Very interesting article suggesting that pushing healthy eating on children can backfire.

[aloha]

timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/healthy_eating/article2308151.ece

On the subject of this article, and comments on this thread, I think the mistake is in thinking that foods rich in fat equals the same as junk food, and that "healthy" equals low fat. I think I give my child a healthy diet that has plenty of fat in - and very little junk.

I;ve never looked on the FSA site for advice fro my children but I am glad I read some stuff like Suzanne Oliver (I think) when ds was small as it said that children NEED full fat milk for eg. and that some children became victims of 'muesli malnutrition' where parents applied adult diet principles to small children, i.e. wholemeal and no fat. So ten years ago this was the advice in suzanne Oliver books and in Carol Timperly's baby vegetarian book - i.e not to give children skimmed milk etc because they need fat.

Agree F&Z, fat doesn't = unhealthy and never has done, it's hydrogenated fat that IS bad, nothing wrong with olive oil and full fat milk.

yes lots of saturated fats are not great either (ie meat and dairy)

olive oil, avocados, nuts etc = all great foods

And IIRC the Noddy yogurts (which DS is obsessed by) are pretty innocuous too. I try to go for Little Star or Yeo Valley if I can bypass Noddy, though.

Incidentally, although I'd given my kids full fat, I had been giving them both partially brown bread (white flour with a bit of brown thrown in for luck).

Ds2 was plagued by toddler diarrhoea. Went back to pure white bread and it disappeared. So in all likelihood, the small amounts of brown flour were doing him no good whatsoever.

Have just returned from holiday in France.
In baby food section in supermarkets, they have chocolate breakfast cereal, and chocolate biscuit things.

The French don't seem to have obesity problems we have, yet feeding chocolate to a baby here is considered the most heinious crime imaginable.

DS1 (almost 3, gulp) has never had junk food, sweets, fizzy drinks, crisps etc....

But that's going to come when he starts going to birthday parties etc. I'm cool about that though - I do think feeding crap to under 2's on a regular basis when they are so fussy about food anyway is awful.

I'm a huge food nazi in terms of artifical sweeteners, fizzy drinks and crisps. More because I don't want to get them in the habit of having loads of unhealthy snacks now then they will have to break that habit later. I think chocolate is fine though.

I don't think there is anything terribly wrong with burgers and chips, or chocolate or crisps or sweet drinks, but I don't think it's a very good idea to make these things the basis of your diet. If your diet is generally varied and pretty good over about a year, it really won't make much difference if you spend a weekend eating cake, I don't think.

Over the last few years we have moved towards full fat everything - milk, yogurt, butter, cheese, red meat, etc. I've never felt healthier, my hair skin and nails are in better condition than years ago and I weigh less (when not pregnant) than I did 10 years ago when I used to worry about calories. Also have much more energy.

I agree with Desiderata on this one - low fat diets leave you wanting, and therefore snacking and binge-eating more.

If we eat chocolate and cakes, so does our DS, but we do it all in moderation. Hopefully he will grow up with a healthy attitude to food.