About Vegemi
Vegetables can be fun and positive, though it is not always easy to develop those feelings with children. That’s one of Vegemi’s key ambitions, to help excite children and to motivate them to eat more of the good stuff.
Vegemi is a free mobile app which encourages eating fruits and vegetables through play. The app was created with the whole family in mind, but in particular to show children the health benefits of fruits and vegetables in a way which motivates and inspires everyone. Fruits and vegetables give Vegemi visible and exciting superpowers, which we hope you’ll find fun too! Vegemi’s superpowers are based on the nutrients contained in vegetables and their approved health claims. Of course, we adults know that the superpowers we get from vegetables are diverse, long-lasting and often can’t be seen with the naked eye. We hope that the app inspires your little ones to try a variety of different fruits and vegetables – because what could be more fun than feeding Vegemi delicious vegetables which bring superpowers – whilst at the same time trying something new yourself!
*
Vegemi – The Good Stomach Bacteria
Vegemi is a fictitious bacteria, living in the stomach, which can be used to teach children about the health benefits of fruits and vegetables, appropriate to their age, and encourages tasting new fruits and vegetables through feeding their own ‘Vegemi’s’.
There are many different bacteria and microbes in the human digestive system – in fact, more than there are cells in our body! Microbes are found all over our bodies, especially in our intestines, but Vegemi lives in the stomach for easier understanding. Intestinal microbes are known to affect human health in many ways, although there are also still many unknowns due to the difficulties in studying intestinal microbes.
Vegemi is a great tool to teach your children about the benefits of vegetables, and how our digestive system contains these microbes which promote our health. Encourage your children to feed their own stomach bacteria ‘Vegemi’s’ with vegetables of different colours, shapes and sizes using the Vegemi app. It is fun, tasty and supports their health!
Vegetables are good for children and adults!
It is beneficial to have plenty of fruits and vegetables in a child’s diet. Many food habits developed in childhood are transferred directly to adulthood – what you learn when you are young, you master when you are old! As a child, it is often easier to learn new habits, than as an adult. Flavours and textures of fruits and vegetables can be difficult to enjoy at first, so multiple tastings and repetitions are helpful, without forcing.
A good rule of thumb is to eat five handfuls of vegetables and fruits per day. For an adult, this amounts to about half a kilogram, for children naturally it is less. Fruits and vegetables are all unique, containing different nutrients, bioactive compounds, energy and water contents. That is why including fruits and vegetables of different colours and textures every day, ensures you get the most benefit! The free Vegemi app helps to encourage children to add more and new fruits and vegetables.
Health From Fruits and Vegetables!
Eating fruits and vegetables gives Vegemi superpowers, but is also beneficial for the health of us humans. Eating fruits and vegetables is associated with fewer chronic illnesses and by eating enough fruits and vegetables it is easier to eat within your energy needs.
Vitamins, minerals and trace elements contained in fruits and vegetables support health, as well as other bioactive compounds such as phytochemicals, which support our health in many ways. A large part of the health benefits is based on bioactive compounds, and although many of their mechanisms are not well studied yet, the evidence of the connection is very strong!
Food and health should be a fun and positive topic for your family. Play around with fruits and vegetables and don’t get discouraged if it is a challenging at times, or if not every vegetable is an instant hit in your family! The free vegemi app was created to inspire children to taste vegetables and to support you in delivering food education to your children.
What are Vegemi’s superpowers based on?
Vegemi’s superpowers are based on health claims approved by the Great Britain nutrition and health claims (NHC) register about the health effects of nutrients contained in food. We have researched the nutrient contents of fruits and vegetables using a database called Finel, and with these have come up with fun superpowers for Vegemi. The nutrient composition of the fruits and vegetables presented in the Vegemi concept therefore, have an ingredient that actually has an effect on some aspect of human health. For example, the vitamin A contained in carrots supports normal human vision, and Vegemi gets the power of super vision from carrots!
You can find more information about the nutrients and their health claims behind the superpowers within the information about each fruit and vegetable, from which we have designed the superpowers and Vegemi stories. You can feed fruits and vegetables to Vegemi in the free app, which can be downloaded from your phone’s app store.
Download the free Vegemi colouring pictures for your child here !
The colouring pack contains six fun pictures for your child to print.