Food, affordable food ...

THE Food and Health Project began in 1993 in Blanchardstown, Co Dublin. Today in this Healthy Eating Week, which continues until Saturday, more than 150 Blanchardstown mothers are already fighting the good fight. They've largely put away the frying pan, offer sweets to their children as a treat not a reward, and realise that it doesn't cost any more to eat healthily.

The prime mover behind the project is dietitian Sharon Foley, who works with the Health Promotion Unit of the Department of Health, and with low income groups within the Eastern Health Board. "Where money is scarce you generally find diets a are quite poor. There is a lack of variety and they're low in fruit, vegetables, fibre, and high in fat," she says. Particularly at risk groups are single mothers, and young teenagers who may make poor choices within an otherwise well fed family.

"In some communities today, cooking proficiency is low," she says. "A recent survey shows that 98 per cent of British teenagers were able to play a computer game, but only 30 per cent could boil an egg. If you don't have these skills, you may rely on a lot of prepackaged high fat foods."

The peer led project is based on the community development model. "I don't come in as the expert to teach people," says Sharon. "I recognise that mothers have a lot to contribute in finding solutions themselves. I might say something but if one of the women says it, it is much more credible."

She began by inviting 13 women to the original 10 week course the overall theme of which is good, affordable food. This introduced the Food Pyramid idea (which promotes breads, cereals, potato, pastas, fruit and vegetables, and is being heavily publicised this week to help people make healthy choices), looked at shopping, budgeting responding to advertising, dreading labels, as well as dealing with choosy children and hide bound husbands.

"All the women wanted to do better but often didn't know how. Children can be fussy and faddy. On a low in come there is little room to manoeuvre, so children's eating habits dominated" she says. Mealtimes were often a battleground. During the course women came up with good ideas themselves.

"Many women were unaware of the psychology used to encourage them to spend money at the supermarket. Stores are laid out so that essentials are spread over the whole shop to ensure you walk through, there may be the smell of bread, subliminal messages to make you buy. We discussed countering this with sensible shopping. Plan ahead, make a list linked to meals based on the food pyramid, and stick to it.

WHEN reading labels, it's necessary to know who the real villains numbers are. "Women were worried about E numbers, but these are now used in minute quantities and well within safe limits," says Sharon. "It's much more important to look at the list of ingredients. These are given in order of weight, so if you're buying a chicken pie with water and fat listed first and second, and chicken sixth, you know it doesn't have a lot of chicken."

The group looked critically at food advertising and separated the product information from the accompanying psychology. "Women realised that some ads make them feel guilty, or sexy or good or bad, which had nothing to do with the merits of the food on offer."

The pilot course was scientifically evaluated. "The fat intake of the group before the course was 46 per cent," says Sharon. "After, it had dropped to 40 per cent, which is still higher than the recommended average of 35 per cent. But fibre intake was up, and fruit and vegetables".

The 13 original mothers are now tutors in the peer led project and continue to run courses in the six parishes of Blanchardstown. Lucy Kenny is the project administrator. She works at the local community centre, is married with two teenage daughters, and did the course herself two years ago. "To begin at the beginning, breakfasts are better. They used to be mostly toast. Now if it's pay day and stocks are low, I might take an apple, orange and pear and make a fruit salad, with tea and toast.

"The main difference is I plan. If I came in tired, the easy thing was chips with something. Now I'm using recipes I learnt on the course. I'm doing more casseroles, making them the night before."

Tutor Julie Caroll first made changes in her own kitchen. "I kept a food diary during the course and discovered we weren't having fruit and vegetables. I buy in season when they're cheaper, I buy from a green grocer that I'm not paying for the packaging. Another change is in meal timing. The children always came in starving from school, and began eating so that they wouldn't eat their dinner. Now I feed them when they come home".

BOTH women have made changes in school lunches, with less chocolate and more fruit than before. "Buy the mini bar," says Lucy. "Buy a sugar free drink or slice some orange into bottled water.

Lucy now makes her own soups, pizzas, biscuits and bread. "I'm beginning to sound like someone out of The Good Life. I used to think that eating well cost a lot, and that the more expensive food was, the better it was for you. Now I know that's not time. I don't buy biscuits or frozen chips. I've changed to low fat dairy spreads, low fat cheese, I'm spending the same amount, but a much greater proportion of it would be on fruit and vegetables."

Julie doesn't buy packet sauces any more, instead she makes her own.

Both women have seen other mothers similarly change since doing the course. "We stress that you can't make changes overnight," says Julie. "It takes a while. Don't suddenly stop buying white bread, introduce brown gradually. We include a session on cooking skills."

"Some women would have seen healthy eating as a middle class option," says

Lucy. "Food is not a priority, it's enough to survive, if big bills come in, food is docked. All the women might be having a dinner, but it could have been a poor one. If things are short, a woman will hold back on herself to feed her children. Location is also relevant. The supermarket is in the village it can be easier to go to the corner shop and buy a tin of steak and kidney pie. Unless you know better.

We will run the course anywhere" she says. "We have two portable Baby Bellings, so it's a case of have cookers, will travel".