EXTREME CUISINE: Advertisers are often blamed for influencing children's eating habits, but parents must not forget their role, writes Haydn Shaughnessy
The idea that children need to be protected from television food advertising has had plenty of media coverage. Has it had enough though, or is it a shield behind which parents can hide their culinary inadequacies?
In a more innocent age, we were brought up in the shadow of grisly murders and potential paedophiles. Yes, today's children face the same dangers, but as yet there have been no Government-appointed committees examining whether to ban images of sexy pubescent models from the newspapers or salacious videos from television.
Somewhere, whether it is in the policymakers' Dublin salons or in the popular mood, we genuinely seem to believe that the foods kids eat are as dangerous as the more mendacious and predatory human.
True or false, it's fascinating at least.
Irish research for the National Task Force on Obesity shows that about 95 per cent of food advertising is spent promoting food that would fairly be classified as unhealthy if consumed as part of a nutritional regime.
A neglected area of policy is the search to balance the time spent promoting poor nutrition foods with messages about good nutrition foods. Most schools in Ireland lack a canteen where a Jamie Oliver might provide exemplary nutritional advice and lessons.
Given that we live in such a rich country, there should be enough money for policy initiatives aimed at food sense.
Sadly, US research shows nutritionally undesirable food and drink are sold in ways that play on the joy, naivety and pleasures of childhood.
These include "magical promises", for example, that a product will build muscles or improve athletic performance.
Other methods include the use of music, singing and dancing; the use of superheroes;
animation that anchors products in a child's fantasy world; peer-group acceptance appeals; and product-selling by characters who also appear in children's programmes.
That same research shows that young children do not recognise the difference between programmes and advertisements.
Research in Britain conducted by the media industry regulator, Ofcom, suggests that what kids eat is part of a general trend towards convenience which, in turn, is a result of growing affluence and an aversion to forward planning.
That brings the buck back to rest at the feet of parents. We have a generation of parents who know very little about food, though we lie to fool ourselves. I count myself among those who are trying to learn.
Where did it all go wrong? In part, our food ignorance springs from a worthy source. Women I've spoken to reflect on mothers who had no interest in the kitchen because they were determined to have careers. We are ignorant because we had some serious work to do with democracy, opening up a more fulfilling career life for half the population.
Many younger women though are now simply afraid of the kitchen. They've learned about food through restaurants and ready meals. Men don't doubt they can live up to the highest standards, but then men in the kitchen are often deluded.
Over the past 30 years the eating habits of the English-speaking world have been transformed. Those of us now seeking a way to parent our children in good eating have a doubly difficult task. We know so little and there is so much more to know.
The result is intriguing. There are now 24,000 new cookbooks published globally every year, according to Gourmand, which hosts an annual world cookbook award. This explains why there are about 60 million cookbooks sold annually in the US alone (Irish figures are hard to come by).
I said earlier that I count myself among the parents still trying to learn about food. But now I want to say what I really meant. I find it relatively easy to put together a classy meal from a cookbook, or even from memory. I've had 20 years' experience of that. What I find impossible is organising a consistently healthy routine for the children, Roos and myself, even though Roos and I are roughly equal partners when it comes to this.
Putting aside all the arguments about television and advertising influence, it seems to me that parenting is the most significant influence.
We compete, ill-equipped, against advertisers and against the taste of foods that are packed with dextrose, glucose, sugar and salt. But our problems are as much to do with planning and shopping as they are with cooking.
Many of us have spent too long with the cookbooks when what we really need is a small repertoire of healthy, balancing meals that we can shop for and cook with the greatest of ease. What we need are things that flow healthily from shop to table.
I have seven or eight such meals for summer and the same for winter. We adapt them to the children's needs, translating junk meals into something healthier.
In the autumn, our spaghetti bolognese is packed with finely diced green beans and broccoli, and the weekly cassoulet is thickened with crushed chickpeas. I've also recently adapted a tomato ketchup recipe made primarily of fresh tomatoes and dates.
We will, I'm sure, learn more ways to deceive the kids as we try to match the rich flavour of junk food and yet provide good nutrition.
At the same time, our own eating is gradually filling out into a repertoire of meals we can make at a minute's notice. I've touched on this a few times in my blog (www.thedietcast.com).
The recipe (right) is for a meal I make with the kids. The idea of this dish is to make pizzas out of pittas but also to give the kids the option of how they want to eat it.
The filling/topping is rich and slightly exotic.
So you're going to make the filling/topping, prepare the garnish and then do the negotiations with the kids.