I feel increasingly confident that we as a nation are finally embracing a healthy lifestyle and healthy eating as a fundamental priority , but we still have a long way to go.
I don't believe that a poor diet is confined to those who can't afford to spend lots of money on food( reflecting on the recent debate of battery farmed chickens) , one could spend over £4 on a premium supermarket lasagne and believe that they would be feeding their family well , but are they?
Why when we can cook from scratch with fresh natural ingredients do we feel the need to buy products filled with countless extras ( of which the average consumer has little knowledge of)
There are a wealth of cook books available to us now ( Annabel Karmel is a favourite of mine) which have recipes that are healthy, nutritious and easy to make and will appeal to your kids.
You can produce a healthy home-made macaroni cheese in 15-20 minutes and rest assured that your kids are eating something far healthier than a preprepared supermarket alternative, dare I say it Delia even Marks and Spencer!
Incidentally I invested in Delia's how to cheat at the weekend and have already taken it back , as soon as I was advised to use frozen mash potato discs ( surely this goes against everything Delia stands for?).
I now have a collection of recipes that my children love , these are freshly prepared even down to the sweet and sour sauce ( this takes 3 mins to make by the way) , yes I do sometimes prep food in the evening or whilst making the morning sandwiches but not very often. I am a mother of 3 who also works part time , my kids do activities after school and yet I still manage to feed the family without reaching for a ready meal .
Which leads to me to conclude that we really need to continue educating ourselves and our children that freshly prepared food is the only way forward if we want to raise a nation of healthy fit adults who aren't tipping the obesity scale!
