Hi - This article in the Guardian talks about how supermarkets have hijacked the health message of Five a Day and use it to push high calorie, high fat, high cost foods. It's a sleazy trick, made even worse when they're using it to peddle processed foods aimed at babies and toddlers.
I've heard a lot of parents saying 'it's one of her Five a Day' in a kind of awed, almost spiritual tone as they hold up some plastic packet of overpriced gloop that contains a token amount of dried date powder or whatever, just so that the label can make its Five a Day boast.
Marketers know what they're doing and as busy parents who want the best for our children as well as craving a little convenience in our lives, we are sitting ducks.
It's time to stop being hoodwinked by this dishonest labeling. And it's not hard to do. What I like to do with my daughter is to think of how much fruit and veg I want her to have in the day and then use a simple trick with the meals to overachieve it.
Post continues below
Check out my Visual Baby series of eBooks. Each contains 30 original high-contrast black and white images to delight and inspire your baby or toddler.
Post Continues
Let's say I'm aiming for five portions of fruit and veg. I plan her breakfast, lunch and snacks so that by the time she gets to her evening meal, she's already had her five portions.
That way, she's guaranteed to get more than the daily recommended minimum, because whatever she has in her evening meal is a bonus.
So I might get a banana and some strawberries down her at breakfast, some tomato and apple at lunch and a glass of fruit juice, just as one (admittedly rather fruit-centric) example. And then she has some green veg with her evening meal.
By spacing it out in that way and choosing foods she likes, it's not too difficult to achieve the target, and not a plastic packet in sight!
That way, she's guaranteed to get more than the daily recommended minimum, because whatever she has in her evening meal is a bonus.
So I might get a banana and some strawberries down her at breakfast, some tomato and apple at lunch and a glass of fruit juice, just as one (admittedly rather fruit-centric) example. And then she has some green veg with her evening meal.
By spacing it out in that way and choosing foods she likes, it's not too difficult to achieve the target, and not a plastic packet in sight!
I hope you find some useful tips here. Please share your experiences in the comments section!
No comments:
Post a Comment