Nippers Nutrition

Nippers Nutrition's top tip of the day.. . Using food for non-nutritional reasons can contribute to more than just an overconsumption of calories. Although taming a tantrum with a tasty treat may seem like a speedy solution to soothing a stressful situation, using food for non-nutritional reasons (think as a reward for academic achievements, comfort for a crying child and bribery to tempt tots to behave), can not only contribute to emotional eating and excess weight during childhood, adolescence and adulthood - children who chronically find a form of comfort and/or control in favourable foods are much more likely to be overweight and/or continue to feed their feelings throughout adolescence and adulthood - but it can also reinforce bad behaviour - this is predominantly due to the fact that troublesome tots who are tempted and tamed with tasty treats are more likely to deliberately display bolshy behaviour in an attempt to access the sweet treats that they've learned to as...

Although the troublesome tantrums that stem from tempting tots to try new tastes and textures may be tiring, introducing infants to new and unfamiliar foods doesn't have to trigger another failed fight. In order to ensure that eating is an enjoying experience for the whole family, we're sharing ten fundamental facts that every parent should ponder when faced with fussy food eating... 1. Offering unhealthy options after the shunning of a specific food source/s can cause children to become purposely (and persistently!) picky in an attempt to acquire more favourable foods. 2. The first food refusal should never be seen as final - it can take up to 15* exposures to a new taste and/or texture before tots tuck in. 3. Force feeding won't work - the aggressive attitude that's associated with this inappropriate action can not only drive children to develop a genuine dislike for their 'feared' food/s, but it can also leave them less likely to sense their satiety...

In the news... We found a fantastic visualisation spread in The Sun newspaper this week highlighting how the staggering sugar (and fat) content of a selection of food sources - including two of kids' favourite foods, Nutella and Kellog's Coco Pops - is often much more than the majority of consumers (and parents!) realise. Although sugary cereals and chocolate spreads are only two of the culprits that are currently hindering our offsprings' health, it's easy to see (from the image above) how their contents can increase a child's sugar intake - particularly when these favoured foods are rarely consumed in their recommended 25-30g (cereal) and 15g (spread) serving size... www.twitter.com/N_NutritionUK