Nursery World - A Unique Child: Health & Nutrition

Food fashions change, but offering healthy snacks is always vital,
says Snapdragons' Mary Llewellin.

The food we eat is as likely to be affected by fashion as the clothes we wear, but the difference is our fashion failures only damage our pride whereas our nutritional choices affect our health. Take, for example, the biggest food trend in recent history: convenience foods. These highly processed ready meals saved time for busy families but brought with them high salt, fat and sugar levels as well as a whole science lab full of artificial additives like monosodium glutamate and E-numbers.

snacks3 Snacking throughout the day on biscuits, cakes and crisps has become routine for many people because of the ease with which we can consume them. The legacy of this moment in food fashion is well documented and includes obesity, cancer, heart disease, behavioural issues and the loss of mealtimes as a social occasion both during the preparation and eating of our food. In a bid to turn the tide, successive governments have invested in healthy eating initiatives and the focus has increasingly fallen on us, the education sector, to guide the next generation to better health.

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