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Food for Thought ...

"I don't like that!"

How often does your child say this to you?

Would they "like it" if you combine it with something they do like? (We will call this "friendly food").

In our lunchbox recipes page we have some examples of ways of creating new combinations using less familiar or un-tried ingredients with "friendly food" to encourage children to try something new.

"Have you ever tried it?"

As Tami says - “You didn't know you liked chocolate until you tried it!” 

In our experience it is not about taking away their "friendly food" - but with the introduction of these new, yet simple recipes children are given a more varied diet.

The trick is not to expect change overnight. How would you feel if someone took away your favourite dish and replaced with a plate of something you didn't recognise? We pride ourselves on bringing our children up with routine and familiarity - so change should be gradual, allowing the child to feel they are still in their comfort zone.

Here comes the science bit ...

What influences whether a person "likes it" or not? We believe that the main physical influences are:

• Taste: There are five basic tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and savoury) and they are detected by the taste buds of the tongue.

• Smell: Smell seems to be the main influence on the flavour of a food. It is the detection of chemical compounds in the air through the nose - and there are almost limitless types of smell.

• Texture: Also called "mouthfeel" this is the way food feels in mouth. Factors such as Hardness, Wetness, Slipperiness, Graininess or Smoothness of food will influence how a person perceives it.

Fundamentally taste is all a matter of individual perception - both physical and mental. We are all different. We don't all like the same things. Some people like beetroot and others don't. That's OK. It is natural. Sometimes we "think" we won't like something, and when encouraged to try it we find that it is actually nice.

If you read the ingredients lists of ready meals sold in supermarkets you will see many oddly-named chemicals and E-numbers. These typically are added to make the food look good (colourings), taste good (flavourings), smell good (aromas) or feel good (emulsifiers etc).

Just because these are chemicals does not mean they are all "bad" or un-natural - many E-numbers are actually naturally occurring ingredients. Judicious use of simple cooking ingredients can transform healthy, but bland, food into enjoyable tasty meals.

Simplifying the decisions about healthy eating

In 2005 a study in the University of Queensland found that people can really only manage to handle up to four variables in decision making. As soon as more things have to be considered it gets too complicated. So, for example, when looking at the nutritional information on a food packet if you try and juggle more than four things in deciding which packet to buy it gets too difficult. You have the price of the food, the weight of the food, how many calories are in it, how much sugar, how much fat, does it have too much salt, does it have bad E-numbers ... and you are suddenly trying to juggle seven bits of information, and that is too many to handle.

So what do we do? Well, there is the old joke that men are bad at multi-tasking and women are bad at prioritising ... but in reality each person does a combination of both. Some people give up and pick just one variable - say the price - and go with that. Others might look at two or three things - the price, the calories, maybe the brand name etc. Some put more weight on the price (maybe because they have a limited budget) but also look at the calories and choose from there.

Food is Fun believe that there is far too much information about what is food good for you or bad for you for people to easily handle. Have a look at the School Food Trust's Nutritional Standards. There are 14 of them, each of which has numerous sub-categories of guidance. This is not to belittle their work, it is great, but making sense of it is not easy!

Each individual will have different priorities. If the budget is tight then price is going to be key. If body weight is critical then calories can be the most important. If one has allergies, or intolerances, then specific ingredients are going to be the most important. For every individual we need to apply common sense to food choices. But above all of these we believe that we mustn't lose sight of the fact that food needs to be enjoyed. Eating shouldn't be a chore, it should be something that gives pleasure.

Or, to put it simply:

FOOD IS FUN!

Common Sense about food

“Animals feed themselves; men eat; but only wise men know the art of eating” Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Peter worked in France for some time with the famous chef Joël Robuchon. He was named "chef of the century", and his cookbook contains some very common sense views about food:

• Nourishment calls for a certain balance, within each meal and from one to the next. To be healthy, then, all of us must find ways of varying what we eat.

• We may think of meat or fish as the centre of a meal, but fruit, vegetables, dairy products, and grains should find their way to every table every day.

• It is particularly important that breakfast be rich and complete - grains or cereal, dairy, and fruit. School children simply must have a good breakfast. Give them fruit or yogurt for their snack instead of chocolate bars, which have too much sugar and fat to eat every day. Make sure you are not feeding children foods with lots of hidden sugar, and save sweets and chocolate for once in a while.

• Fat carries flavour. Like sugar, it should be used sparingly but not eliminated; just a bit vastly improves a dish's taste. Vegetable oils are healthier than butter. Salt should be used in moderation (especially since today's processed foods are so full of it) but, unless you are on a special diet, it need not be harmed in your kitchen.

• In general, if you are worried about your cholesterol, you must keep an eye on your consumption of butter, cream, cheese, charcuterie, fried foods, heavy sauces, and fatty meats. Those with a family history of heart disease should do everything —  they can to reduce their risk factors; everyone else can probably maintain a safe enough cholesterol level by staying within 3 or 4 kilos of a healthy target weight and consuming risky foods only in moderation.

Why is eating healthily important?

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association:

"The leading causes of death in 2000 were tobacco (435 000 deaths; 18.1% of total US deaths), poor diet and physical inactivity (400 000 deaths; 16.6%), and alcohol consumption (85 000 deaths; 3.5%)."

Now, the American diet is typically more unhealthy than the UK - just look at the number of calories in a fast-food burger (740 calories, about a third of the daily requirement), or the amount of sugar in a can of coke (35g, about nine teaspoons of sugar) - but this shows that diet is one of the most significant factors to a long life. Of course you also have to be active, mentally as well as physically, and find happiness through friends, career and achieving your goals.

In addition to physical health there is increasing interest in how diet influences behaviour and development. A 2008 report by the Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum says:

"It is widely agreed that a balanced diet is required to support physical health – and there is good scientific evidence suggesting that the Mediterranean diet is a good model. It is likely that a balanced diet of this kind is also beneficial for the healthy functioning of the brain."

And apart from food being necessary for survival generally-speaking for most people eating good food should be a lot of FUN! There are particular foods that affect the way you feel - but also the social process of eating should be, when done well, FUN!