Across the world more than 22 million children under the
age of 5 are severely overweight. To try and buck the trend
kids should be educated about their tastebuds to save their
future waistlines.
That's according to Mitzy Wilson and Louise Rutten from the
charitable organisation The Good Food Village Trust. They
believe the way forward is to introduce palate training.
Many parents have never heard of palate training which
involves teaching children how to appreciate their food.
Louise Rutten said "Parents should be thinking about palate
training from the time when weaning has been established.
We want to give children from a very young age the
experience of tasting on your palate and knowing what your
palate is. Everybody associates it with wine and how it
tastes in different parts of your mouth.
We want children to not look at a carrot and decide they
don't like it. They should put it on their tongue or the
side of their mouth, sniff it even. We're not advocating
them playing with their food but we are saying let's have
an experience with food."
Mitzy Wilson said you should teach your child to appreciate
food from an early age.
"It's got to start from when you're weaning, introducing
them to as many varied foods as possible. You're in
control, you're the parent, before they go to school you
can dictate healthy eating habits right from an early age
so it's up to us parents to get it right.
Believe it or not one in four children are overweight by
the age of 3 and that is really shocking. I personally
think it's because it's very easy to feed your children on
pizzas, burgers, chicken nuggets, chips and think that it
doesn't matter. They are learning bad habits from a very
early age.
My children luckily are good eaters but I have so many
children who come back to tea with them who won't eat so
many foods that I try to offer them, it's a real problem,"
she said.
Many children can be fussy eaters but Mitzy believes the
problem can be overcome.
"Children do have food fads but just keep re-introducing
foods. It takes about 10 to 15 times before children will
actually accept a new food.
If you can sit down and eat with your family, I think it's
important for them to be eating the same food that you are
eating. Fish fingers are okay to have occassionally but why
aren't they eating the casserole or the shepherd's pie or
even the curry that you are eating."
For more information about palate training look up The Good
Food Village Trust's website. Or, contact your local health
advisor or doctor about starting up a healthy diet for you
and your children to enjoy together.
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