Episode 83: Three Easy Ways to Boost Nutrients This Week

Episode 83: Three Easy Ways to Boost Nutrients This Week

Hello and welcome back to The Easy Feed Podcast. In this episode, I’m sharing three simple, practical ways to boost your child’s nutrient intake this week — without overhauling the pantry or creating more stress at mealtimes.

As a paediatric dietitian and childrens nutritionist, I know how overwhelming feeding can feel, especially if you have a picky eater or fussy eater at home. So today is about small, doable habit changes that compound over time. No perfection. No extremes. Just realistic shifts that support childrens nutrition, gut health and long-term wellbeing.

We talk about why tiny wins matter — how one extra bite, one better swap, one added drizzle can positively influence your child’s healthy diet for fussy eaters. Nutrition for fussy eaters doesn’t have to be complicated. It has to be consistent.

Links:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Highlights:

3 Genius Ways to Boost Your Kid’s Nutrition (Without the Fight) (00:00.126)
Simple Habits That Make Kids Healthier (02:24.056)
Small Bites, Big Health Wins (04:40.49)
Easy Ways to Boost Your Child’s Nutrition Daily (07:00.936)
Easy Food Habits That Make a Big Difference (09:24.204
Better Fats, Better Health (11:39.958)
The One Snack Strategy for Healthier Kids (13:52.684)
Why Better Nutrition Starts with Just One Choice (16:13.474)
Three Small Wins for Your Child’s Health (18:39.15)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

In this episode:

Fruit at Breakfast, Every Day
How adding fruit supports fibre, antioxidants and iron absorption — and why this small step makes a big difference.

Layering Nutrient Powerhouses
Simple ways to add nuts and seeds for extra nourishment without changing the meal entirely.

Why Extra Virgin Olive Oil Is Liquid Gold
The science behind healthy fats, gut health and inflammation — and how to use olive oil daily.

Smarter Snack Swaps
How to identify high-additive foods and choose better alternatives without going additive-free overnight.

Small Habits, Big Impact
Why consistency beats intensity when building nutritious foods into busy family life.

If you want more quick easy food ideas, healthy recipes for kids and practical support, head to:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/healthy-recipes-for-kids

For ongoing support, join Nourishing Kids via my website.

Let’s keep feeding simple, positive and powerful.

Show Notes & Resources
Explore free tools, healthy recipes, and nutrition guides at:
🔗 https://nourishwithkarina.com/healthy-recipes-for-kids

🔗 https://nourishwithkarina.com/guide
🔗 https://nourishwithkarina.com/planner

More about Karina and Nourishing Kids!

Join Karina’s 5 Days to Healthier Kids Challenge https://learn.nourishwithkarina.com/5-days-to-healthier-kids-challenge

📒 Grab Karina’s Time Saving Healthy Supermarket Kids Snacks Guide now for the INTRO offer https://karina-savage.mykajabi.com/offers/GkPU49mj

Karina's popular Nourishing Kids lifts the "food stress" load, giving mums a clear plan to get kids trying new healthy foods and guidance on how to feed their family more easily! Learn more here https://nourishwithkarina.com/nourishingkids

Karina is a regular on Channel 7, Sunrise. Check out her segments here: https://nourishwithkarina.com/press

For online consultations & personalised support. Click here https://nourishwithkarina.com/nutrition-consultation

Karina's popular Kids Food Reviews are here https://nourishwithkarina.com/food-reviews

If you have a Fussy Eater, register for Karina's online training and learn the 3 Essential Steps required to end fussy eating. https://nourishwithkarina.easywebinar.live/endfussyeating

3 Genius Ways to Boost Your Kid’s Nutrition (Without the Fight) (00:00.126)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 83. Three easy ways that you can boost nutrients this week. Hi there. I'm Karina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.

Hello and welcome back. I hope that you are well. Today I'm coming in with some practical tips on how to boost nutrients easily in your child's day, in your child's week, in your life as well. And these tips really can be applicable to all of the family members, including the adults. And it's really going to help when done consistently. So we're going to dive straight into these three tips because I like to keep things really doable and practical and

Look, I often will talk about these types of tips online on my Instagram account. So if you're not following me, then please head over to Nourish with karina on Instagram. Also check out my new app. If you head to my website, nourishwithkarina.com forward slash app, you can then click on the Apple or Spotify link, download my free app because that has some great freebies in it for you. I've got healthy snacks, freebies. I've got.

dinner ideas, recipes, you've got lunchbox ideas, you name it. There's some great free guides and PDFs in there for you. Another thing I wanted to quickly pop in and let you know about if you're looking for more support around feeding kids and you'd love to have some contact with me and be able to ask me questions is check out Nourishing Kids. So nourishwithkarina.com forward slash nourishing kids, because that is the way that you are going to be completely supported.

having all of the information at your fingertips and be able to ask me questions about feeding your kids whenever you want. So that's a great option for you. can check that out. Nourishwithkarina.com forward slash nourishingkids. Okay. Let's dive into the episode today. As I said, I wanted to make it really practical because we just need real life practical tips, tips that are actually doable. And I'm really intentional with making my tips very

Simple Habits That Make Kids Healthier (02:24.056)
clear and simple, because when something is simple and doable, you're more likely to do it. And that sounds really basic, but it's so true. With any habit change, if it's too complex, you just don't get started. And if you can just start, then it's more likely to stick, right? And so with any habit change, and this is the case with any habit change.

there's a guru in this space called James Cleon. He's written the book Atomic Habits, and I think it's a great book. And he's got a great podcast episode actually as well. I was listening to it on the diary of a CEO. And it's just all about habit changing and habit formation either, really both. So changing, creating good new habits and getting rid of old bad habits. Because what do they say there? And I really liked the discussion that they had around habits and how

You know, the impact of habits and how you can notice the impact of good habits quite immediately, but you don't notice the impact of bad habits until later on. And when you think about nutrition as well, if you're eating well, you can actually feel a whole lot better and your child can feel a whole lot better and they concentrate better and they just feel better. But the impact of bad nutrition, yes, it may be shown, you know, with poor concentration and behavior.

But that bad nutrition can accumulate over time and you develop gut problems over time. You develop increased inflammation over time. so bad habits can tend to present more later and they accumulate. So you have this compound effect. So if you can create some good habits around food and feeding your kids, then it has a positive compounding effect, just like the bad habits have a negative compounding effect. And really it's the difference between.

good food and bad food and it's not always easy to get our kids to eat good food and we all want to feed our kids good food and we want our kids to actually eat a variety of color. So it's not always easy to make that happen. But if we can just start to make simple changes, simple habit changes that mean our kids get a little more nutrition into their day or their week, it compounds and it makes a big difference. Like one extra bite of fruit or vegetable a day doesn't seem like much, but

Small Bites, Big Health Wins (04:40.49)
It compounds and it adds up. So don't think that the trivial little extra bite here and there, I'm not saying make like bribe them and force them to do it, but if they do take one tiny bite of something, it's not nothing in it. not, it's not that it doesn't matter because it will all add up. So we need to celebrate the small wins is what I'm trying to say. It doesn't have to be a significant, dramatic improvement in nutrition. Just aiming for those small tiny little wins.

They all add up and then they build, momentum builds and then they have another little win and all those little wins equate to much better nutrition. And yes, you will tend to see it in improving their health short term, but also very much long term as well with a reduced risk of disease and inflammation and all sorts of problems and anxiety and depression. Cause we know that gut health is dramatically linked to anxiety and depression and how we eat feeds our gut health. it's.

All related and you will see more of a light being shone on this topic in years to come because it's a huge evolving space. But I am 100 % sure that how we eat nurtures our gut health and our gut health directly impacts our brain health and our mood. So it's all related. So any small change you can make, it's not trivial. It will make a difference. So if your child has one extra bite of something, you know, every second day.

It's great. It all adds up. Okay. So that's, that's the granular level of wins we're aiming for here. Not a complete pantry overhaul. Okay. So let's start with number one. Again, it's simple. And if you already do this, then I'm going to layer it with something else that will give you a little bit of a challenge. So my number one is offer fruit at every breakfast time. Now it seems simple. It seems very granular, but it doesn't always happen. And I don't always do it with my kids either.

You know, often they'll have cereal or they'll have toast or my daughter will be running out the door grabbing what she can. But my son will often have cereal or toast, but I don't always put a piece of fruit there, but it's important to try to do that. Number one, white. But I believe it's important to try and do that because it will increase their intake of number one, fiber, number two, antioxidants and vitamins. Number three, will actually help.

Easy Ways to Boost Your Child’s Nutrition Daily (07:00.936)
iron absorption. So for example, if your child's having peanut butter and toast or an iron fortified cereal, any vitamin C in the fruit will actually help to at least triple the absorption of iron in that peanut butter and wholemeal toast, for example. So putting fruit with breakfast helps your child in many ways. And that's just an example of how you can really easily and simply boost your child's nutrient intake. So you're not only going to be boosting the nutrients actually in

the fruit, but you're also going to be helping to boost nutrients such as iron absorption. So you kind of get a double whammy effect for the better. So just trying to pop a bit of fruit with breakfast is my number one. But if you're already doing that consistently, then I'm going to layer it with another little challenge for you. nobody loses. So nobody misses out here. If you're already doing the fruit, then try and add value, add some little nuts or seeds. They can be in whole form. They can be in chopped up.

form, they can be almost in a powder form, whether it's chia, whether it's crushed nuts, whether it's some linseeds or sunflower seeds, trying to add some of them in because they are little nutrient powerhouses. So that's the little extra challenge of those who are doing fruit every day, then layer it with the nuts and seeds. But if you're not doing fruit every day, then just do fruit every day. Just aim for that. Well, that's one option anyway. So I'm not saying you have to do all three of these. I'm saying just pick one.

But that's my number one, not, and they're not in necessarily order of priority here, but it's just giving you some quick, easy, actionable things that you can do this week. And it's doable. Okay. The number two, love this. And I literally just put in an online order and I got a three litre container because it's just liquid gold. It's so good for us. It's getting more and more expensive. So try and buy it in bulk or try and buy it on special.

But use more extra virgin olive oil, put it on anything. It's so good for us. It is one of the most underused health tools out there. Okay. I mean, and when I say underused, most of us are using an olive oil base, but we're not necessarily, I don't think, valuing the importance of olive oil. You know, when I was going through uni, I was taught not to put too much olive oil.

Easy Food Habits That Make a Big Difference (09:24.204)
And only use a little bit. I remember saying to my mum, bless her. You know, and she was born into an Italian household. She literally was born when the ship arrived from Italy into Adelaide. She was born. so she, she blessed her heart. She's always grown up using a lot of olive oil. And there I am a dietitian student still living at home, telling mum off for using too much olive oil in her, I don't know, onions in her cooking, her sauce for the pasta.

And now I'm, when I think back, I'm horrified that I did that because the wisdom of years and years and years of Mediterranean diet and has passed down through the generations. And there I am saying to her, don't use too much olive oil. And now I'm flipping on it and going, you know what, what I learned at uni, that was rubbish. Of course, extra virgin olive oil is amazing. Use as much as you want because it's so good for us. it's a...

It's kind of sad that there was this period of time and I think a lot of people are still on the low fat bandwagon. Hopefully we're starting to move away from it, but no, that whole low fat movement just created, believe, so many health problems because everyone started eating more refined sugars and carbohydrates. it's like, my gosh, that's like the worst thing for us in terms of driving.

inflammation and metabolic problems, especially in our kids, too many fast sugars. my goodness. So I'm not saying all fats are good. Obviously, not obviously, but I'm not saying all fats are good. So the fat dripping off meat, okay, cream, the fat in fast food, the fat in pastries, that's not good for us, healthy fats, extra virgin olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, peanut butter. I used to go out again as a uni student thinking, my gosh, I'm so naughty for having peanut butter in my toast.

Now I'm like, my gosh, have more peanut butter. It's so good for us. those healthy fats, olives, olive oil, you know, it's really good for us. So number two is use more extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil is rich in polyphenols. So this is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound. It's so good for our gut microbiome diversity. It helps our bowels. It helps the absorption of fat soluble vitamins. So A, D, E, K.

Better Fats, Better Health (11:39.958)
It's so good for us for so many reasons. It's a good source of healthy fats. so in kids with eczema, in kids with asthma, in kids with chronic constipation, in kids getting sick all the time, lady HD, in all of us, kids and adults, we should be having more of it. I think you get my gist. But a lot of kids aren't getting enough healthy fats and they're often getting a lot of refined oils or ultra-processed foods that has more poor quality fat in it or

dairy, which has got more saturated fat in it. And so it's really important to focus on the healthy fats for our kids. Now, if they love avocado, they love guacamole, they love fish, then great. But if they don't get a lot of those healthy fats, then they can get a lot of goodness from extra virgin olive oil. So when you strain the pasta, dollop a whole lot of extra virgin olive oil on there. When you strain the broccoli, olive oil and lemon juice, it's delicious. So

Using more extra virgin olive oil. Adults should be having two tablespoons a day. You know, that's what's recommended for good health. You can use it in baking, but you just need to be really careful because it's got a quite a strong flavor. So you can use the, the light. So when that says light olive oil, that's not low in fat. That's just lighter in flavor.

I think for cooking them, the medium middle of the range one is completely fine. I mean, if you really like a good robust flavor, then you can go that the strong, but sometimes in baking, you have to be careful because olive oil has got that quite strong flavor. But definitely fantastic for anything like drizzling over veggies, baking veggies, roast potatoes, over pasta in risottos. Even on pizza and you go to Italy and they serve the pizza and on the table is the bottle of olive oil and you literally.

Drizzle the olive oil over the pizza. My favorite now is smashed avocado on, sourdough. And then I put some pepper on and then I drizzle olive oil over it. my gosh. It's divine. So actually I had it for breakfast this morning. So yeah, lots of extra virgin olive oil. That's my tip number two. Tip number three is swap one and only one high additive food for a lower additive food. Okay.

The One Snack Strategy for Healthier Kids (13:52.684)
So look, if you've decided that you're going to choose my number one choice, so fruit daily, great. Don't even worry about this one for now, because I just want to make it manageable for you. I don't want you to feel like you've got to do all three of these. Or if you've just decided that you're going to go with number two and you're just going to increase everyone's olive oil intake, then amazing. But number three is also really valuable because I know that in the future, we're going to hear more and more about the health consequences.

of particular food additives. Now they're not all equal and they're not all demons, but some are actually quite bad for us. And in the future, there will be changes, I'm sure, to what is allowed to be put into our food. Now I'm not saying we need to run out now and make sure that every single food that comes into our pantry is additive free, but small changes done consistently will make a big difference. So perhaps pick one of your children's snacks that

that you think has a really long ingredients list. And when you flip the packet around, it's, you've got a lot of ingredients and ingredients with numbers or ingredients that you don't even know what they mean. That's probably the one to target and see if you can find an equivalent or something similar that you can substitute that snack for day in, day out, or week in, week out.

Because that's when you're going to see the big differences. When you are finding foods that they regularly consume and you make them better. That's where you're really going to see the benefit. If it has preservatives in it, if it has colors in it, artificial sweeteners, they're the ones that really irk me. It's why I've created my supermarket guide and it's less than the price of a coffee. And it makes such a difference to parents' lives. You know, you can know exactly what to put in your trolley in a heartbeat.

by just looking at the pictures in this guide. And if you want that, just head to nourishwithkarina.com forward slash guide. The reason I created it is because more and more research is linking these additives to disruption to gut health and microbiome, to behavioral concerns, especially in children with ADHD and autism. And there was only a study that came out two weeks ago, linking some of these additives and cancer, which is why actually I've redone my food additives.

Why Better Nutrition Starts with Just One Choice (16:13.474)
guide, which all my members get. And as I said earlier, if you want to know about how you can join, just head to nourishwithkarina.com forward slash nourishingkids. And that way you're in my inner circle and you get all of the latest information on all of this. Okay. So where do we start? If you've decided you want to do number three, I would start with muesli bars. I would open your pantry and I would look at the muesli bars and I would look to see how long that ingredients list was and what was in that ingredients list.

Or another option is fruit bars and fruit straps. That's another really good place to start. If you're feeling pretty happy with those two, then the third place that I would look are the packaged crackers and puffed potato and rice and all of those wheels and sticks, because that's where you will find so many additives. So remember the goal is a shorter ingredients list, recognisable ingredients, fewer numbers. You will be on the right track. Not perfect, but better.

than the other snack. Okay. So we're just picking one snack to swap out for another snack. You don't have to be completely additive free yet. You can be eventually if you want to be, but small steps, right? It's small steps and any small step you can make towards better health is going to be better for your child and you're going to feel better about it. And everything is going to move in the right direction. But as I said, we just got to pick one thing. Life's too busy to try and do everything. So pick number one, whether it's fruit.

Number two, whether it's olive oil, number three, whether it's swapping out a higher additive snack for a lower additive snack, just pick one of those three, get going and then take the win. And I'm pretty positive that you could start doing this today. So whilst you're listening to this, think about which one you're going to pick. And if you're already doing one, two or three of them, then amazing, amazing. And that hopefully then gives you a lot of confidence that you're already doing a lot of

great things for your child's health without you even realizing, or maybe you do realize that and it's just giving you that reassurance that you're doing well. So if you've got any questions about any of this, please let me know. Reach out to me on Instagram, send me an email, hello at nourishwithkarina.com. Always love hearing from you. Always love helping parents to make better choices for their family to help navigate this tricky path, especially with fussy eaters.

Three Small Wins for Your Child’s Health (18:39.15)
I'm actually also really excited to be back on Channel 7 Sunrise on Wednesday, which will be the day after this podcast drops. And I'll be talking about ham and all the ins and outs of processed meats, why it's been classified by the World Health Organization as a level one carcinogenic food and what this means for us as parents, especially those children that love a ham sandwich and processed meats like a salami sandwich. So.

Yeah, if you're interested in that, then definitely switch on. It's usually around 8.40 is my segment on Channel 7 Sunrise on Wednesday. And as usual for those who are part of my community, who are on my mailing list, I'll try and send a little summary out to you. But as I said, any questions in relation to your child or ongoing support, head to my website nourishwithkarina.com for slash nourishing kids. And you can be a part of my inner circle.

Such a beautiful group of parents, so supportive of each other. So enjoy picking one of those three ways that you can boost your child's nutrients and yours today. And I look forward to chatting with you again very soon. Have a great week. Bye for now.