Like the saying goes "We Are What We Eat", and my wake up call came 3 years ago when I became a Dad. Suddenly my vague dislike for the current state of affairs became crystallized.
Trying to buy additive free food or drink is difficult, but it is do-able if you read the labels and read between the lines. For example low in sugar is often bad because the sugar is replaced by those disgusting artificial sweeteners. After cooking for 30 years I have yet to find something artificial that is better than natural. If you want your kids to cut back on their sugar intake then get them drink a glass of water between the squash and fizzy pop.
I think the issue is now starting to get press attention on both sides of the Atlantic, but we involved in food blogging should do more to speak out against poor quality food that is often targeted at our kids. The reason so many kids have bad eating habits in the UK is because we allowed it, and before anyone offers one of the many excuses for the current situation let me just underline it didn't used to be this way.
When I was a kid if my parents took me out to eat.......children were offered 1/2 portion of the dishes on the menu. This was before the advent of the dreaded *kiddy menus that have done so much to reinforce bad eating habits.
In a America the situation with school meals is even worse because they have allow MacDonald's franchises into a lot of schools. (Side bar question) Has the TV Documentary "Super size Me" been shown on American TV? and if it has how can schools in good conscience be party to this? Giving kids healthier options "should not be a suggestion, it should be a requirement," said Sen. Patrick Leahy recently.
So many times I hear the anguished resignation of a parent saying I can't get my kids to eat vegetables or fruit Well my kid does!!!!! She is aged 3 and right from the beginning her mom and I have made sure she eats many different fruits and vegetables. Kids like adults will always have their favorites, never the less she is encouraged to eat a broad range of foods (pasta, meats,fish, rices and other grains, pulses, fruits and vegetables). When ever possible she eats with the family at the table, not in front of the TV, so she has grown up understanding that meal times are important meeting time for families.
Without thinking too many parents pass on their own likes and dislikes rather than letting the child try a broad range of foods. Then there are bad influences such as Derrika at nursery who seems to hate all foods that don't contain sugar, chips or ice cream. These influences have to be negated as much as possible. My little munchkin likes chocolate and ice cream but at the right time and after she has finished her dinner.
Pay close attention to the ingredients of foods you buy for your kids because many of the foods targeted at children contain lots of E numbers (chemicals) and artificial sweeteners (Saccharin and Aspartame), I just don't know how the executives of these companies sleep at night after feeding so many chemicals to the nation's children. I buy Felicia various juice drinks like Ribina, cranberry & raspberry juice, apple juice, orange juice and I make sure that at some point in the day she drinks some bottled water. If I buy her crisps (potato chips), I buy plain salted crisps that have just potatoes, oil & salt in them.
In the UK the combination of decline in wholesome school dinners during the 80's together with a conscience effort by hotel & restaurant chains to compete with fast food outlets has been a double whammy. If a child's parent can't cook or won't cook where can the child get a decent meal?
The Naked Truth
As a chef I had never been a big fan of Jamie Oliver but when his series on school dinners aired (in the UK) his rating in my book, definitely went up considerably. Here was guy with young children of his own and that had spurred him on to get involved with the unfashionable (at the time) thorny issue of school dinners. There were other TV chefs before him who too had children and could have made a crusade on kids eating habits but they chose not to. I'm sure that some of Jamie's TV people probably advised him against his crusade but he stuck to his convictions.
*This is a copy of a letter I sent last year to the Good Magazine (UK) in 2005
The Decline Of School Dinners
It happened in the 80's, suddenly hotel and restaurants wanted to get on the money spinning band wagon of fast food, so instead of being able to buy a smaller portion of real food for our children they are given a choice of fish fingers, burgers, sausages or pizza and the closest these menus get to vegetables are baked beans or frozen peas.
In some families the situation is compounded by their poor food choices or excuse for choices. So where can a child have a good meal if not at school?
I'm a chef and food writer and I clearly think since a previous (Tory) government created the appalling situation with school dinners in the 1980's in the end it will take a government to fix it.
No peace meal solution, however well meant is comprehensive enough to undo the damage that has been done to the system, where profit was chosen over the welfare of the nation's children.
When I was a child, local authorities subsidized school dinners to keep them affordable. That together with the fact that many schools had in-house facilities staffed by women whose children often attended the school. These women were skilled in making nutritious and yet cheap meals with plenty of choice.
This is not a Nanny state solution but restoring common sense to ensure that even the most vulnerable of our children get at least one decent meal a day. Anyone foolish enough to offer any argument to the contrary should stop and think of the financial cost to the NHS when children who have grown up on pizza & chips become unhealthy overweight adults with all kinds of avoidable problems connected to their poor diets, heart disease, back problems, intestinal problems, even bad sleep patterns can be traced back to what people eat.
To me it is not just the issue of fat in the junk food but the chemical additives, which have mostly as yet undiscovered effect on the body, because they are never tested in "real life" combinations. How can we in good conscience, say to our children don't do drugs but at the same time give them lots of foods that are laced with drugs on a daily basis?
My 2-year-old daughter likes Pringles but I will not allow her to eat them because I realized that without 10 minutes of eating them she was bouncing off the walls. Now I know this is only anecdotal evidence but we all need to pay more attention to what our kids eat. I believe in recent generations more and more people are becoming allergic to a broad variety of foods and products, in part due to the toxic dump we have unwittingly turned our bodies into. Ultimately, only when we as a society start to live in harmony with nature instead of trying to constantly cheat it will we be able to say we have solved the problem of what our children eat.
Kids and Food Kevin Ashton 2006
If using all or part of the article you must give credit to me and a link to my food blog.
Kevin Anthony Ashton is an internationally experienced Chef of 30 years who now wants to shares his recipes, culinary advice, opinions on food issues and humorous tales with you.
He writes a weekly column for Birmingham's Sunday Mercury (estimated readership 500,000) and is also a member of The Guild Of Food Writers & the British Culinary Federation.
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