A healthy start

We have lost our way when it comes to our children’s nutrition. So says Anna Burns, nutritional scientist and author of The Food Nanny, The 10 Food Rules to Prevent a Frighteningly Fat Future for Your Kids.

Burns pulls no punches when talking to parents. “It’s time we faced the truth – our kids are getting fat. This is not good. It is the result of overindulgence. And it’s up to you to do better.”

The Cork-based mother of four believes we stopped teaching our children about nutrition out of fear that they’d develop an eating disorder.

“We need to say to them: ‘if you eat too much rubbish everyday, you will get spots, your teeth will rot and you will get fat’. We need to teach them cause and effect when it comes to eating the wrong foods.”

Burns’s 10 food rules aim to make children healthy eaters, fit and full of beans.

Rule 1: I can say ‘no’ to food It’s vital that parents say ‘no’ to children’s unnecessary and untimely requests for food. “When I was a child, if I reached for an apple half an hour before lunch, I got a tap on the hand and was told ‘lunch is in 30 minutes’. We have begun to indulge our children so much that we feel we can’t say no to requests for food out of fear they’ll go hungry. We do them a favour by saying no to untimely requests,” says Burns.

Rule 2: Eat only at table “It’s my most basic rule,” says Burns. “Children today experience no formality about eating. You see them eating on the hoof, grazing all day long — we put food in their mouth to shut them up, to appease them. But if you eat only at table, you instantly cut down on poor quality, high-sugar, high-fat, salty snack foods.”

Rule 3: Have they had their fruit and vegetables? It’s not your child’s job to want to eat Brussels sprouts; it’s your job to present them with it regularly and without forcing them to have it. “A child doesn’t eat broccoli by having the finger pointed and being told ‘eat your broccoli’. He’ll eat it when he sees Mom and Dad eating it with no furore every day of the week. Many parents aren’t aware that kids say ‘no’ to anything new up to a dozen times before they say ‘yes’.”

Rule 4: We do not need to buy organic Burns recommends buying antibiotic-free chicken if it’s reasonably priced. She buys only organic carrots because they taste better and are only a little more expensive than non-organic. But, in general, she contends that we do not need to buy organic super-foods to achieve a balanced diet for our family. “Buy as many whole foods as possible — potatoes, not chips; apples, not apple juice.”

Rule 5: If you can name it, you can consider it When a product reads like a chemistry set, Burns says no. “I do not feed my kids acidity regulators, fructose or glucose syrup, sweeteners or emulsifiers.”

Nor does she feed them ‘functional’ foods as a sort of insurance policy approach to their dietary health. “Functional foods include yoghurt drinks that contain probiotics, cereal bars that contain prebiotics, spreads for bread that contain plant sterols….Children start laying down cholesterol in their arteries from about age three. To avoid excessive cholesterol deposits, I feed my children oats, beans, garlic, red grapes, apples, oily fish and olive oil, all of which lower overall cholesterol levels.”

Rule 6: Say no to passive consumption Avoid the common pitfall of occasion snacking. Your child doesn’t need a bag of popcorn in his hand while at the cinema or a packet of Minstrels when he’s doing his homework. “Eating in these circumstances means your child’s going to overeat by default. Go to the cinema as entertainment in its own right, separate from the act of eating,” recommends Burns.

Rule 7: Eat only when you feel hungry Eating purely for the sake of enjoyment is a recipe for weight gain, says Burns. If, as adults, we listen to our appetite and pay close attention to feelings of fullness, we can teach our kids to do the same. “People often eat at 10 or 11 at night, when they’re peckish, not hungry, because they saw a food ad on TV or because they know there’s left-over cheesecake in the fridge or simply because they have multi-packs of treats in the house that they can dive into on the merest whim.”

Rule 8: Get moving Go out and play should be your mantra, says Burns, who points to the World Health Organisation recommendation that kids get one hour of physical activity every day. Don’t depend on organised exercise classes, she advises. “Perhaps, at swimming, they’re sitting on the side for half the session.” In her house, internal walls have been blown out to facilitate movement. “There’s no china on display. We encourage the kids to run around. They don’t want to go to the park but we go. If you’re not going to get an hour of activity into their day, they’re not going to look for it.”

Rule 9: Just portion control it “To have a normal relationship with food, it’s important not to ban certain types of food. They want to fit in with their friends and eating’s a social activity. It should be normal to eat whatever you want – within reason,” says Burns, whose children eat dessert every day of the week. “Fruit plays a huge part in the desserts I use. I do stewed apple with added frozen berries. They love it with custard or ice-cream. I do meringue with berries and vanilla yoghurt.”

Rule 10: Have a strategy Shop for the right food in the correct proportions. “Your child should get approximately 55-60% of their calories from carbohydrate every day, approximately 30% from fat and 12-15% from protein, with adequate fibre provided through choosing mostly whole foods for the carbohydrates.”

nThe Food Nanny, Anna Burns, €12.99, Gill and Macmillan.