out on protein, calcium, and vitamin D if they skip the milk.

Need more guidance on healthy food for your picky eater? My class Nutrition for the Extreme Picky Eater can help and be sure to check out The Ultimate Guide to Feeding the Picky Eater.

Welcome to The Nourished Child! I'm Jill Castle, a pediatric dietitian and mom of four. I created this website to help parents nourish and nurture healthy kids with food, feeding & an eye on child development. I'm glad you're here!Eating healthy hasn’t always been easy for me. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t just a matter of discipline and changing my habits… I also had to get over an actual fear of healthy foods, especially fruits and vegetables. Losing weight when you are a picky eater can be an scary task, it requires not just a change in habits, but also a complete change in the way you think/react to many foods.

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When I was a kid I was one of the pickiest eaters there was. I absolutely refused to eat fruits and vegetables, in addition to tons of other healthy foods that freaked me out for a number of different reasons. The thing is that my picky eating didn’t just stop at childhood, it carried on into adulthood too and not only contributed to my weight gain, but made it even harder for me to start eating healthy when I really wanted to lose weight.

I knew that there were lots of foods that were “healthy” for me, but when I was young that didn’t really mean anything to me, because I wasn’t sick (or so I thought) and nobody ever told me that my poor diet was linked to how chubby I was growing up.

It wasn’t until my early twenties that I learned how eating healthy food makes you lose weight, but it wasn’t as simple as making the transition at that moment. As a matter of fact, it was years before I was in the right mindset to start losing weight, and before I finally made a sustainable change that led to me losing 80 pounds.

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In previous attempts to lose weight, I would eat the only few healthy foods that I wasn’t freaked out by, which wasn’t enough to fill my diet on a normal basis, and certainly wasn’t enough to get a good balance of nutrients.

In short, it was never going to work when I was tiptoeing around the problem. Without a full healthy diet I would never be able to replace the junk… because if you cut out the junk and have nothing to replace it with, you’ll starve.

But even knowing this, for the longest time I just gave up on trying which led to me gaining even more weight.

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In my mid-twenties everything changed. There came a day where I took a good hard look at myself, and didn’t just decide to make a change, I realized that I NEEDED to change or I was headed towards a life of low confidence, possibly sickness, and unhappiness.

It seemed I had everything I needed… the drive to change, and the knowledge of how healthy food causes weight loss, but I still had to overcome picky eating.

Losing weight was finally important enough to me that I took action, went to the store, and bought some new healthy foods in addition to the few I was already accustomed to.

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Remember that I had never eaten one fruit or vegetable in whole form… and so when it came to eating healthy the learning curve was huge for me.

I had no idea that you had to wait for bananas to ripen, and so my first banana was actually really gross but I powered through it because I didn’t know any better, and I was determined to improve myself.

I remember eating an apple at work, and someone asking me whose apple I was holding, because the last thing anyone would have expected was for me to eat a piece of fruit.

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Many of the foods that I find delicious now, I literally had to force myself to eat at first, and chew while I was gagging because of my irrational mental block, but I am thankful every day that I broke down those barriers and now have a completely positive relationship with healthy food.

Don’t get me wrong I still have lots of foods to try and the fear is still there, but one by one I continue to expand my diet so that I can stay healthy and have a wide variety of flavor and nutrients while doing so.

It’s still a site to see when I try a new vegetable… I never went through those awkward motions as a kid and so now it’s even stranger as an adult to be making these changes so late in life, but it’s better late than never.

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And so… I often say that if I can do it, anyone can! If you already eat healthy foods every so often, especially vegetables, then you are well ahead of where I started from as far as diet content goes.

Discovering how to lose weight as a picky eater may take a little extra effort in either finding the foods that you do like, or simply taking the time to expand your diet and get over any mental barriers you have built up over time with concern to healthy foods.

As with anyone else trying to change their diet, I always

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