Making sure your kids get a taste for the good life

A new book aims to help harried parents guide their children towards a future free of obesity, writes ARLENE HARRIS

Nutrition consultant Anna Burns has over 17 years’ experience in the field. And as a mother of four, she knows only too well what obstacles parents face in trying to get their children to eat well and get enough exercise.

Combining her professional and personal experience, the Cork woman has just published a book which she believes will help us beat our children’s battle of the bulge.

The Food Nanny promises to show parents how to correct poor eating habits, how to maintain a healthy eating policy at home and how to implement a few simple rules which will prevent a fat future for the next generation.

“With four children aged between four and 12, I deal daily with the constant bombardment of requests for sweets, treats and take-away foods which my kids see others indulging in,” she says.

“We are not a hessian-weave type of family that grows its own food, has a Jersey cow out the back and a coop full of chickens, nor do we indulge in cocoa-flavoured breakfast cereals or takeaway foods on a daily basis.

“Instead we fall between the two. My kids get plenty of chocolate and treat foods but they follow a routine and I have a strategy in place. Neurotic as this sounds; it means if they eat their vegetables and fruit, they are allowed to get treats. They get to eat dessert every day of the week (of an old-fashioned apples and custard type) and they go to kids’ birthday parties, eating normal quantities of junk foods without totally overdoing it.”

Portion control

“I came up with the idea for my book as I sat on a rock in Fota Wildlife Park while my children were at an exhibit. I couldn’t help but notice how many overweight children passed me by and then my own kids appeared with fists full of chocolate.

“I was bamboozled at the quantity. Each had two or three bars and thought they had hit the jackpot when they were handed them at will (by a staff member) and told they could go back for more.

“The lack of any portion control really struck me at that moment, as we are in an environment where we currently clearly need one.”

At this moment, Burns realised that the problem of obesity in the younger generation was only going to get worse unless action was taken at home.

Shorter lives

The biggest problem with childhood obesity, Burns says, is the frightening future it creates for our children: “We all think our kids are adorable – and they are. But we are currently killing them with kindness by not acknowledging their growing girth.

“We accept them at whatever weight in the misguided notion that they are simply suffering from ‘puppy fat’. We presume they will grow out of it, but they won’t as we are consistently overindulging them. We never say ‘No’ to their constant demands for food and as a result we are single-handedly shortening their lives.