After a long day, when your kid is making yet another fuss about eating their vegetables, you as a parent can get very tired. You do not have the energy sometimes to trick them into eating their vegetables and at that point, you are willing to even feed them anything as long as they are healthy and fed. Here are some nutritional foods that your children might enjoy but that are usually overlooked.

Edamame

These little green pods are fun to pop and packed with protein and fibre. They're a great meat-free alternative and keep tummies full for longer. They make for a mean salad that even your kids will enjoy. Add a bunch of seasoning that fits your child’s palate toss the beans in them and feed it to them while they are playing and distracted by something.

Sweet Potato

You kids will love eating this fun superfood. Sweet potatoes are full of Vitamin A, important for healthy eyes and growth. They're also naturally sweet, making them a tastier alternative to regular potatoes. To make your children more susceptible to eating it you can ask them to help you roast it and play indoor camping.

Lentils

If made in the perfect way, this easy dish might be your way out of the food worries. Tiny but mighty, lentils are a budget-friendly source of protein and iron. They can be added to soups, stews, or even pasta sauce for a hidden veggie boost. Make different types of dal that your child can enjoy along with rice and other condiments like Papad.

Eggs

Not just for breakfast! Eggs are a complete protein source, meaning they have all the essential amino acids for building strong bodies. They're also packed with choline, which are important for brain development. Eggs are a mighty source is nutrients that your kids must have. And the best part is, you can make it in various forms like boiled, scrambled fried etc.

Greek Yogurt

This creamy yoghurt is a protein powerhouse with less sugar than regular yoghurt. Top it with berries, granola, or honey for a delicious and nutritious snack. Now you may have a little difficulty introducing this to your kids as the taste is something you must get used to. Slowly start with giving it to them as snacks and encourage them to eat it.

Bananas

This fruit is not just a tasty and healthy fruit, but it is rich in potassium and pectin — a prebiotic fibre known to help improve digestion. Not only this but unripe bananas can help reduce the frequency of diarrhoea. a great source of energy and essential for healthy muscles and nerves. They're portable, perfect for lunchboxes, and come in their own fun packaging!

Peanuts

This creamy spread is rich in protein and healthy fats, keeping kids satisfied. It's also a good source of Vitamin E and Magnesium. Pair it with banana slices, or whole-wheat crackers, or even spread it on apple slices for a fun and nutritious snack. This dish is a kid's favourite. PB&J (peanut butter and jelly) is a famous American breakfast that you must try!

In India, over half of adolescent girls and women are anaemic; one-fifth have low Body Mass Index, while micronutrient deficiencies like Vitamin D and Vitamin B12 affect 60% and 53% of girls and women, respectively. The resulting lack of energy, poor ability to concentrate, bone pain, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and a variety of other health challenges cause significant loss of quality of life, poor productivity, and high morbidity among women.

The multifactorial causation theory of nutrition effectively defines that, alongside nutrition-specific factors, nourishment depends on nutrition-sensitive factors, including socio-economic and cultural factors, that are often shaped by communities.

Although women almost universally prepare food at home, gender norms compel women to prioritise serving food to family members before themselves, resulting in smaller portions and nutritionally inferior diets for themselves. This is particularly harmful to women when the demands of the body are high, such as during adolescence, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and peri-menopause. To break such harmful practices reinforced through generations, focused social and behaviour change (SBC) strategies that foster community action are essential.

Re-Positioning Women’s Nutrition for Effective Behaviour Change

The objective of SBC is to change knowledge, attitudes and practices of target groups and stimulate social change at the local and national level. Good SBC efforts can encourage community engagement, influence social norms, support policy advocacy, promote service uptake, reach underserved populations and foster a media environment that resonates with downstream engagement. Community Action can be an outcome of a good SBC effort.

An SBC approach meant to centre a woman’s nutrition needs within a household must target all decision makers within that family and community such as husband, mothers-in-law, elders, local leaders and other influencers. Rather than adopting a narrow woman-centred approach, messages that position the health and nutrition of a woman as central for the well-being of the entire family are more effective.

Communication strategies that emphasise outcomes that are valued by families, such as better nutrition leading to a reduction in sickness-related income loss, decreased healthcare expenditure, increased savings and improved productivity, are more appealing and acceptable in Indian and other similar societies. Such framing aligns women's nutritional needs with aspirations families are motivated to achieve.

Behaviour change rarely occurs after a single exposure to a message. New ideas gain acceptance when repeated consistently by trusted community sources like ASHAs, Anganwadi Workers, SHG leaders, Panchayat representatives, faith-based leaders, community elders, and frontline health workers. Consistent messaging across platforms builds trust, creates social acceptance, and gradually shifts expectations regarding women's health.

Also read: Eating 4–6 Servings of Whole Grains Daily May Lower Heart Disease Risk

Fostering Community-Led Collective Action

Evidence demonstrates that community-led collective action effectively shifts entrenched norms. Women's collectives provide safe spaces for discussion, peer learning, and collective problem-solving, becoming agents of social change rather than mere beneficiaries. Sustainable improvements require interventions operating simultaneously across multiple levels:

• Individual level: Knowledge, confidence, and agency for informed nutritional choices.
• Household level: Positioning women's health as essential for effective caregiving, household productivity, reduced healthcare costs, and overall family well-being.
• Community level: Women's collectives, SHGs, youth groups, Panchayats, and faith-based organisations fostering dialogue and establishing healthier behaviours as socially desirable.
• Institutional level: Frontline workers requiring training, supervision, and culturally appropriate tools for consistent messaging.
• Policy level: Integrating nutrition with livelihoods, women's empowerment, social protection, and primary healthcare rather than isolated sectoral programmes.

Also read: Can An Overweight Child Be Malnourished? Signs Of Hidden Malnutrition In Kids

Lessons from Implemented Programmes

JEEViKA, Bihar's State Rural Livelihoods Mission, demonstrates effective change. Rather than presenting maternal and child nutrition as isolated health issues, JEEViKA positioned nutrition within household well-being. Messages focused on how improved food practices enhance productivity, increase income, and strengthen family well-being. This framing resonated with household priorities and encouraged wider family participation, contributing to substantial improvements in dietary practices without directly challenging cultural norms. Messages were discussed during SHG meetings, reinforced through peer support, and complemented by frontline health services.

Alive & Thrive, implemented by FHI 360, generated important evidence on culturally grounded social and behaviour change communication in Bihar. Formative research found poor maternal diets driven less by food scarcity than by household norms regarding meal frequency, food allocation, and perceptions about eating during pregnancy. Importantly, many pregnant women were willing to consume more diverse diets when household members supported changes and messages addressed prevailing beliefs rather than simply providing nutritional advice. The programme emphasised repeated interpersonal communication, practical counselling, engagement of influential family members, and community-based reinforcement.

Food fortification provides a cost-effective population-level complement to this goal. Fortified staples can help bridge micronutrient gaps; however, they are complementary to, and not a substitute for, a balanced and diversified diet.

A comprehensive review across India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam concluded that integrating social and behaviour change interventions into community-based women's groups improves maternal and child nutrition practices through peer support, collective efficacy, and existing social capital.

The Way Forward

Improving women's nutrition requires moving beyond food distribution, supplementation, and knowledge-sharing. The challenge is fundamentally social as much as nutritional. Food availability creates opportunity, but social norms determine utilisation. Lasting improvements depend on transforming beliefs, behaviours, and relationships governing food allocation within households, demanding culturally grounded communication, repeated reinforcement from trusted actors, and sustained collective action through women's groups.

Women's nutrition should be recognised as a strategic investment in household resilience, economic productivity, community development, and national human capital, not solely a maternal and child health issue. When women are well-nourished physically and mentally, benefits extend far beyond individual health.

Future programmes should move beyond information dissemination towards community-owned social norm transformation, using collective action as catalysts for sustained behavioural change. This represents one of the most promising pathways for improving women's nutrition at scale while strengthening family health, livelihoods, and community resilience.

By Dr Amrita Misra, Visiting Professor, Azim Premji University

Whole grains are becoming more popular day by day because of their nutritional benefits, and a recent study has highlighted another major advantage of eating four to six servings. According to the study published in the European Heart Journal, eating four to six servings of whole grains every day may help lower the risk of heart disease. As heart disease is arguably one of the most fatal ailments, these findings, if true, can give hope to millions.

The research shows that eating a diet rich in whole grains may help to prevent heart disease. The study emphasizes that these foods reduce body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and glucose in the blood, which in turn play a major role in lowering the risk of heart disease overall.

The lead researcher Dr. Helda Tutunchi from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran said, "Although higher whole-grain intake has long been linked to better heart health in population studies, clinical trials have produced mixed findings. This left an important practical question unanswered: How much whole grain should people eat to meaningfully improve cardiovascular health?"

"To address this, we systematically combined and analyzed all available randomized controlled trials to identify the amount of whole grain associated with the greatest benefits." She added.

The findings came after trials conducted across Asia, Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Brazil. Notably, more than 6,500 people took part in these trials. The thorough analysis showed that whole grains significantly reduced people's body weight, waist circumference, and blood pressure, as well as levels of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, and interleukin-6, a sign of inflammation in the blood.

The study suggested that these benefits might be seen in those who eat 30 to 40 grams of whole grains per day, but the maximum benefits were found in people eating 60 to 100 grams per day. This amounts to around four to six servings of whole grains a day—for instance, oatmeal, a sandwich made with whole-grain bread, and a serving of brown rice.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr Cecilie Kyrø of the Danish Cancer Institute in Copenhagen and her colleagues noted that more than 50 years ago, Sir Denis Burkitt and his fellow researchers suggested that refining staple carbohydrates—and removing the cereal fibre in the process—could contribute to a wide range of Western diseases by affecting stool volume, bowel transit time and the environment within the colon.

Whole grains are cereal grains that retain all three major components—bran, germ and endosperm—in the same proportions found in the intact grain. They can be consumed as whole kernels or flakes, or ground into flour and used to make bread and other foods.

When we think of malnutrition, we often picture a child who is thin or underweight. But malnutrition can sometimes look very different. An overweight child can also be malnourished.

A child may consume enough—or even too many—calories and still not get the nutrients needed for healthy growth. Diets high in processed foods, sugary drinks and refined carbohydrates can lead to excess weight while being poor in iron, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, protein and other essential nutrients.

This is particularly important today, when childhood overweight and obesity are increasing alongside micronutrient deficiencies. A child’s weight alone therefore cannot tell us whether the child is adequately nourished.

Parents need to look at the overall picture—growth pattern, height and BMI for age, dietary habits, physical activity and, when required, blood tests for specific deficiencies.

Parents should also remember that “eating more” does not always mean “eating better”. A balanced diet containing adequate protein, vegetables, fruits, whole grains and other nutrient-rich foods is essential.

The goal should not simply be a healthy weight, but a healthy, well-nourished child.

Dr. Ashish Gautam, Principal Director, Robotic Surgery, Laparoscopic & Minimal Access Surgery, Max Hospital, Patparganj