Getting a child to eat vegetables is one of the oldest problems in parenting, and SaladPower is genuinely useful for it in two different ways. It can be handed over as a drink, and for a certain kind of kid that is enough. But another powerful use is as something you stir into the food they already like, where it simply disappears.
The disappearing act
SaladPower blends smoothly into the meals kids rarely refuse. Stirred into a pasta sauce, folded into muffin or pancake batter, or added to a fruit smoothie, it mixes in without grittiness and with hardly any detectable taste, so a serving of real vegetables rides along with dinner or dessert unnoticed. It is less a trick than a shortcut: the vegetables are genuinely there, they are just no longer the thing your kid is negotiating over.
This is not folk wisdom. It has been tested. In a controlled feeding study, preschool children were served entrées on three separate days, identical in appearance and taste but with puréed vegetables covertly incorporated to reduce energy density. Over the day, children more than doubled their vegetable intake and consumed roughly 11% fewer calories, without reporting any difference in how much they liked the food (Spill, Birch, Roe & Rolls, 2011, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition). The vegetables went in. Nobody argued.
So the instinct that has been quietly guiding parents for generations turns out to hold up under a research protocol. That is worth knowing, because it means the effort of stirring something green into the bolognese is not wasted.
Where it actually goes
The vehicles below are the ones parents report most often. None of them require a recipe.
| What they already eat | How it goes in | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato or bolognese pasta sauce | Stir a pouch into the pan while it simmers | Colour and acidity are already close; the lemon reads as tomato |
| Muffin, pancake, or waffle batter | Replace part of the liquid | Baking masks vegetable flavour almost entirely |
| Fruit smoothie | Pour in with the fruit and blend | Berries and banana dominate the flavour profile |
| Chili, soup, or stew | Add near the end of cooking | Strong spices carry it; no texture change |
| Mac and cheese | Whisk into the sauce base | The apple offsets bitterness from the greens |
| Ice pops | Mix with fruit juice or purée and freeze | Cold blunts flavour perception; it reads as a treat |
Should I hide vegetables, or should my kid know they are there?
This is the honest tension in the whole approach, and the research points in two directions at once, which means the sensible answer is to do both.
Hiding works for intake, as the Spill study shows. Preference is built separately. Children learn to like foods largely through repeated exposure to them, and the number of exposures required is higher than most parents expect. Reviewing the evidence on exposure and children's eating, Cooke concluded that repeated tasting of a food is the most reliable route to increased acceptance, and that many parents abandon a food long before the number of exposures at which acceptance typically emerges (Cooke, 2007, Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics).
An earlier experiment made the point sharply: when children were given daily tastes of an unfamiliar vegetable, plain exposure produced durable increases in both liking and intake (Wardle, Herrera, Cooke & Gibson, 2003, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition). Exposure, not persuasion, and not a deal about dessert.
The practical reading is straightforward. Use the disappearing act to keep vegetables in the diet this week, and keep putting visible vegetables on the plate for the longer project of building a child who eats them willingly at twenty-five. The two are not in competition.
Or just let them drink it
For kids who will drink it straight, a pouch is about as low-effort as vegetables get, with no plate to clean and no standoff at the table. Because it is real whole organic produce with no added sugar, it sits much closer to a vegetable than to the sweetened pouches that fill the kids' aisle.
That last distinction is doing more work than it appears to. The American Heart Association's scientific statement on added sugars in childhood recommends that children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 consume less than 25 g, about six teaspoons, of added sugars per day, and that children under 2 avoid added sugars entirely (Vos et al., 2017, Circulation). Many products shelved beside SaladPower in the same aisle are built around fruit concentrate. SaladPower's ingredient list is six whole items long: spinach, kale, carrot, broccoli, apple, and lemon. The only sweetness is the apple, and it is a whole apple rather than a syrup.
How far short are kids actually falling?
Far enough that this is a mainstream problem rather than a niche one. National surveillance found that the great majority of US children were not meeting vegetable intake recommendations, with white potatoes making up a substantial share of what was counted as vegetables at all (Kim et al., 2014, MMWR). Analyses of the correlates of children's intake have consistently found that availability in the home and parental intake are among the strongest predictors, children eat what is present and what they see eaten (Lorson, Melgar-Quinonez & Taylor, 2009, Journal of the American Dietetic Association).
That second finding is quietly the most useful thing in this article. If you want a child to eat vegetables, the highest-leverage variable is not a technique applied to the child. It is what is in the kitchen and what the adults are eating.
Food, nutrient, ingredient
Carrots are a root vegetable, and orange root vegetables carry beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A; carrot is one of SaladPower's six ingredients. Spinach and kale are leafy greens, and leafy greens carry non-heme iron and vitamin K; both are in the pouch. Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable, and crucifers carry vitamin C and folate; broccoli is the fourth ingredient. Each 8 oz pouch supplies 100% of the Daily Value for vitamin A, 20% for vitamin C, 30% for iron, and 5 g of fiber, at 90 calories. Those figures describe what is in the pouch. The research above describes how children come to eat vegetables and what vegetables contain, not what any product does.
Is a blended vegetable as good as a whole one?
Blending is not juicing, and the difference matters. Juicing removes the fiber; blending keeps it, which is why each pouch still contains 5 g. What blending does change is the physical structure of the food and how quickly it is consumed, so a drink will not do the same work for chewing development or for satiety that a plate of roasted broccoli does.
The reasonable position is that it counts as vegetables and does not replace the experience of eating them. Use it as a floor, not a ceiling.
A note for the littlest ones
SaladPower is a whole-vegetable food, not an infant formula or a baby food, and the diets of babies and toddlers are their own subject. For young children, check with your pediatrician before adding it, as you would with any new food. Portion size for a small child is a conversation with your pediatrician too, a pouch is sized for an adult serving.
Looking at this from another angle, or for another member of the household? See Who Is SaladPower For? →
Frequently asked questions
Can I hide SaladPower in my kid's food? Yes. It blends into pasta sauce, baked goods, and smoothies without grittiness and with hardly any detectable taste, so it adds real vegetables to foods kids already eat. Covertly incorporating puréed vegetables into familiar entrées has been shown to increase children's vegetable intake without reducing how much they liked the meal (Spill et al., 2011, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Is hiding vegetables a bad habit to get into? Not on its own, but it should not be the whole strategy. Hiding raises intake; it does not build preference. Preference comes from repeated exposure to the visible food, often over more tastings than parents expect (Cooke, 2007, Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics). Do both.
Does SaladPower have added sugar? No. It is six whole organic ingredients with no added sugar, unlike many sweetened kids' pouches. For context, the American Heart Association advises under 25 g of added sugars per day for ages 2-18 and none under age 2 (Vos et al., 2017, Circulation).
Is SaladPower okay for toddlers and babies? It is a whole-vegetable food rather than a baby food or formula. For young children, check with your pediatrician before introducing it, including on portion size.
Will it change the taste of what I stir it into? In strongly flavoured foods, tomato sauce, chili, chocolate baked goods, fruit smoothies, most parents report no detectable change. In plain or delicate foods it is more noticeable.
Does blending destroy the nutrients? Blending keeps the fiber, which is what separates it from juicing; each pouch has 5 g. It does not replicate the chewing and satiety of whole vegetables, so it is a supplement to them rather than a substitute.
How much does one pouch count for? A pouch is 2× the daily vegetable target for an adult serving. For a child, ask your pediatrician what an appropriate portion looks like.
My kid refuses everything green. Does that rule this out? Not necessarily, that is precisely the case the stir-in approach is for, since the pouch disappears into what they already accept. Keep offering visible vegetables alongside.
Sources
- SaladPower product page. Six whole organic ingredients (spinach, kale, carrot, broccoli, apple, lemon), no added sugar, 2× daily vegetables, USDA Certified Organic; per 8 oz pouch: 90 calories, vitamin A 100% DV, vitamin C 20% DV, iron 5 mg (30% DV), potassium 727 mg (15% DV), 5 g fiber. Accessed July 2026. https://www.saladpower.com/products/saladpower
- Spill MK, Birch LL, Roe LS, Rolls BJ. "Hiding vegetables to reduce energy density: an effective strategy to increase children's vegetable intake and reduce energy intake." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2011;94(3):735-741. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.111.015206
- Cooke L. "The importance of exposure for healthy eating in childhood: a review." Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. 2007;20(4):294-301. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-277X.2007.00804.x
- Wardle J, Herrera ML, Cooke L, Gibson EL. "Modifying children's food preferences: the effects of exposure and reward on acceptance of an unfamiliar vegetable." European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2003;57(2):341-348. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601541
- Vos MB, Kaar JL, Welsh JA, et al. "Added Sugars and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Children: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association." Circulation. 2017;135(19):e1017, e1034. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000439
- Lorson BA, Melgar-Quinonez HR, Taylor CA. "Correlates of fruit and vegetable intakes in US children." Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2009;109(3):474-478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2008.11.022
- Kim SA, Moore LV, Galuska D, et al. "Vital Signs: Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Children, United States, 2003-2010." MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2014;63(31):671-676. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6331a3.htm
- USDA FoodData Central. Nutrient composition of spinach, kale, carrots, broccoli, apples, and lemons. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/
This article is general educational information about vegetables and children's eating research. It is not medical or pediatric advice, and nothing here is a claim that any product prevents, treats, or cures any condition. Children's nutritional needs vary by age and individual circumstance, consult your pediatrician or a registered dietitian, particularly for infants and toddlers.
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